In these days of high capacity portable external hard drives, Iomega has achieved something of a victory with the announcement that it has shipped its millionth REV removable disk drive.

In the storage business for 25 years now, and having been subject to some ups and downs with the company going from the heady days of the ZIP drive, to a virtual unknown brand, Iomega’s REV Drive platform is winning back the company some sense of dignity.

Since the REV 35 GB disks were released just 22 months ago the company has managed to sell a million units into the market.

The REV family of products were first introduced in April 2004. Designed as a robust, removable storage medium, the hard disk drives technology targets small businesses and content creators looking for an easy, reliable backup and archiving utility drive.

“In less than two years, the REV drive has quickly proved itself to be an ideal backup and archive solution for SMBs that need a storage technology that’s dependable, durable, easier to use and more cost effective than other backup products,” said Scott Dillon, Country Manager, Iomega Australia and New Zealand.

“In a short period of time, REV products are seeing broad-based adoption as a small business storage standard in entrepreneurial offices all around the world.

“When it comes to backing up and protecting critical information on the desktop or on the network, Iomega’s REV drive is better, faster and less expensive than the alternatives and represents the product choice to simplify your life.”

The drives compete at the optical drive level and as a replacement to often-troublesome tape drive technology and are finding their niche against external USB hard drive units which do not offer any form of expansion.

Internal Iomega studies show that approximately one-third of REV customers are using REV drives as a tape replacement product; one-third have switched from optical and external hard drive products to a REV solution to meet their backup and archiving needs; and another third of today’s REV customers are instituting their first backup and archive plan to protect their data.

“Iomega’s REV technology is bringing awareness to the small business world that you need to protect the lifeblood of your business,” said Dillon.  “Not only is the REV drive becoming the product of choice among those who were already backing up and archiving their data, but the ease-of-use, dependability and economics of REV technology are creating converts to the importance of protecting critical files to ensure the data will be available when it’s needed most.”