BackupAssist as a Service

BackupAssist, a trading name of Cortex I.T. Labs Pty Ltd and a provider of automated Windows server backup and recovery software for SMBs, its BackupAssist as a Service (BAaaS) and MSP Program into North America.

Already in 165 countries across APAC and Europe, the expansion of the programs into North America responds to the increasing demand by SMBs and the MSPs that serve them, for enterprise backup and DR with flexible cloud storage options to meet IT and business requirements. 

BackupAssist also announced it has entered into agreements with DeltaCon, Inc., Extreme Technologies, Inc., and iSpeed Solutions Pte Ltd to offer BAaaS to their North American end clients.

Regardless of size, business organizations around the world continue to face challenges around meeting SLA requirements, RTO and/or RPO. However, while the challenges remain almost identical regardless of organization size – such as increasingly stringent compliance regulations and legal preparedness mandates – the level of manpower and budget available to address the issues are not. Regardless, the consequences of not meeting these requirements can be dire. Consequently, for SMEs the ability to ensure SLAs, RPO and RTO in an affordable fashion has risen to the priority list for not only IT, but the C-suite as well.

According to a Gartner research report entitled, Modify Your Backup/Recovery Plan to Improve Data Management and Reduce Costs: “I&O leaders responsible for storage must rethink their backup procedures to realize cost savings and improve backup infrastructure resource utilization. Cloud services can help your infrastructure modernization initiative, as they alleviate the burden on the data center backup infrastructure.”

The report also states: “Storage managers find backup delivered as a service is becoming attractive for a portion of the organization’s data. Bandwidth limitations are addressed through data reduction and network optimization techniques, as service-based features and functionality continue to improve. Organizations are actively considering SaaS and cloud-delivered solutions to protect data in ROBO environments, as well as test-and-development data and endpoints, including desktop, laptop and tablets. Some companies are evaluating these delivery models for regional areas and at least a subset of their primary data centers.”

The report further states: “By 2018, the number of enterprises using the cloud as a backup destination will double, up from 13% at the end of 2016.“

MSPs in North America can partner with BackupAssist to offer BAaaS in order to meet these end client requirements. BAaaS empowers MSPs to maximize profits and eliminate upfront capital by licensing the product as a monthly utility subscription. In doing so, the MSP can win new business and grow existing accounts by offering end clients the ability to evolve their backup/recovery investment from a CAPEX to an OPEX. MSPs benefit from zero upfront costs, profit margins, automated billing and payments, a dedicated channel manager for pre- and post-sales support, a dedicated technician, training, and marketing material. MSPs also enjoy management of end client subscriptions, deployment of multiple licensees, invoicing, and real-time client alert messaging via the dashboard of the BAaaS portal.

“The response to BAaaS thus far in N.A. has been tremendous, as it has been all over the world,” said Troy Vertigan, VP, channel sales and marketing, BackupAssist. “By aligning with BackupAssist, our strategic partners can answer the call of SMEs that require enterprise features and functionality, ease-of-use and affordability from their backup and recovery solution. Moreover, with the release of BackupAssist version 10, end clients can benefit from enhanced features such as cloud storage independence, encrypted backup containers, a 4x improvement in data deduplication and compression, and advanced application backup and recovery for Hyper-V, Exchange and SQL Server.“

VARs, SIs and other channel professionals in North America, as well as around the globe, also have access to the established BackupAssist Perpetual Reseller Program which enables channel partners to benefit from significant discounts by purchasing BackupAssist software upfront as a perpetual license, and then resell it to end clients. The program includes margins, lead generation, product training, pre- and post-sales technical support, marketing assistance, dedicated account management, local technical support. All partners are provided access to the reseller portal, offering the ability to place new orders, renew existing customers, manage licensing and migrations, view monthly statements and transaction history, and access NFR licenses. 

Partners are also provided with BackupAssist’s Multisite Manager which allows the user to securely monitor and manage all backup/restore activity from a single screen – enabling the management of deployments, backups, restores, and more with just a few clicks, from any device, anywhere.

“We have been focused on serving the IT needs of the SMB community since 1995 – a large and growing market that remains under-served in Louisiana, as it does in much of the world,” said Steve Bordelon, co-founder, DeltaCon. “And, while our clients know that its critical for their data to be protected and always accessible, so that their business can remain up an running – they either don’t have the in-house expertise, or simply don’t want the headache of managing their IT and/or backup/recovery infrastructure. That’s where BackupAssist comes in.“

“We first came across BackupAssist a couple years ago when I was working with an SMB client that required backup and recovery capabilities, but didn’t have the in-house expertise to manage it. They just needed to know that it was handled – and, that the tools they would be responsible for managing moving forward would be easy and get the job done,” said Joseph Gagne, founder, Extreme Technologies. “I was immediately impressed by BackupAssist’s true ‘out-of-the-box’ experience. I had tried other solutions including Acronis and NovaStor with other clients previously, but BackupAssist was by far the easiest to use – with a very intuitive and robust GUI, and it was offered at a much better pricing model.“

“The BackupAssist solution has provided our clients – as well as our own in-house IT – with reliable and predictable backup and recovery. And, it isn’t simply a chopped-up version of an enterprise solution, in order to make the price more palatable. BackupAssist delivers powerful and precise features, functionality and control. Moreover, our clients appreciate its flexibility. Clients can define their own dynamic security and backup to network, NAS, RDX, iSCSI, local drives, tape, USB HDD, and of course cloud,” said Greg Miller, business steward, iSpeed Solutions. “And now as a BackupAssist MSP, we can offer our clients the ability to evolve their backup and recovery investment from a CAPEX) into anOPEX – which is a particularly attractive option for the SMB. For iSpeed, that means we can deepen existing relationships, win new clients, and increase our bottom-line.“

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