Connected provides software that protects data on PCs and servers, selling it both as a subscription service and as licensed software. The company says two million users in 16,000 organizations use its products.

Framingham, Massachusetts-based Connected has 140 employees and for the six months ended June 30 made revenues of about $18 million. Iron Mountain on the other hand had 2003 revenues of $1.5 billion.

Boston, Massachusetts-based Iron Mountain was founded in 1951 and runs an outsourced service to manage email, digital images and other computer archives. It already sells the Connected product.

This is a logical move for Iron Mountain because it extends our protection to distributed data, which is a particularly difficult management challenge and area of vulnerability for our customers, said Iron Mountain chairman and chief executive Richard Reese in a statement. Our new combination of offerings ensures better information protection, access, availability and compliance.

Having cleared the approval of both company boards, the transaction needs to pass regulatory approval. The deal is expected to close by the fourth quarter.