Advice from an MSP - Offsite Data Sync

I think my colleague Tyler has intiated some sort of a chain reaction. After he posted that great interview with one of his customers, I was inspired to do the same. 

So here's my interview with Matthew Chesterton, Principal, Offsite Data Sync. Matt had some unique things to share about his experience in building and delivering a successful cloud backup service offering. 

Q. How much growth do you see on an annual basis for your backup services?

Matt: We've seen year-over-year growth rates between 150% and 200% since developing our cloud-based backup offering. Our growth has been fueled in two major ways; first, through our full complement of cloud-based offerings (PC-over-IP / High-Availability / Disaster Recovery) and second, via established local and national partnerships with top IT providers. As we continue through the 2010 fiscal year, we are preparing to officially enter the national arena in Q1, 2011 with our full portfolio, through these very channels.

Q. How much data were you protecting in the first 6 months of getting into this business?

Matt: We initially started in the backup business in September of 2001 as an IT services provider offering data protection as a small part of our services - protecting a whopping 200GB of customer data. Since that time our organization has transitioned exclusively into the data retention market and added a full complement of cloud-based offerings based on the Asigra platform.

We currently protect over 110 times more data than when we began in 2001. By the end of 2010, our projections indicate that we will approximately double the amount of data we were protecting at the end of 2009. We've evaluated and utilized a variety of platforms throughout our 9-year lifecycle and we can say with confidence that our current growth trajectory has been sustainable only through our strong partnership with Asigra.

Q. Tell me about your revenue growth?

Matt: The percentage growth in revenue is 27 times more since our first iteration as a backup provider and we continue to post strong growth numbers each month. Our data retention product is hands-down the best in the market and is an easy snap-in offering for our partners and corporate end users alike.

Q. How have you been able to achieve such success? 

Matt: Success for us has been a process with a few key factors. First, as a tech business our products and services are only as good as the underlying infrastructure that powers them. Secondly, we've controlled our growth by digesting manageable chunks at a time. In 2001, if we attempted to increase our vault size by even 10TB's it would have been nearly impossible to do and manage. Today, we are poised with the appropriate resources, technology and dollars to confidently scale by 100 protected TB's in less than 48 hours should that be necessary. Lastly, we've constantly focused on the future of IT and our retention service has positioned us to be a leader in cloud-based services.

For example, we are not simply a provider of backup for corporate end-users. We provide full-datacenter backup for other cloud-based industries that have struggled with their own internal data growth and data protection. 

Q. Finally could you kindly share some advice with other MSPs out there who are looking to grow their managed backup business?

Matt: Approach the backup and DR business with a fluid plan. Adapt to change, maintain credibility and plan for growth. Asigra’s technolgy has done all of these for our business and Asigra been a great partner every step of the way.