For MSPs, online backup and recovery service offerings are a big deal. There’s loads of information (and sales pitches) out there to digest, and it can be difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff when everybody’s saying the same thing. With so much noise, it’s easy to see why some MSPs walk away from the echo chamber, skipping the issue in its entirety.
The good news, though, is that the technology and bandwidth developments have made it an excellent time to re-engage in the question. Online backup and recovery is no longer something that has to be explained; everybody knows what it is, and that it’s a good thing to think about. So let’s get the conversation started. Here are five things to consider when online backup is the topic:
- Do you want to own the software and infrastructure? This is step one. Some online backup products are sold only as software, with the infrastructure and its configuration remaining part of the MSPs’ responsibility. Others offer only a service, which you rebrand and pass along to your customers. You’ve got to figure out what level of control you want over the system as a whole.
- How easy is it to use? You’ve got to keep in mind a couple of levels here – the end-user’s experience and the management experience. Will the setup be self-explanatory to your clients? You don’t want to put your name on a product that’s just going to result in a slew of support calls. Nor do you want the people in charge of managing your platform to be confused by how to control the system. Many enterprise solutions struggle here – they’re built for corporations, so the management console isn’t ready for the wide variety of configurations a managed service offering can encounter.
- How secure is the data? Almost all solutions out there offer one sort of encryption or another. But ask if your solution provider has a back door; is there a way that they can get at the data? That can pose a massive security risk for your customers. One rogue employee can make off with a series of encryption keys, and that can result in stolen data.
- Who’s my support? Online backup and recovery is a mission-critical service. Your customers are going to need the back-end to be up and running 24/7, and you’ve got to have support ready to back that up 24/7, too. And where is your support team? Are they overseas? Does that matter to your customer base? These are all things you’ve got to be aware of before that first panicked phone call.
- Can the back-end grow with me? One of the primary reasons there are so many players in this game is because it’s not hard to launch a service, under certain configurations. They work great…to a point. Once you cross the magic number of data stored, backups become slower, recoveries become buggy, and the whole system stops being efficient. Be sure that the architecture of your chosen system is ready to scale with your business.
Gene Fay, www.ninetechnology.com
