Navigating the New BDR Landscape

In my last blog, I talked about using market data to inform and tune your business plan, and even included a link to free market research on data protection-as-a-service (DPaaS).

That post prompted several questions, including “What exactly is DPaaS?” and “I offer managed backup and disaster recovery (BDR) – is that DPaaS?”

XaaS

Bullet-proof definitions are hard to come by. In fact, the definition I’m going to offer here has shortcomings (it’s circular). Even so, it provides a practical (if imperfect) explanation of the “as-a-service” moniker, also known as XaaS.

XaaS is generally understood to mean a service that’s delivered over the Internet rather than provided locally or on-site. It’s an IT concept that’s been applied broadly and includes things like data center infrastructure (IaaS), which we don’t typically think of as a service. The concept has also been applied to data protection (DPaaS) and its various disciplines, resulting in backup-as-a-service (BaaS), disaster recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS), and even storage-as-a-service (STaaS – for archiving backups offsite).

Because it occurs over the Internet, XaaS typically carries a “cloud” connotation. And with cloud comes concepts like elasticity, on-demand/self-service, and pay-as-you-go (sometimes described as a shift from capex to opex). Different XaaS offerings display these characteristics to different degrees.

The Cloud

But the cloud isn’t just for DPaaS. Increasingly “traditional” managed BDR services leverage the cloud. For example, a client engages an MSP to provide backup and disaster recovery for the client’s on-premise virtual machines (VMs), which the client otherwise manages himself. The service provider deploys and manages an appliance on-premise to perform local backups and recoveries, and copies backups to the cloud for retention and disaster recovery purposes. Although the managed service might not be considered a cloud service, the cloud is an essential part of it.

For that reason, the shift to the cloud is an important trend for all service providers, whether you offer DPaaS or managed BDR.

Opportunity or Threat?

As with most things in life, the shift to the cloud has both upsides and downsides – particularly for service providers who depend on revenue from hardware and software sales and associated implementation services.

But don’t despair – the cloud can be your next big business opportunity. Read how one IT solutions provider leveraged the cloud to reach new clients and new levels of profitability. Download the 5-page case study here: www.veeam.com/wp-avnet-cloud-no-threat-to-progressive-it-supplier.html

Doug Hazelman is VP of product strategy and chief evangelist at Veeam Software, the leading provider of virtualization backup and data protection solutions.