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My shop does webhosting along with other IT services. I just built an 8TB RAID 6 box running Windows Storage Server to replace our 3 aging data storage boxes. With all that space I was thinking about new services we could provide and online backup (like carbonite) came to mind. Anyone do this? What client software do you use?
Let me ask you this (and disregard this if you're talking about consumer backup solutions as opposed to business backup solutions).
Let's say I'm a client, and I've narrowed to 2 choices. I can either:
A) Store all of my critical business files with a local vendor, whom may or may not meet regulatory compliance standards, and who may or may not exist at some point down the road (I'm not knocking you here, I'm just throwing it out there) or
B) I could go buy a DBS from Barracuda Networks, have first party control over my backups, and know that these backups are being stored offsite in such a way that it meets all compliance issues and by which the data will never "go away".
If I'm the business, I'm going with B. I'll applaud you thinking outside the box, but there's not a lot of market for mom-and-pop backup services, at least as it pertains to business clients. And on the customer side....external HDD's are so cheap these days that most people will buy a 1TB WD drive and then snag a copy of Acronis.
Let me ask you this (and disregard this if you're talking about consumer backup solutions as opposed to business backup solutions).
Let's say I'm a client, and I've narrowed to 2 choices. I can either:
A) Store all of my critical business files with a local vendor, whom may or may not meet regulatory compliance standards, and who may or may not exist at some point down the road (I'm not knocking you here, I'm just throwing it out there) or
B) I could go buy a DBS from Barracuda Networks, have first party control over my backups, and know that these backups are being stored offsite in such a way that it meets all compliance issues and by which the data will never "go away".
If I'm the business, I'm going with B. I'll applaud you thinking outside the box, but there's not a lot of market for mom-and-pop backup services, at least as it pertains to business clients. And on the customer side....external HDD's are so cheap these days that most people will buy a 1TB WD drive and then snag a copy of Acronis.
Agreed on all points, but most of our clients are so clueless that they can't deal with doing their own backups to external drives and won't pay for a premium solution, we'd have no problem signing up many of them. We have a hard time just getting them to change their tapes.
Agreed on all points, but most of our clients are so clueless that they can't deal with doing their own backups to external drives and won't pay for a premium solution, we'd have no problem signing up many of them. We have a hard time just getting them to change their tapes.
Yeah, I know what you mean.
I had a client with a tape backup I installed for them. Every time I went over I checked it and usually found some problems. Every time I did I talked with them about it because they were things they should have been catching.
During one long stretch when I hadn't been there they had a problem and needed their QuickBooks database restored. I popped in the most recent tape and found data that was 6 weeks old. After asking the owner, then the accountant (who was responsible for the tape backup because it was on her PC) what was going on, I learned that the tape backup had been giving an error and stopped before writing any data to the tape for all that time.
I turned to the owner and said, "And during all that time no one thought to tell me?"
His accountant got in a heap of trouble.
They had to rebuild the last six weeks manually and it cost him a small fortune to get it keyed in.
After the data was up to date I set them up with Carbonite. The server and his PC. They finally figured out that the "need to keep it in house" was not worth the problems.
Agreed on all points, but most of our clients are so clueless that they can't deal with doing their own backups to external drives and won't pay for a premium solution, we'd have no problem signing up many of them. We have a hard time just getting them to change their tapes.
That's why I specifically pointed out Barracuda Networks. The DBS itself automatically pushes the backups to 2 secure offsite locations without any business intervention (as opposed to swapping out the tapes, going to the bank, standing in line, getting someone to let you into the vault, putting them in the safe deposit box, etc.), as well as storing a local copy on the DBS itself. It's an absolutely brilliant product. I can't speak highly enough about it.
Though you may have something with the "clueless" angle. There are probably a number of places that are completely unaware that there are devices like Barracuda's out there.
That's why I specifically pointed out Barracuda Networks. The DBS itself automatically pushes the backups to 2 secure offsite locations without any business intervention (as opposed to swapping out the tapes, going to the bank, standing in line, getting someone to let you into the vault, putting them in the safe deposit box, etc.), as well as storing a local copy on the DBS itself. It's an absolutely brilliant product. I can't speak highly enough about it.
Though you may have something with the "clueless" angle. There are probably a number of places that are completely unaware that there are devices like Barracuda's out there.
According to their website it starts at $50 per month per 100GB
^This. Though I'm told you can actually negotiate with them and get it as low as about $35:100GB. I also know of at least one friend of mine that simply uses the appliance without any of the offsite offerings, instead just relying on the near-line backups done through SSFHS (though I would not recommend this, but that's just because I'm pretty anal about best practices). For solutions like these, I would at least recommend to a client that they identify mission critical or data that falls under PCI/SOX purview to be backed up into the offsite facilities even if they limit their full backups to the appliance located directly on site.
How many of your clients would fork over $50 a month?
Not many of mine, and that's the whole idea, offer the service at a good discount to what's available, say $25 or $30 a month. I've already got the space and a 50/20 internet connection, it'll be just additional monthly income.
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