Managed Services

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.

Beware of the price war.The IT services industry has been impacted by eroding margins on IT hardware and software and managed backup service providers are starting to feel the pinch. This is due to the ever frequent upgrades in technology, resulting in Service Providers being continually tasked with CapEx purchases to keep up with the Jones’s.  Further, increased competition due to the low barriers to entry is adding additional pressure to pricing. Unfortunately, the natural reaction of most MSPs in this situation is to lower prices to compete. This is a death trap.

To add insult to injury, clients/customers today are becoming increasingly knowledgable and demanding. They understand that all types of data don't hold the same value and are increasingly looking for solutions that allow them the flexibility to establish different backup and recoverability capabilities for different data sets.  

So how should data be valued?The true value of any data that is being backed up has to be ascertained through a 3-Dimensional view comprising of Age, Type and Size of data. For example, many clients would assert that data created within the past 30 days has a greater significance to the viability of their business and therefore has a higher value compared to data created 3-5 years ago. This may require them to demand better recoverability objectives for such data. Similarly, mission critical data such as an email mailbox of top management is far more valuable than a document prepared for internal messaging. The size of the data set also contributes to a decision as to where and how the backed up data must be stored and what RTOs and RPOs must apply.

Vendors need to arm Service Providers with the right Arsenal.The challenge in today’s Backup and Recovery landscape is in the fact that most solution providers (software companies), do not provide users the ability to reduce costs over time, thus preventing Managed Service Providers from delivering a tiered pricing structure to their clients. This results in a 1-Dimensional view of the managed backup business, eventually leading to higher costs, competition from low-end substitutes and irrelevancy.

As a managed service provider looking to get into (or already in) the managed backup services business, you need to have the ability to meet the needs of the marketplace. Today, the market demands tiered recovery solutions. And of course, in order to do so, you need to ensure that you work with vendors that allow you that flexibility, both in terms of functionality and pricing.

Enterprises and vendors alike often focus so much on data backup that sometimes they forget about the reason that they backup the data. Customer's focus should be on data Recovery not data backup.

All vendor solutions in the marketplace backup customer data but it requires real data stewardship to ensure that the data can be restored when needed. Over our 24-year history, Asigra has developed best practices around data stewardship to ensure data restorability if the customer looses a file, disk, machine or the entire facility.

The 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. Filesystem corruption

Access to metadata is not sufficient because bad sector on a disc can render metadata unreadable.

Following data integrity and consistency check functionality is embedded in Asigra software to ensure, data restorability:

1. Ensuring data consistency – this process ensures that all the data components have been collected sequentially by the DS-Client (the data collector at the enterprise customer’s premises) before sending the data to the DS-System.
2. Ensuring all data has arrived offsite before storage – Asigra’s DS-System (the online data repository) writes 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 runs on the DS-System in the background, scans the entire storage to ensure data integrity. Since the data at the DS-System is encrypted, the “Autonomic Healing“ process checks links between the data blocks, compares digital signatures between different components for inconsistencies. When corrupted data is uncovered, it is marked as corrupted and a notification is sent to the DS-Client to resend the portion of that data that was marked corrupted. This ensures that the data is always recoverable in case of a disaster.
5. Backing up the DS-Client database to the DS-System – this ensures that if the DS-Client is lost it can easily be rebuilt with the appropriate backup structure.

When you're shopping for a backup solution, please inquire from 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).

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

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.

As a marketer, one thing I love about social media is how it's made it easier to connect with our customers and partners. Many of Asigra's ecosystem of service providers maintain their own blogs, Twitter accounts or Facebook pages and it's a great lens for us to see firsthand what our partners and their customers think about on a day to day basis. One of my regular blog reads is that of InfoManage, one of Asigra's service providers in the northeast US.

InfoManage Corporation is a boutique technology services company providing enterprise-class services to the SMB marketplace. Vice President Alan Berkson recently wrote a blog post on Trickle-Down Technology where he talks about the impact of enterprise standards in the SMB marketplace. Alan hits the nail on the head when he describes how the web era has leveled the playing field for SMBs in terms of their access to technology. Companies like InfoManage demonstrate how service providers can offer its SMB customers services such as managed cloud backup, using an enterprise-grade platform (Asigra).

Read the full post here or follow Alan on Twitter for more insights.

One the goals of the Channel Management Team here at Asigra is to help customers (our partners) successfully and profitably deliver their Asigra Powered Cloud Backup service. And there’s no better way to help customers then to share insight from those who’ve done an exceptional job at delivering and growing their backup offering.

This morning I interviewed Chris Day, President and CEO of Fully Managed Inc. based out of Vancouver, Canada. Chris had some great insight and I’d like to share that with you. I look forward to your comments and suggestions.  

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

Chris: We are forecasting approximately 50% growth in our cloud-based backup services for fiscal 2010 within Vancouver, BC and the rest of Western Canada. We see that growth number as being stable and sustainable for fiscal 2011. We started out in January 2010 with 2TB of compressed/de-duplicated data and doubled our capacity to 4TB of compressed/de-duplicated data in the first three months. This equates to approximately 13TB of actual data protected data. We anticipate being close to 10TB compressed/de-duplicated by the end of calendar 2010 which should equate to 32.5TB of protected data, using our current ratio of 3.25:1. Our revenue has doubled in a four month period, partly due to the ease of implementing the software and partly due to our ability to accurately and simply report on the usage.

Q. How did you manage to grow your business to what it is today? What’s your secret sauce?

Chris: The reason for our success is that we understand our core purpose – our reason for being – Creating Peace of Mind. The Fully Managed approach means that we focus on what we do instead of how we do it, resulting in a natural affinity for clients to want to do business with us. Asigra has created Peace of Mind for us as an organization because we are finally able to focus on delivering solutions instead of babysitting the product as we ended up doing with many of the other solutions out there (including Kaseya BUDR and Zenith’s BDR solution).

Q. What advice would you give to other MSPs out there who are looking to grow their managed backup business?

Chris: If you’re considering a backup solution to augment your offering to your clients, do your homework. We learned the expensive way that making the wrong choice early on requires a lot of effort to undo. You end up with terabytes of data “stuck” in another cloud or on your own infrastructure, and it’s very difficult to make a move without a significant investment. When selecting a platform, focus on stability and reliability of the platform – make sure you understand the recovery point objective (RPO) and recovery time objective (RTO) and build your solutions around that. Asigra has delivered for us and our biggest challenge now is trying to keep up with the demand.

Why are many small and medium businesses outsourcing some or all of their IT needs to Managed Service providers? There are many reasons and they are dependent on the needs of the SMB as well as the offerings of the MSP.

What does an SMB look for in a Managed Service Provider?

• IT Planning and Strategy
• Comprehensive IT delivery
• Service Delivery Levels
• Reduced Risk and increased continuity
• Cost reductions
• DR planning and readiness
• The latest in certifications and training

What are the benefits realized by the SMB who outsources to an MSP?

• Better use of IT department, focusing on emerging technology and planning.
• Reduce Expenses- system Administration, costly downtime for upgrades and patching takes resources and money, which could be saved and applied to future plans.
• Increased reliability and performance.
• Competitive Edge- focusing on business needs and not wasting resources allows for a better position to the competitor that is still saddled in the upgrade, help desk, patch nightmare.
• Immediate access to the best technology and resources. MSP data centers have the newest and most efficient technologies, allowing customers to scale and grow easily into new and emerging technologies without having to purchase additional and costly products.
• Ability to use the MSP for Disaster Recovery as well as traditional outsource IT.
• Reduce costly training and certifications. The MSP has already invested heavily in these certifications. The savings to the SMB could be significant.

When considering outsourcing IT to a Managed Service provider, the SMB client needs to first do some internal evaluation. Measuring true costs of system administration, upgrades, patching, installation, asset management, system downtime, salaries and training are some areas that allow for a cost comparison. Can they save money, increase reliability and better allocate those freed up resources toward the future? If yes, than the SMB owes it to themselves, their customers and their bottom-line to explore the option of an outsourced IT model with a qualified, reputable and highly skilled Managed Service Provider. 

References:

Image source: Flickr User: Hoyasmeg / James Emery 

Why do so many MSPs choose Asigra? I get that question all the time. There are many reasons. Considering that this is a blog post, I will stick to highlighting just the top three.

Agentless Architecture- You may wonder how that can be a business reason, when it seems like a technical feature. Well it is both. Let us focus on the business side of the equation. Do you know what Agent licenses cost? Have you ever seen a CEO’s reaction when he is informed that there is a planned downtime for upgrading or patching agents? Time is money and when systems are down, planned or not, it costs big bucks. Never ending costs for buying, upgrading and patching agents becomes a business problem, even if traditionally one sees it as the IT group’s problem. It is a serious business driver. Asigra’s Agentless solution provides the antidote to these headaches. Asigra gives an MSP peace of mind, knowing that there will not be add-on costs, nor any costly downtimes to manage this solution!

Profitability- Again, time is money. One strength of Asigra’s backup and recovery solution is giving back time. Time savings for System Administrators to focus on new projects and reduce help desk incidents.  Eliminating costly downtime is both a cost saving as well as an opportunity to increase customer satisfaction and foster customer loyalty. I tell people we truly offer a “set it and forget it” platform. I can sometimes hear eyes rolling when I say it, but then they try it and realize that it is true!

There is another cost saving thats easily realized- reductions in storage systems purchases. MSPs are able to decrease storage purchases with Asgira because our deduplication and compression ratios are such that an MSP does not have to constantly increase hardware to support ever growing data.

All in one solution- I hear many times from MSPs who are looking to change backup and recovery platforms because historically they have two, three or more solutions patched together. When they find out Asigra can offer local storage as well as offsite data protection and disaster recovery, deduplication, encryption, compression ,reporting and billing all in one product, they can hardly believe their ears. The cost savings are huge. They no longer have to have multiple products to purchase, license and pay maintenance agreements on. Combined with no longer needing the technical teams trained on several different solutions, they are thrilled at the cost and complexity reductions.

The three reasons here are a sample of why MSPs choose Asigra as their backup, recovery and disaster recovery solution. There are a host of other real life scenarios we hear and see each day. I could list many more, however unfortunately or fortunately(however you see it), this isn’t a book I’m writing. I welcome the opportunity to listen to the needs and challenges of business leaders and provide real solutions with Asigra. Give us the chance to show you how you can reduce costs, increase revenue and find the time to pursue other business endeavors. Asigra has your back!