Asigra and MSPexcellence Partner

Asigra Inc. and MSPexcellence announced the Cloud Backup Business Acceleration Program, a joint
initiative that allows MSPs and hosting providers to scale a managed cloud
backup services business based on Asigra technology.

To lead this effort,
Asigra has appointed David Smith, Senior Director of Partner Development, to
head a new and dedicated partner development team to encourage growth and
support Asigra partner profitability. 

The Cloud Backup Business Acceleration Program is based on
The MSPexcellence Playbook, a five step process for building and scaling an MSP
business and includes a cloud backup migration strategy for Asigra customers as
well as go-to-market strategies and business building tools for Asigra
partners. The Playbook is customized to provide Asigra partners with sales and marketing worksheets, checklists and templates along
with a recipe for building a scalable cloud services business featuring
Asigra’s backup, recovery and restore software. 

"We have always believed that by combining our
technology with effective marketing and sales tools for building a cloud backup
and recovery business we were ensuring success for our partners," said
Eran Farajun, Executive Vice President, Asigra. "Our partnership with
MSPexcellence builds on that philosophy with a definitive playbook for building
an MSP business that capitalizes on the convergence of cloud computing with
traditional methods of IT service delivery. We are also very excited to have
David Smith join our organization and lead Asigra’s roll-out of this new
partner development program on a global basis. "

According to multiple market research studies, strong and
steady growth in IT spending is projected for the next 5 years and will be
fueled by data center virtualization and public cloud computing services. While
growth cuts across all market segments, the SMB segment is expected to
experience the next wave of accelerated growth as cloud services bring
enterprise-class solutions to small and mid-sized businesses. However, the SMB
IT services segment, long dominated by MSPs and other IT solutions providers,
has recently become a target for large public cloud service providers such as
Amazon, Google and Microsoft, offering commodity cloud services.

"Cloud computing is often perceived as a threat to
MSPs, but with the right strategy, that threat can be turned into an enormous
opportunity" commented Todd Hussey, partner and co-founder of
MSPexcellence. "MSPs can solidify their role as trusted advisors, protect
their installed base and acquire new customers by offering a migration path to
the cloud that integrates best-in-class cloud technologies with expert service
and support. However, it will take strong sales and marketing execution to
communicate the many advantages of this strategy in the face of competition
from public cloud providers."

Asigra and MSPexcellence have identified data backup and recovery
as the leading application for cloud migration and Asigra partners are well
positioned to play a role as cloud service providers. The Asigra
solution resolves customer concerns about data privacy and control by offering
an alternative to storing critical information assets in a public cloud
infrastructure. Instead, the Asigra MSP can provide secure private cloud
solutions tailored to the customer’s privacy, security and regulatory
requirements while meeting their cost and ROI objectives. Once a secure data
backup and recovery strategy is in place, customers can then migrate additional
applications and services to the private cloud in a secure, gradual and
non-disruptive manner.

"I am thrilled to be part of the Asigra team and could
not be more optimistic about the opportunity for Asigra and its partners,"
said David Smith, Sr. Director of Partner Development. "The introduction
of our cloud backup acceleration program aligns perfectly with the capabilities
of our products, the market demand for cloud solutions, and the expertise of
our MSP partners to design and deliver them."   

In his new role, David Smith will be responsible for
building and executing partner enablement programs that provide best practices
and expertise to Asigra’s partner ecosystem. As a seasoned and result-driven
executive, David brings with him a track record of monetizing business strategy
and delivering profitable growth. He also possesses product management,
marketing and business development competencies that have helped leading
organizations achieve growth potential. Prior to joining Asigra, David worked in management and
executive roles in organizations such as Platform Computing,
PureEdge Solutions (acquired by IBM), Hummingbird (acquired by OpenText) and
SAS. Through these roles, David gained broad operational and general management
experience, and demonstrated an aptitude and ability to drive growth
through a partner-centric business model.