Carbonite Inc. does not make prison cells to hold intergalactic space pirates like Han Solo, but is instead one of the leading providers of online backup to both consumers and small businesses. This company recently forged a pretty formidable partnership with Acer Inc., where the former will offer their range of award-winning online backup service to the latter’s consumer customers on select PCs that will be shipping to the U.S. and Canada. As per the agreement between the two, both Acer Travelmate and Aspire branded computers will ship with a free trial of Carbonite Online Backup pre-loaded.

Folks who rely a whole lot on their PC or notebook had better pay close attention to what Keith Cooper, president and COO of Carbonite, has to say. “This is an ideal partnership that brings true value to Acer consumers. Everyone will eventually experience the terrible consequences of losing family photos, personal documents, work files and their favorite music. The problem is that most people don’t think about backing up those precious files until after they have been lost forever. By including the online backup on the computers when they are purchased, consumers can easily get protection before that inevitable loss impacts their lives.”

Carbonite will need to be activated before it can be used though, and it requires an email address and password. The program itself won’t intrude, as it will run quietly in the background, going about its task of backing up all data files continually. We’re not too sure how much of a performance hit you’ll suffer from this, but chances are it will be negligible if you’re using a notebook that’s decently powered by the latest line of processors. All data will be encrypted before leaving the local computer, and is sent to Carbonite’s secure data center using HTTPS (SSL) for total privacy. Will Carbonite’s software cause you to choose Acer notebooks over other brands?

Press Release