Anyone gone into providing remote backup services?

There was someone on this board that started hosting a remote backup service, I remember them asking some of us to test it. Granted it was easily over a year ago so the name completely escapes me at the moment.....
 
I've done extensive research over the past year into remote backup companies and the software they use from the cheap software like what you posted to the very expensive software. We've demoed countless number of software products and capabilities to see what we felt would work and what doesn't.

What information do you seek?
 
I've done extensive research over the past year into remote backup companies and the software they use...

What information do you seek?

The practicality of it, the profitability of it, etc. We have a few clients who are seeking offsite remote backup. Instead of referring them to services like Iron Mountain, or even becoming a partner of a service like Iron Mountain to put five bucks a month in ones pocket, since we have a cabinet in a data center with fairly fat bandwidth....why not offer the service.

Just tossing around the idea, perhaps something to generate more steady monthly income. Could I beg of your opinions from your extensive research in software? Perhaps if you settled in on one package?
 
The practicality of it, the profitability of it, etc. We have a few clients who are seeking offsite remote backup. Instead of referring them to services like Iron Mountain, or even becoming a partner of a service like Iron Mountain to put five bucks a month in ones pocket, since we have a cabinet in a data center with fairly fat bandwidth....why not offer the service.

Just tossing around the idea, perhaps something to generate more steady monthly income. Could I beg of your opinions from your extensive research in software? Perhaps if you settled in on one package?

I'm going to make this brief since I need to finish a proposal for this afternoon for a client, but I'll followup with any additional questions you may have, just be patient! :-P

Also bear in mind when we did our evaluation, we wanted to backup entire servers and not just the data. We have one dental office with around 80GB (yes that is correct 80GB) of digital xrays which do not compress at all. SBS servers take a significant amount of disk space as well.

Having said that ,we didn't find it practical to resell remote backup services from most major players giving the rates they were going to charge *US* and the fact that we didn't find the pricing to be tolerated well by our clients. Unless your willing to commit to "leasing" a significant amount of space up front, most likely you as the reseller will be charged around $10 to $15 or more per GB of space for the lower end packages.

Other companies will base what you make on a comission meaning if you sell one of their packages at $50 per month, you'll receive 10% comission on that monthly fee, but there are very few of those.

Going off on a different direction, consider this when evaluating any remote backup service:

1. How will you get the first backup completed and offsite in an acceptable amount of time?
2. Does the service or software offer the ability to backup SQL and/or Exchange?
3. Given a need to completely restore the data, how soon can you get the data in your hands?
4. What is the procedure for restoring that data?

What you'll find is that although remote backup services all backup software in generally the same way, an overwhelming majority do not offer any bare metal restoration meaning you'll need to install the OS, configure it, install the client software, and perform the restore.

Some software / services do not offer any way of restoring from a local external drive!

In our searches we came across ONE software package that seems to have all the capabilities and features we wanted plus additional capabilities on top of that as well.Asigra makes remote backup software product that is unparalleled by anything else, however it is the most expensive if you wanted to buy the software outright ($25,000+) however there are a few companies who use their software and can set you up as a reseller. StorageGuardian is one such company with amicable rates for their resellers with pay as you go pricing. You should be able to get setup as low as $6 per *compressed* GB for your cost.

I'll can send over the contact information I spoke with there if you'd like.

In closing, I'd focus on not only ensuring the data is backed up, but also *exactly* how you would restore the data in minor and major situations. The Asigra software simply is the best remote backup software package out there.

As for our business, we are waiting awhile until we are ready to take on the financial risks of doing our own implementation using their software.
 
Having said that ,we didn't find it practical to resell remote backup services from most major players giving the rates they were going to charge *US* and the fact that we didn't find the pricing to be tolerated well by our clients. Unless your willing to commit to "leasing" a significant amount of space up front, most likely you as the reseller will be charged around $10 to $15 or more per GB of space for the lower end packages.
Untrue. If you are looking into companies that charge anywhere NEAR $10 per GB your getting screwed.

Other companies will base what you make on a comission meaning if you sell one of their packages at $50 per month, you'll receive 10% comission on that monthly fee, but there are very few of those.
My company also has a plan like this for resellers. However, we give them a 50% commission every month for all of their total sales.

Going off on a different direction, consider this when evaluating any remote backup service:
1. How will you get the first backup completed and offsite in an acceptable amount of time?
2. Does the service or software offer the ability to backup SQL and/or Exchange?
3. Given a need to completely restore the data, how soon can you get the data in your hands?
4. What is the procedure for restoring that data?
All good advice. Sounds likes someone's been reading my other threads!
http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1030892039&postcount=16

Some software / services do not offer any way of restoring from a local external drive!
Ours does!

StorageGuardian is one such company with amicable rates for their resellers with pay as you go pricing. You should be able to get setup as low as $6 per *compressed* GB for your cost.
We usually charge $1 per GB for plans over 30GB. Anything more than $1 per GB is highway robbery.

As for our business, we are waiting awhile until we are ready to take on the financial risks of doing our own implementation using their software.
Give my software a try. Free trial, no contracts. Im 99% sure it's pretty much everything you need.
http://www.korcomputing.com/trial
 
Untrue. If you are looking into companies that charge anywhere NEAR $10 per GB your getting screwed.

Note that I said *major players* , and yes they are charging that much to resellers, I have the emails to backup that statement.

My company also has a plan like this for resellers. However, we give them a 50% commission every month for all of their total sales.

Good to know so far..........

All good advice. Sounds likes someone's been reading my other threads!
http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1030892039&postcount=16

No offense, but I did my own research and none of it involved any of your threads.

Ours does!

Good to know as well.

We usually charge $1 per GB for plans over 30GB. Anything more than $1 per GB is highway robbery.

Again our research was based on major companies.

Give my software a try. Free trial, no contracts. Im 99% sure it's pretty much everything you need.
http://www.korcomputing.com/trial

I'll contact you through your website in a day or two as I'll have quite a few questions that need to be answered before taking you up on your offer.;)
 
So SJ...you're still poking around...haven't made the plunge yet?

We're not looking to market this as a service, it's something we wish to offer our "good regular customers" as a value add.

The data center we have as a strategic partner...literally next door to us..makes retrieval of this data relatively easy..as we have key passes to the data center 24x7. Could walk in with a USB drive...copy the data over...and go back to our client to restore it...without breaking a sweat.

Not looking to get huge..just as a service and extra steady cabbage each month.
 
I'll contact you through your website in a day or two as I'll have quite a few questions that need to be answered before taking you up on your offer.;)
Great. I look forward to hearing from you. I love answering questions! :D

The data center we have as a strategic partner...literally next door to us..makes retrieval of this data relatively easy..as we have key passes to the data center 24x7. Could walk in with a USB drive...copy the data over...and go back to our client to restore it...without breaking a sweat.
Stonecat, sounds like you want to resell. I can work with you on that too. But since you already have a data center that you want to use it just makes things even easier.

What I would purpose in your situation is going with our reseller route, and using your data center as the secondary replication site. This way, you get the best of both worlds. Your data is copied 2 places, our primary server, and then you can setup your server at your data center as the secondary real time replication server, which will allow you (in the event of a data loss) to go straight to the data center, copy the real time replicated data, and still be able to restore your clients.

With this, you don't have to provide the infrastructure cost of the primary facility, still have the ability to walk right into your data center and copy the data for the client... AND don't have to deal with all the high startup costs associated with buying the software licenses.

SJ is also right as we are not a "big name" however thats a benefit in my opinion. When you call the number listed on our site, you talk to ME. No voicemail, no answering machine, no helpdesk tech support guy in India. Im sure if you wanted to get a hold of a big name like Norton who also has an offsite backup like service, I doubt you'd talk to anyone important for at least 2 transfers.

I know other business people appreciate that kind of service.
http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1030896037&postcount=17
 
the problem I can see here is upload speed from the actual clients end.
 
Great. I look forward to hearing from you. I love answering questions! :D

Stonecat, sounds like you want to resell. I can work with you on that too. But since you already have a data center that you want to use it just makes things even easier.

SJ is also right as we are not a "big name" however thats a benefit in my opinion. When you call the number listed on our site, you talk to ME. No voicemail, no answering machine, no helpdesk tech support guy in India. Im sure if you wanted to get a hold of a big name like Norton who also has an offsite backup like service, I doubt you'd talk to anyone important for at least 2 transfers.

I know other business people appreciate that kind of service.
http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1030896037&postcount=17

#1 Your web site is bookmarked, because it seems like good pricing. (So that should make the next thing a little less harsh.)

#2 Not to crap on you, but more towards a question the OP needs answered and a concern I would have. "What happens if you get hit by a truck?"
 
We have looked into this a few times in the past but the same issue always kept comming up. Most of our clients are on dsl or cable lines. Some have t1's. The data that they need to transfer is just too great. The clients we do anything like this for we just store tapes off site for.
 
We have looked into this a few times in the past but the same issue always kept comming up. Most of our clients are on dsl or cable lines. Some have t1's. The data that they need to transfer is just too great. The clients we do anything like this for we just store tapes off site for.

That's typically the normal solution. Loads of storage capacity. The drives can get expensive though.
 
For the benefit to all following this thread, I'm going to post my questions here:

Can your software....

Simultaneously backup to a local device as well as offsite on a scheduled basis?
Can your software restore from a local device such as an external hard drive or network storage device?
Handle open files?
Perform brick level backups of Exchange without taking Exchange offline?
Perform SQL database backups without taking SQL offline?
Does your solution require installing software on each system to be backed up?
Does your solution require additional agents for Exchange or SQL?
Does your software deduplicate common files?
Can you perform a bare metal restore?
Can you backup more than one system using a single account and does your system keep each system's backups separated?


How do you handle the initial backups when they are so large?
What is your typical turnaround time to shipping a full backup to us?

Also, another nitpick on your website, there is no such thing as any software being "Hippa compliant"
 
So SJ...you're still poking around...haven't made the plunge yet?.

We are taking the plunge albeit a different route since all of our customers are local. Instead of doing file level backups we are doing full disk images once a month and differential for the rest of the month. The software we are using automates the backups and offsite replication.
 
Can your software....

Simultaneously backup to a local device as well as offsite on a scheduled basis?
Yes. It can also restore from the local device aswell.
Can your software restore from a local device such as an external hard drive or network storage device?
Yes, answered above.
Handle open files?
Yes, through Volume Shadow Copy
Perform brick level backups of Exchange without taking Exchange offline?
Currently being worked on, expect this feature within the next 3 months
Perform SQL database backups without taking SQL offline?
Yes
Does your solution require installing software on each system to be backed up?
No, data can be pulled from network drives
Does your solution require additional agents for Exchange or SQL?
No, built in
Does your software deduplicate common files?
Deduplicate? I'm unfamiliar with that term.
Can you perform a bare metal restore?
No, however it is in our pipeline to provide in future releases.
Can you backup more than one system using a single account and does your system keep each system's backups separated?
Yes, and yes
How do you handle the initial backups when they are so large?
If a client can't/doesn't want to upload the first entire full backup, they can send us a hard drive for seed loading
What is your typical turnaround time to shipping a full backup to us?
Our SLA guarantee's a drive on it's way within 12 hours.

Also, another nitpick on your website, there is no such thing as any software being "Hippa compliant"
True, here is an explanation from HIPAA.

The problem is that software and hardware, in and of themselves, cannot be "HIPAA compliant." "HIPAA compliance" is an organizational obligation, not a technical specification. A given application or hardware item might be a legitimate part of an organization's HIPAA compliance, but the determination of "compliance" is not made at that level.
Basically what it boils down to is HIPAA requires a certain degree of security and reliability. A doctor's office who must be HIPPA compliment must safeguard their patient records to a certain level of sophistication as to prevent a data breech. Our software encrypts a clients data to the same degree (or better) than what they would have at their office. Being HIPPA compliment at your office, but backing up your confidential patient records offsite in an UN-encrypted form violates your compliance.
 
Don't make blanket statements like that, some industries are actually better off using an LLC over a C or S Corporation.

There is no point in creating a LLC unless you have a foreign business partner. Switch to a S-Corp. This seems like a one-man operation. Less taxes and you have a lower chance of getting audited. LLC's get audited like crazy to make sure you are not embezzling funds out of the company.
 
There is no point in creating a LLC unless you have a foreign business partner. Switch to a S-Corp. This seems like a one-man operation. Less taxes and you have a lower chance of getting audited. LLC's get audited like crazy to make sure you are not embezzling funds out of the company.

:rolleyes:

Moron * 100000000000. I'm glad you're not my accountant/attorney.
 
There is no point in creating a LLC unless you have a foreign business partner. Switch to a S-Corp. This seems like a one-man operation. Less taxes and you have a lower chance of getting audited. LLC's get audited like crazy to make sure you are not embezzling funds out of the company.
Please take this thread hi-jack some place else.

Let's get back on topic.
 
How did this get to backing up an LLC? :confused: Or restoring a corporation?

LLCs get audited like crazy? //tries to remember last time was audited..."nope...can't think of one"
 
De-Duplication is when you have more than one copy of the exact same file on the same system or multiple systems, then only one copy of that file would get backed up. A great example is when your backing up multiple servers that have the same OS on them where many hundreds or thousands of files are exactly the same between the two systems. No need to backup two copies of the same file.

As for Hippa compliance, I deal with it every day as well. I was referring specifically to a statement on your website:
website said:
Our software is HIPAA compliant which ensures customer privacy and security for all your records

I was merely pointing out there is no such thing as Hippa compliant hardware or software.

All in all, i'd say your software does the majority of what we are looking for and is renewing interest in it. I'll PM you with my contact information, if you could send me additional info via email on reseller pricing and your contact information, I'll contact you next week to discuss further.:D
 
Can you give me an answer to what happens if you get hit by a truck? ;) Are there other employees to handle everything?

Same thing that happens as if any one of us who do consulting for a living do. It can happen. Many of us here are one or two man shows. Some of us hopefully take the time to documents our clients setups....and the client has that information in case a comet hits us on the head, or a bus runs over us. The client can then do what they wish with that information..such as find another consultant..hand him the information..and hopefully it's accurate enough for the other consultant to hit the ground running.
 
Same thing that happens as if any one of us who do consulting for a living do. It can happen. Many of us here are one or two man shows. Some of us hopefully take the time to documents our clients setups....and the client has that information in case a comet hits us on the head, or a bus runs over us. The client can then do what they wish with that information..such as find another consultant..hand him the information..and hopefully it's accurate enough for the other consultant to hit the ground running.


Yes it can happen, but that's the point of disaster recovery plans, redundancy and documentation. The diffrence between a 1 and 2 man show is significant in my book. I guess I was looking to find out if there is someone who can pick up without puting extra burden on customers in case something like that happens. I am looking at it from a Reselling / Customer point of view. If I resell this service and something happens it makes me look bad. If I am a customer and something happens do I have a fall back.

We recently pulled out of a colocation deal because we found out that we were being resold service from a one man show and the risk was too great. The importance of backup, vendor stability, vendor relibility and control are diffrent from company to company. In our case it's critical, making this a valid question.
 
Can you give me an answer to what happens if you get hit by a truck? ;) Are there other employees to handle everything?
Yes, I have 2 sales guys that can at the very least handle a transfer of data in the event I die. This would ensure you aren't left high and dry.

(We also have a web interface for restoration should you need it)

De-Duplication is when you have more than one copy of the exact same file on the same system or multiple systems, then only one copy of that file would get backed up. A great example is when your backing up multiple servers that have the same OS on them where many hundreds or thousands of files are exactly the same between the two systems. No need to backup two copies of the same file.

All in all, i'd say your software does the majority of what we are looking for and is renewing interest in it. I'll PM you with my contact information, if you could send me additional info via email on reseller pricing and your contact information, I'll contact you next week to discuss further.:D
For De-duplication, no, we do not support that. Each systems backup set is completely independent of another's. This ensures files go back to the same computer they came from in the event of a restore. Backing up OS files isn't necessary since our software does not support bare metal restore.

And I have sent you an email explaining our reseller process in more detail.
 
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