Cloud BDR Companies: Falling In Love With VARs
A lengthy list of cloud BDR (backup and disaster recovery) companies (names like Axcient, Datto, Intronis and eFolder) focuses heavily on the MSP market. But if you take a closer look, you’ll notice many of those same cloud BDR players warming up to the larger VAR and IT service provider industry — where rivals like Carbonite and EMC’s Mozy are digging in for a long battle. Here’s the proof — and some advice for VARs poking around the cloud BDR market.
The story goes something like this: MSPs (managed services providers) understand monthly recurring revenue (MRR) business models. Overall, the MSP market continues to show healthy growth (check out the MSPmentor 501 survey for stats). But some managed services (such as remote PC monitoring) are now commodity offerings. The best MSPs aren’t standing still. Instead, they are pushing into newer markets like cloud BDR.
Lots of Options
The good news: MSPs that offer cloud services like BDR are growing more than twice the industry rate, according to new research from The 2112 Group, Business Solutions and Intronis. The bad news for vendors: An incredibly long list of backup and cloud BDR companies now caters to MSPs. The options include:
- Axcient
- CA ArcServe
- CloudBerry Lab
- Datto
- eFolder
- GFI Max
- Intronis
- rCloud by Persistent Systems
- StorageCraft
- Symantec
- VaultLogix
- Veeam
- Zenith Infotech
- (The VAR Guy apologizes if he missed a name; feel free to post a comment)
The Next Battlegrounds: VARs Now, Cloud Brokers Soon
While all of those players (and more) remain focused on MSPs, some of the cloud BDR suppliers are opening their channel eyes (<–special hello to Bob and Jay) a bit wider and are now focusing on VARs and cloud brokers to drive more growth. But even amid those moves more competition potentially awaits.
Take a closer look at that Intronis cloud BDR research. You’ll notice that it covers the overall IT service provider market — VARs, MSPs, etc. Smart. Intronis cut its teeth in the MSP market. But VARs need cloud BDR, too. Intronis knows it. And in some ways, VARs could be an easier sell for cloud BDR.
Think of it this way:
- Thousands of MSPs have spent the past decade educating customers about proactive IT services for a flat monthly fee. It’s been a long, challenging journey — with lots of vendor education involved. But many MSPs have thrived.
- Meanwhile, many VARs skipped the MSP revolution. Instead of “educating” customers about managed services, some of those VARs can simply leverage mainstream cloud market trends — Office 365, Google Apps, Salesforce.com — to educate customers about cloud BDR that protects all company data.
Still, cloud BDR players will face plenty of competition in the VAR market. Carbonite, for one, says its fastest growing business involves SMB customers — thanks to a well-received channel partner program. And Mozy (backed by EMC) is already in the VAR market. Plus Mozy is diversifying its channel by launching new MSP-centric APIs (for PSA and RMM).
The good news for VARs and MSPs: There are plenty of cloud BDR options. Just be sure to check each company’s financing because a market shakeout has to come at some point…
Don’t Forget Cloud Brokers
Meanwhile, another cloud BDR camp is emerging. Let’s call them cloud-agnostic BDR providers and cloud brokers. A prime example involves RightScale — which offers a range of analytics and storage tools for Amazon Web Services (AWS) and other public clouds.Â
It’s a safe bet cloud services brokerages — resellers that pull together multiple cloud services — will lean heavily on RightScale and other next-generation tools while moving customer workloads to the cloud.
Some cloud BDR companies area already adjusting to that reality. For instance, Cloudberry Lab and Veeam already support on-premises backup to multiple public clouds. This cloud-agnostic approach to BDR is gaining momentum because customers can more easily jump from one cloud to another in search of the best SLAs, price-performance and user-experience outcomes.
File Sync and Sharing
Oh, and one more thing. Watch for the line between cloud BDR and file sync and sharing to blur. Dropbox, which now has an $8 billion valuation, spent last week evangelizing its partner program to MSPs at the IT Nation 2013 conference. Upstart eFolder (a cloud BDR specialist) has pushed into file sync by acquiring Anchor. And consumer giants like Mozy are extending backup to include sync services across PCs, tablets and smart phones.
The VAR Guy’s advice? Don’t stand still. VARs and MSPs need to evolve as quickly as their cloud BDR suppliers…
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