BackupHeroes.com: New Social Network Forum

BackupHeroes, the community for backup professionals, announced the launch of the group’s new social network – BackupHeroes.com.

The new community goes beyond the discussion of technology to focus on what drives IT organizations today – the business outcomes of effective backup and recovery strategies. Created as a vendor-neutral space so professionals can gather, network and provide advice, BackupHeroes.com is destined to become the social network nexus for all backup professionals.  

"We invite all backup professionals to become part of this community, regardless of vendor affiliation. We believe that, by creating an open site for the people who steer this industry, we are driving continued growth and innovation," said Samantha Morris, the site’s Community Manager. "The community’s name is a playful nod to the fact that backup professionals are often the unsung heroes of the technology world and we wanted to recognize this. In this new vibrant community, backup heroes help create new business heroes."

"Topic specific communities bring like-minded individuals together to open the lines of discourse, allowing participants to share experiences, vet technologies and fine tune strategies," says Jennifer Evans, Founder, CEO and Chief Strategist for Sequentia Environics, a software & services agency focused on generating business results from social and community marketing. "In outcome-driven businesses this is particularly important as technology users have the opportunity to cut through the marketing hype and validate approaches based on the trials and tribulations of their peers."

According to analysts, the enterprise distributed system backup/recovery software market was $3.1 billion in 2009, and is projected to grow to nearly $3.9 billion by 2014, for a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.6%. More aggressive growth has been forecast for the mid-market and small business spaces. This growth means that more backup professionals – and the businesspeople seeking their help – will need a social networking site to call their own. Ensuring backup professionals find the help and collaboration they need is just one of the goals of backupheroes.com.

"There are thousands of technical support communities, but BackupHeroes.com is the first and only online forum where backup professionals can post, find and use both strategic and tactical content related to backup and storage," said Morris. "Because we’ve moved away from vendor-specific content, conversations are broader in scope and speak to backup and storage as a whole and how it contributes to better business outcomes. Everyone now has access to subject matter experts and peers so they can ask questions and get advice."

Site features include RSS feeds, social media integration, profile-building capacity, a private messaging system and Backup Heroes Forum, with the content prominently displayed. BackupHeroes.com also features a reputation manager that assigns rankings to community members based on their quality of posts, as determined by their peers.

"I joined BackupHeroes.com forums and instantly connected with peers facing similar backup and recovery challenges," said Gary Aulfinger, chief storage architect and CTO, EVS Corporation. "They are a great sounding board to validate ideas and gain new perspectives on data protection."

With data protection more important than ever as natural and man-made disasters impact the viability of organizations, BackupHeroes.com provides an interactive resource where companies can find backup professionals to help them with their own business continuity and disaster recovery needs so they ensure their own business outcomes. BackupHeroes.com is a growing community with founding sponsorship provided by Asigra, Inc., provider of cloud backup and recovery solutions.