Spanning Delivers Update for Salesforce.com Backup Solution

Spanning Cloud Apps, Inc. made two moves to advance its position as provider of SaaS backup and recovery.

The company released an update to Spanning Backup for Salesforce, a backup and recovery product to be delivered through the Salesforce user interface. The release includes an on-page Salesforce data restore that makes it easy for end users to compare and recover previous versions of Salesforce data objects, such as accounts, opportunities and contacts.

In addition, the company launched the Google Apps 100% Restore Guarantee. Through the offer, the company guarantees customers who use Spanning Backup for Google Apps to backup their data will be able to restore lost data back to its original state 100% of the time or they will receive ten times their money back for each failed restore operation for that user account. This is a data restore guarante offered for cloud application (or SaaS) data and demonstrates the company’s commitment to delivering high standards for backup and recovery in the industry.

“SaaS applications provide users with reduced cost, increased flexibility and higher business productivity,” said Jeff Erramouspe, CEO, Spanning Cloud Apps. “Nothing disrupts productivity more than data loss events, which happen far more often than most companies realize. Spanning is committed to maintaining productivity by ensuring that lost data is restored quickly and accurately by the end user without the need for IT intervention. Losing data is something that Spanning customers don’t need to worry about when using Google Apps or Salesforce.“

Spanning Backup for Salesforce
For more than 100,000 organizations, Salesforce data – customer details, sales, marketing and financials – is their lifeblood, and the risk of data loss is real. Individual records and fields can be mistakenly overwritten, maliciously destroyed or corrupted. When information in a record is lost, end users must contact an administrator to use an optionally configured field history report or attempt to find and restore the specific record from a local, weekly export. Recovery alternatives provided through Salesforce are costly and time-consuming.

This is a backup product that provide granular, on-page restore of Salesforce data from any point in time. End users initiate the restore process by clicking the ‘Restore’ button within a record and then comparing and individual fields to restore within object records, such as phone numbers, activity logs or attachments. This process requires no training for the user and is completed more quickly than any other available methods. It also enforces field-level security, ensuring that users only see and restore data they are authorized to edit.

“One of the main reasons we switched to Spanning from a competitive product was transparency,” said Arne Plum, business and data application specialist, VIF International Education, provider of global education programs for K-12 schools and a user of Spanning Backup for Google Apps and for Salesforce. “With Spanning’s granular status reporting, we know exactly what was backed up at each point in time and trust that anything successfully backed up can be restored. We are excited to see Spanning’s focus on accurate restore extend to their Salesforce product and are impressed with the ease of use of the new field-level compare-and-restore.“

Spanning 100% Restore Guarantee
The 100% restore guarantee is based on the premise that if Google Apps data can be backed up, customers should be able to restore it. If not, the company will refund the customer 10 times the money paid for that user account for each failed restore operation. The product offers restore capabilities. Its proactive status reporting ensures that customers are alerted if any data is not properly backed up on a daily basis. This helps to ensure that all files are protected and always available if ever a data loss event occurs.

“The potential for data loss with cloud applications is as real and prevalent as it is with on-premise applications,” said Jason Buffington, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. “When considering the protection of cloud data, organizations must think beyond backup and evaluate vendors on the accuracy with which they restore lost data in the easiest way possible. Spanning’s laser focus on this, and its willingness to guarantee it, sets the company apart.“

The update for Salesforce is available to customers in the AppExchange as a free 14-day trial or for purchase with a $30 per-user, per-year subscription with unlimited storage.

The Google Apps version is available for a free 14-day trial or for purchase with a $40 per-user, per-year subscription and unlimited storage.