CloudCloud Service ProvidersCSPs and MSPs

How can service providers make profit by selling cloud back-up services?

5 Mins read

“It’s always better to prepare for an unlikely event than be caught unaware.”

Business technology resiliency is the highest priority of organizations in today’s world of 24×7 business requirements. No company can afford downtime. But still protecting and recovering virtual environments continue to be a big challenge for IT organizations.

As per ESG research survey, 26% of respondents indicated that data protection for virtual environments was one of the main challenges they are dealing with, while 25% indicated that the need to reduce backup time was another major challenge.

Lack of Backup strategy is a primary concern for all the organizations that are concerned with minimizing disruption to ongoing business operations. They cannot afford backup and recovery operations to interrupt business operations, and affect end-user systems and data recoverability. Additional challenge which large enterprises face is backing up of mixed virtual workloads at scale, where traditional backup models fail.

The traditional backup models prove to be too expensive, time-consuming, and are unable to meet more aggressive recovery objectives.

A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Microsoft, reveals top challenges that organizations face when it comes to backup and recovery:

So, organizations need a solution that would back up data more reliably and faster in their virtual environments, allowing business operations to continue with little disruption while improving their response to service level agreements (SLAs).

Thus, the idea of supplementing, or entirely getting rid of the current backup solution with a cloud data backup solution is one of the most appealing and big trends in IT today.

Cloud backup – an opportunity for cloud service providers and managed service providers.

The cloud backup market size is expected to grow from USD 1.30 Billion in 2017 to USD 4.13 Billion by 2022, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 26.1% during the forecast period. marketsandmarkets

As stated above, this demand for cloud backup is driven by many factors:

  • Increasing adoption of cloud-based technologies.
  • Need for managing voluminous data sets in enterprises.
  • Lower costs and greater efficiency than on-premises backup.
  • Growing adoption of SaaS.
  • Cloud emergence and mandatory government regulations.

But, organizations can’t do it alone. They can’t spend time analyzing the backup market – which cloud backup solution is right per their needs, and overcoming the complexities involved in backup setup and maintenance. Security is the chief concern to companies utilizing cloud backups. They also carry with them the so-called performance and bandwidth challenges because of latency and bandwidth limits of available internet connections and compliance issues.

So, organizations prefer partners and enablers to help them with the quick setup of cloud backups, with minimal maintenance.

Growing cloud backup adoption has no doubt charted a new path of opportunities and streams of revenue for the service providers, but not every backup product leads to new streams of revenue. CSPs need to concentrate on selecting the best cloud backup solution for selling. Hence, discussing one of the best – Acronis cloud backup solutions, here.

Acronis Backup Cloud –  a hybrid cloud backup solution for service providers

Positioned as a challenger in Gartner’s magic quadrant, Acronis is a global leader in hybrid cloud data protection and cloud storage services. Acronis’ cloud storage consumption now totals 39 petabytes.

Specifically built for service providers, the Acronis Data Cloud platform allows them to provide easy, reliable, and efficient backup, disaster recovery, and file sync and share solutions through native integration with leading Professional Services Automation (PSA) systems.

It’s multi-tenant and multi-tier capability makes Acronis the most efficient and cost-effective data protection solution available to the service providers. This cloud backup and recovery service allow service providers to support the increasing number of use cases to retain customers and expand their total addressable market.

These services are easy to upsell and simple to attach with the benefits of zero upfront investment, flexible licensing models, and easy integration with the existing infrastructure.

A quick overview of Acronis Data Cloud benefits for service providers:

What service providers need to be successful in selling backup solutions?

The three keys to a service provider’s growth: automate, automate and automate!

A 451 Research report states that the pressures and challenges – from increased customer expectations and internal demands to lower service delivery costs and increased margins, external demands and lower prices – make it increasingly difficult to thrive in competitive markets, where the ability to attract and retain talent and provide consistent, high-quality services are the key to growth.

It further states that automation promises service providers the greater efficiency and productivity, higher quality of service, scalability, increased compliance and greater profit margins. But they have yet to recognize and embrace the full potential that automation can bring to their business.

Service providers can make immediate capex gains through establishing simple workflows and process integrations as automation addresses multiple aspects of the service lifecycle – especially those ongoing, repetitive tasks that require frequent human interaction when dealing with customers.

It is efficiency on which a service provider’s business is highly dependent. Only automation can provide a high level of efficiency to their model, when implemented strategically.

Thus, processes related to selling of Acronis Cloud Backup too need to be automated. A single automated platform is needed that can take care of the redundant tasks and create and monitor the status of backups, ensure their reliability, and perform routine management functions with ease.

The underlying philosophy which RackNap follows is to help cloud service providers with not just an automation platform, but to help them “enable and run a profitable cloud business.

RackNap, a unified cloud service delivery, and  subscription billing software automate all facets of business operations-billing, sales and marketing, inventory management, support, business intelligence and much more. It enables control and self-sufficiency to the end customers over their services by providing them with a dedicated client panel.

RackNap facilitates automated Acronis backup implementation and its provisioning in the Acronis panel. Thus, without manual intervention, the Acronis Cloud backup subscription is created and get provisioned in the client’s Acronis Cloud panel. This is accomplished with RackNap’s API integration with Acronis.

With RackNap automation platform, you get workflow automation capabilities that completely automate your complex or highly repetitive manual data management tasks.

  1. RackNap enables you to customize your cloud billing plans and packages while adding efficiency to them
    Acronis delivers its services on pay per use model i.e. no limitation on usage, pay as per usage, but RackNap automation platform enables you to bill your customers on pre- paid model

    It allows you to create your own plans, set Acronis cloud backup pricing structure- set up fees, billing period and packages.

    RackNap helps service providers with easy management of cloud billing.

    You can set the limitation on the number of workstations, servers, mobile devices, that need backups, same for child storage and local storage. This cloud automation platform also allows you to set alerts to notify the end user that his /her usage limit has exceeded and if required, you can send the suspension mail to the user too.

    RackNap helps service providers to automate the cloud billing and keep track of all services, purchased by their end clients, easily.

    It also helps with time saving for your staff, and that time can be reinvested into more innovative areas of the business.

  2. RackNap minimizes errors with automated and standardized invoicing system
    It is well-known that a fast and efficient invoicing system saves time and reduces margin for errors. RackNap also enables efficient invoicing system which automatically compiles costs to generate invoices from the data.

    This functionality effectively manages your cash flow and streamlines your complete ordering process.

    This in turn saves your business time, which eventually saves your business money.

  3. RackNap enables workflow automation capabilities, hassle free monitoring while reducing administration overheads
    RackNap’s centralized and intuitive dashboard makes finding information quick and painless, which in turn allows you to easily address customer questions and queries, immediately.

    Intuitive and centralized dashboard of RackNap, allows service administrators to keep track of the order process, view order details, monitor the multiple billing ledgers and more.  This not only saves time for you and your team, but also makes customer care simpler and lead to improved team morale.

    With this cloud service delivery platform, your service administrators get the manual control to approve, suspend, unsuspend or terminate the client account with ease, thus saving time and eliminating hassles.

  4. RackNap maintains privacy and security of your end customers
    Your end customers receive their login credentials via mail sent by Acronis. RackNap has no access to it. They can activate their account and start using client panel to manage their backup, without any worries.

    So, sell Acronis Cloud Backup through RackNap – shorten your time to market and stay ahead of competition.

28 posts

About author
Sabarinathan, SVP of RackNap heads product and technical delivery functions. He has over 18 years of experience in the IT industry with specialization in cloud services delivery. He believes that to be successful, cloud service providers need – right business strategy, right automation platform along with skilled manpower.
Articles
Related posts
CSPs and MSPs

What is Accrued Revenue and how it affects your accounting?

6 Mins read
Accrued revenue is an important metric for any business, big or small. It helps you keep track of the money you’ve earned…
CSPs and MSPsSaaS Providers

What is Pay-As-You-Go pricing? How it works?

7 Mins read
Have you ever paid a lot of money upfront for something you barely used? That can be really annoying, right? This is…
CSPs and MSPsSaaS ProvidersSubscription Service Providers

What is Total Contract Value and how to calculate it?

8 Mins read
Do you know which metrics Software as a Service (SaaS) companies track to make data-driven decisions? SaaS businesses that are aiming to…