Asigra Reveals Recovery-Based Pricing Model

Asigra
Inc. responded to the problem of unfair pricing in the backup
and recovery market with a recovery-based business model.

The patent pending Asigra
Recovery License Model changes backup space. The
recovery-based pricing model presents a paradigm that decouples
backup and recovery licenses to bring pricing in line with the true
value of backup – data recovery.

Technology has enabled business model
revolutions in many markets that are fairer to customers, allowing
savings and better value. This has resulted in pricing overhauls in
several markets, including the music industry’s shift from albums to
per-song pricing; telecom’s move from per-minute to per-second
billing, and the auto insurance industry’s Pay-as-You-Drive
performance-based pricing as an alternative to monthly premiums based
solely on actuarial statistics. This license model gives
organizations the option of selecting a pricing model based on how
little they recover. The model is enabled by technology and follows
what many experts agree is an evolving movement toward
performance-based pricing that aligns with the value derived by the
customer.

"Business model revolutions
have been proven to obliterate how buyers consume goods and services.
A perfect example is Amazon’s Internet-based consumption model which
turned retail on its head or iTunes which changed the way we shop for
and purchase music. This ‘Amazon Effect’ is a business model shift
that happens when a marketplace adopts a new approach to
consumption," said Steve Duplessie, founding analyst,
Enterprise Strategy Group.
"This is happening in IT and Asigra’s Recovery License Model
is one such example that could cause an upheaval in the backup and
recovery space."

The recovery-based pricing gives IT
professionals the ability to control backup and recovery costs, even
as organizational data grows rapidly. With this approach, fees are
based on a recovery performance score that is calculated over a
12-month period (every 6 months in the first year). A waiver is
provided for the single largest recovery event in any licensing term
and only successful recoveries are included in the calculations. This
allows customers who recover less to pay less, and costs are capped
so customers never pay to recover more than 25% of their data which
provides predictable costs.

"The
traditional pricing models that currently dominate the software
market are obsolete and no longer match products’ cost to the
business value they deliver. Software buyers are wondering how
technology market shifts such as social computing, mobility, big
data, and cloud will affect the way they buy software. They hope that
the technology revolution will bring greater commercial flexibility
and fairness, but they see the old guard oligopoly fighting back
against the rebel forces of change,"
wrote Duncan Jones, VP and principal analyst, Forrester
Research, Inc. "Unless
you take steps now to fix your software contracts, your incumbent
vendors will eat up your budget, taking advantage of obsolete
software models and pricing structures."

Backup Cost Containment
With industry standard pricing based on
backup capacity, costs increase as data volumes grow. This model is
based on a low, limited recovery cost so that expenditures remain low
even as data volumes rise. Those who adopt this pricing model can
anticipate immediate savings of 40% and long term savings of 60% to
70% as a result of separating backup and recovery license costs and
associating price with recovery performance. The recovery tracker,
proprietary analytics tracking software, generates actionable
information to enable performance-based savings and more user control
on how customers are billed for backup software/services. The model
keeps backup and recovery costs under control over time, even with
the trend of rapid data growth showing no signs of slowing down.

It’s a response to customer demand for
pricing that prioritizes data recovery over the backup of data,
returning cost control to organizations. Interest in recovery-based
pricing was highlighted by a recent Enterprise Strategy Group survey
of IT managers and/or staff who influence backup and recovery
purchasing decisions. The research revealed findings related to data
recovery, including the fact that most of the respondents attributed
higher IT costs to rising volumes of data (data capacity). Survey
respondents also indicated that they anticipate an increase in backup
and recovery costs over the next five years as these volumes grow.

According to Mike Osborne, director,
Phoenix IT Services,
"Software pricing has recently become a topic of much debate,
especially in today’s mobile and cloud technology era. Traditional
pricing models in widespread use no longer match product/service cost
to the value they deliver. In no market category is this more true
than in the area of data rotection. Finally, the technology to
achieve performance-based pricing for backup and recovery is here."

"Across the technology
spectrum, more vendors are moving away from established pricing
models to alternatives based on performance and overall value,"
said David Farajun, CEO, Asigra. "The backup and recovery
market now enters a new era to address the industry value proposition
on data recovery& not backup. The Asigra Recovery License Model
introduces a very clear pricing differentiator based on recovery that
provides both immediate and long-term value to the customer on a
significant scale."

"Traditional backup industry
licensing models have limited the ability of organizations to be
proactive in controlling data recovery related costs. This has been a
cost control roadblock for many enterprises that are experiencing a
rise in costs based on rising data volumes. Recovery-based pricing
promises to offer a remedy and should ignite debate among technology
users," said Robert Amatruda, research director, data protection and recovery, IDC.

"The explosion in data growth,
accelerated by the growth in social media, rich multimedia content as
well as the proliferation of cloud and mobile technologies, has put
increasing pressure on backup administrators worldwide to constrain
costs. Recovery-based pricing is a potential game-changer for the
data protection industry, breaking the mold of traditional backup
software pricing. While this may be disruptive for some vendors, it
can be a serious win for organizations under assault by growing
volumes of data and budget constraints," said Dave Simpson, senior analyst, 451
Research.

"There is an old cliche in IT
circles – people don’t care about backup, they care about recovery.
Legacy backup software licensing schemes based on the total capacity
of data backed up, are placing an undue burden on data center
environments trying to contend with the continuous onslaught of data
growth. The Recovery License Model is a more forward thinking
approach as it directly ties the investment in data protection to
recovery operations rather than the total amount of data backed up.
Under this model, organizations only pay based on the frequency of
recovery and what’s more, through automated tracking technology,
insights may be gleaned to help organizations reduce the rate at
which recovery operations are performed – resulting in still lower
costs," said Colm Keegan, senior analyst, Storage
Switzerland.

The recovery licence model is
available.