Bonnie Malec's blog

I recently had the pleasure to attend Gartner’s Top Predictions for 2012 seminar in Toronto, presented by Research Vice President Hung LeHong.

Working in the cloud backup industry, I wasn’t surprised to hear that while the “Cloud” is driving change, there continues to be concerns around security.  While there are real solutions to cloud security problems, it made me realize how challenging it can be for an enterprise or SMB to wade through all the information relating to security.  It can be difficult to choose a cloud data protection solution that will meet security and regulatory compliance while achieving the technological requirements to ensure data recoverability in the event of human-error and disaster.

When looking for an enterprise-class Cloud Backup solution, you’ll need to understand what you want to achieve and the elements that are important to your organization.  It’s definitely more than just backing up your data.  There are many software offerings in the marketplace that boast their ability to restore at lightening speeds, but what often appears to be missing in the equation is the inability to provide a guarantee that data is restorable in its full integrity. 

Below are some things to consider when looking at cloud data protection solutions:

Your data has to be conditioned constantly to ensure restorability. The following factors can cause data corruption:

1. Disc malfunction
2. Disc controller malfunction
3. Bad sectors on the disc
4. File system corruption

You should ensure the following data integrity and consistency check functionality is embedded in the software to ensure, data restorability:

1. Data consistency – this process should ensure that all the data components have been collected sequentially by the data collector at the enterprise customer’s premises before sending the data to offsite storage in the cloud. 
2. Data has arrived offsite before storage – the online data repository should write all the data being backed up offsite to a temporary location, checks and ensures that all the data has arrived before storing it.
3. Restore validation – this is an actual restore simulation that conducts an actual data restore to a temporary location to ensure data restorability. Think of it as the data restore dry run to prepare for the actual disaster.
4. Autonomic healing – this automated process will run in the background and scan storage in its entirety to ensure data integrity. Data that leaves your firewall should always be  encrypted,  the “Autonomic Healing“ process will check links between data blocks and compare digital signatures between different components for inconsistencies. When corrupted data is uncovered, it is noted and a notification is sent to the originating database to resend the portion of that data that was marked corrupted. This ensures that the data is always recoverable in its entirety in case of a disaster.

When you're shopping for a data protection solution, inquire with your vendor to ensure that the functionality they provide will restore your data, not just during a Disaster Recovery (DR) drill but in the event of an actual disaster (accidently deleted file, damaged hard drive, machine loss or lost site).  There’s a lot you can outsource to the cloud, but responsibility isn’t one of them. Make sure you do your research and due diligence before choosing a cloud data protection solution.

If you would like some more information about the local briefing, you can comment on this blog post or contact me via Twitter -- @CloudBackupGirl  

The Asigra Partner Ecosystem is a thriving community of Cloud Backup professionals, Powered by Asigra and often engaged in open discussion about market trends, sharing advice and best practices all working towards one common goal – taking data to the Cloud!  

It’s important for us at Asigra to support our partners and prospective end-users in reaching their goals. We often use a consultative approach to guide them in the right direction and we undertake a process to ensure we can effectively meet their needs and facilitate the right introductions.  Whether discussions are with an end user looking to host their data with an Asigra powered managed service provider  (MSP) or if we are speaking with an interested MSP who would like to consult with other MSPs on how and why they got into the business of Cloud Backup, all require an assessment of needs and ultimately a quality introduction to an Asigra Partner.

Recently, a large global firm came to us looking for help to find an Asigra Service Provider. We carefully assessed their specific needs and requirements and were able to facilitate an introduction with one of our partners who was able to meet the challenges of providing Managed Backup Cloud Services to a company whose data was spread across the globe in 30 different locations in 11 different countries. This is what a small/medium or enterprise customer can expect when they’re looking for an Asigra service provider. We work hard to match businesses with MSPs who have the specific experience and track record necessary to meet the needs of every end-user.

We are also often approached by MSP’s who are seeking to add Cloud Backup to their repertoire of Managed Services and are unsure of why, when, and how they can best get into this rapidly evolving business.  After a few brief discussions with an existing Asigra Partner, what they may have originally viewed as an arduous project soon starts to unfold with greater clarity. We enjoy consulting our new MSPs with information based on our own industry experiences, but in addition we also find value in facilitating introductions within  our Partner community so they can learn from their peer’s experience.

Some of the most common asked questions include:

• How do I price this service?
• What configuration and brand of hardware do I need to purchase?
• I don’t have a datacenter, where can I host my customers’ data?
• Where can I replicate my DS-System?

(The DS System is the collector of the data from all machines, drives, applications and systems on the end customers LAN)

These are all basic questions and our partner community is happy to engage with other MSPs new to backup to offer guidance and support.  It’s not uncommon that as a result of these discussions a strategic relationship may unfold so we view these introductions as a win-win for all.

The Asigra Global Ecosystem is comprised of Cloud professionals who are technically astute and are well versed on all aspects of Cloud Backup including how to sell, market and architect Cloud Backup Services that best suit the needs of their customers.

If you’re thinking about adding Cloud Backup to your managed services, I encourage you to download “How to Choose a Cloud Backup Platform” – it will help you identify what you should be looking for.

Also, please feel free to reach out to us and we can put you in direct contact with an MSP who has a business similar to your own and can provide you with some recommendations and insight! 

As part of my job as an Asigra channel rep, I was chatting recently with Dave from Dakota Backup. It was a routine discussion of Asigra news, market trends, their needs, and I’m sure I complained about the Canadian winter.

During our conversation, Dave mentioned that some of his successes in the last couple of months resulted from taking a consultative approach with his prospects. Take note: these are successes that any Managed Service Provider can achieve. It all goes back to creating value for your prospects by addressing their concerns AND their needs. In this case, the need was regulatory compliance.

Dave credited his successes to his “three week trip”.

I immediately thought, “Wait, did he go on vacation? Sand, surf, and pina coladas – so he could return well-rested and fully-charged to close sales?” (I was wrong. Blame it on the frigid temperatures here in Toronto. All I can think about is the sun and temperatures over 30 degrees!)

In fact, Dave took a three week business trip to visit some of the top resellers in Dakota Backup’s channel. During his travels, he stopped at Connecting Point Computer Center of Bismarck, ND and met with twenty of their end-users.

Connecting Point, using Dakota Backup solutions Powered by Asigra, has successfully migrated a number of its end-users from tape backup solutions.  While tape may appear to be a satisfactory method for backup because of its low costs, it does have capacity limitations, little or no data reduction technology, and data held on tape is often unencrypted, which poses major security risks.  Connecting Point removed the frustration of tape backup for these customers by eliminating the burden of managing backup processes altogether.

I wondered to myself, was it really that easy? How did Dave visit twenty end-users – mostly dentists, doctors and nursing homes – and immediately sign up fourteen new customers? Plus six more that plan to sign up before the end of Q1 2011?

It was easy. As Dave said, “It’s was FIPS-140-2, Bonnie. They need to be HIPAA compliant.”

Ah yes, what else could it have been? After all, when choosing a backup solution, security IS a top concern for customers like dentists, doctors and nursing homes – even if they don’t know it.

Dave put on his consulting hat for these end-users and told them all about the “Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act”. As soon as his prospects learned about Breach Notification Requirements, it was a done deal!

I can’t think of a better way of warming up than by hearing about Asigra partners’ successes.

I was recently chatting with one of my customers, Chris Cooper from Marin IT. Marin IT’s story is quite remarkable and unconventional. To give you a sense of Marin IT’s growth, the company was protecting (with their managed backup service) approximately 700GB of data in the first 3 months of operation. Since then, they’ve more than doubled their business, currently protecting 1.7 Terabytes of compressed, de-duplicated data. And they continue to grow.

I asked Chris for his take on the Managed Backup Business. 

What would you say is your secret sauce?

Chris: We are not focused on making money off our customers as soon as we walk through the door. That’s a big problem (in this business).  Everyone is focused on making a profit. Our team was sick of working in the corporate IT model. We started this business out of our Cars.  Starbucks was our office and conference center. We brought gear home and configured routers on our kitchen tables.

Today our operations run out of a comfortable business park office but we still choose not to be the hot rod big time IT shop. We evaluate what people actually need and we give them solutions they can actually afford. Today, we maintain a large, loyal customer base. Our double digit growth is driven exclusively by word of mouth.

If there’s a piece of advice that you were to give to other MSPs out there who are looking to grow their managed backup business, what would it be?

Chris: Don’t be greedy. Focus on service - focus on what your clients can manage. For example, we have a new local client that we’ve been working with…the former IT consultants were billing the client for support on a per server basis which eventually grew to a massive amount, as the client’s infrastructure grew.

We put in a blade system with VMware. After virtualizing their environment and eliminating complexity they didn’t need, we reduced their rack requirements from 6 racks down to 2 racks.

We reduced the amount of cooling, power, and network hardware as well. We know the client appreciated our efforts because we didn’t just go out there trying to sell them anything and everything. Instead we worked with them, taking on the role of a trusted advisor. This sort of a strategy works for us, because we believe in it. It’s who we are as a company.

To learn more about Marin IT, visit them at www.marinit.com