What went wrong with Symantec’s (SYMC) Backup Exec.cloud? Is it the same thing that forced Nirvanix leaders’ decision to shut down that backup company? Is cloud-based backup and disaster recovery just doomed as a low-margin business model that only works if you are a giant company that can afford utility-level margins?

Cloud-based backup and disaster recovery provider Axcient CEO Justin Moore says no. His company is doing just fine, thank you very much, and recently announced a competitive migration program for those managed service providers (MSPs) left in the lurch by Symantec’s plans to discontinue its Backup Exec.cloud offering. More on that program in a minute.

Nirvanix’s problem

Moore says that the reasons for Nirvanix’s shut down and Symantec’s decision to shut down its cloud backup are similar but different. Nirvanix was trying to sell infrastructure in a commoditized space and it just ran out of money in the process. “If you are trying to compete with Amazon and Microsoft, that’s just a bad business model,” he tells MSPmentor.

Symantec’s trouble

Symantec’s challenge was in trying to take a solution built for on-premise implementations and repurpose it for the cloud, according to Moore.

“They tried to shoehorn legacy architecture into a cloud world,” he says. Moore believes that on-premise vendors such as SAP (SAP), Microsoft (MSFT), and others are at a disadvantage when they bring a cloud version of their product to market and try to compete with pure-play cloud companies such as Salesforce.com, WorkDay.com and Box.

“You can’t just take legacy architecture and make it cloud by sticking it in a data center,” Moore says.

So how does Moore compete with the giants like Amazon in providing cloud backup? How does it combat commoditized margins? It’s all in the value-add, he says.

Competing in a commodity world

“We see extraordinarily healthy margins in our business,” Moore tells me.  “If you are just offering gigabytes in the cloud or cores in the cloud or some infrastructure in cloud, you will be under margin pressure. But if you are offering value-add – something that allows people to increase productivity, allows people to access things mobile — that’s a value proposition we bring to the table. It’s not about storage. It’s about so much more.”

Going back to VHS

And Moore has this to say about Symantec’s offer to move its Backup Exec.cloud customers to the on-premise version of its technology: “That would be like Apple saying ‘we are shutting down iTunes, but we will give you a discount on VHS tapes.’”

So what about Axcient’s migration program? MSPmentor provided a roundup of competitor offers to Symantec customers here last week. But today we have more details about Axcient’s plan.  Here they are.

Axcient’s migration plan details

The company is offering a dedicated Backup Exec migration specialist, a professional services package valued at $2,000 for free setup and implementation. That package includes environmental discovery, system design and best practices recommendations, setup, deployment, testing assistance and acceptance signoff. The company is also offering free service during the migration period.

“We have had thousands of businesses switch from Symantec Backup Exec to Axcient over the years,” Moore tells me. “We protect not only data but also applications and systems.” That means the migration specialist provided has gone through the process many times before.