Ushering in the Future with Cloud-Connected Backup

Grazed from The Var Guy. Author: Editorial Staff.

A recent survey by North Bridge Capital revealed that 50 percent of companies polled have “complete confidence” in cloud technology. That’s exciting news, but it also poses a challenge. After all, it means that the other 50 percent are not entirely convinced that cloud computing is a good for their business. Interestingly, only 3 percent of companies polled actually consider the cloud to be “too risky.” What that means for you is that a lot of your customers are in a gray area. They aren’t completely opposed to running business-critical applications in the cloud, but they also aren’t quite sure whether now is the right time or what the right products are.

For you, this is an opportunity to usher your customers into the future and increase your revenue stream by adding valuable cloud-connected services. In fact, cloud-connected services likely can alleviate a number of your customers’ operational pain points. Data backup and recovery is particularly ripe for innovation, since tape backup, a tedious and outdated process, is still used by many companies who simply aren’t up to speed on better options. These customers need a trusted adviser to help them move on. Explain the key benefits of a cloud-connected solution — scalability, mobility and infrastructure as a service — and you’ll be on your way…

Scalability

These days, growing companies are in the process of figuring out how to manage the mass quantities of data they generate on a daily basis. Those companies still attempting to back everything up by tape are wasting time, manpower and money. That time and energy is crucial to business success; today, companies need to be innovating and discovering how they can leverage data, not worrying about how they’re going to back it up.

Companies and IT departments that choose to switch to online backup often find that they save more than a day’s worth work each week. Imagine what IT professionals could do with an additional day each week – that’s true ROI.

Customers that are growing at a rapid rate or are looking to expand need to make sure they’re prepared to back up and manage their extensive and complex business-critical of data across all locations. With cloud-connected backup, opening a new office or working with remote employees suddenly becomes a smoother, more secure process.

Mobility

Bring-your-own-device policies, laptops and remote offices are all paramount concerns for today’s highly mobile, global enterprises. Backing up to tape simply isn’t a viable solution when employees and their laptops are constantly traveling. And backing up when employees return to the office isn’t the answer — warn your customers that 12,000 laptops are stolen every week in airports alone.

Furthermore, employees are, in all likelihood, using some kind of personal cloud storage backup that is far, far less secure than an enterprise specific one. If companies don’t provide cloud-connected backup, they run the risk that employees will store proprietary data in unsafe places.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service

One of biggest concerns midmarket companies have when it comes to implementing cloud services is that they lack the infrastructure to make automation viable. Companies are capable of launching cloud applications, but setting them up to work together often poses a seemingly insurmountable challenge. Often, they end up with “Frankenstein” models of mismatched, disparate services. These companies don’t just need cloud services, they need infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS). Provide them with a full-service system that will actually enable automation and shrink their workload and put your company in the mission-critical role of managing it for them. Companies that still lack “complete confidence” in the cloud will be more inclined to take the leap when you can offer comprehensive services that truly impact operations.

A cloud-based infrastructure is critical in the event of a natural disaster or emergency. When data is saved to the cloud and managed by an external party, it can be recovered within hours and business can be up and running as usual — no matter what what’s going on at the physical office.

Aim High

Not only does the cloud transform operations, it also broadens possibilities. Opening a new office in another city is suddenly vastly more feasible. Maintaining complete business continuity in the event of a natural disaster is simple and guaranteed. Furthermore, outsourcing infrastructure frees up internal staff to solve other bigger, problems.

When you introduce your customers to cloud storage and backup, you’re not just solving one, area-specific problem. You’re bringing your customers technology that’s critical to the competitive success of their business. Most importantly, you become an essential element of that success.