Datto Partner Conference 2013 keynote recaps from CEO Austin McChord and former VMware CTO Steve Herrod address the evolving MSP opportunity in cloud backup and disaster recovery.

Joe Panettieri, Former Editorial Director

September 12, 2013

3 Min Read
Datto CEO Austin McChord announces new cloud backup and disaster recovery BDR billing user interface cloud retention and HIPAA compliance enhancements
Datto CEO Austin McChord announces new cloud backup and disaster recovery (BDR) billing, user interface, cloud retention and HIPAA compliance enhancements at Datto Partner Conference 2013.

Datto Partner Conference 2013 keynotes from CEO Austin McChord and former VMware (VMW) CTO Steve Herrod are starting now. What’s next for MSPs focused on cloud backup and disaster recovery (BDR) services? The big push involves backup solutions for HIPAA and other types of compliance and regulated industries. A new Datto product line called Fortris aims to address the opportunity. Also, Herrod touched on the emerging software defined data center (SDDC) trend. Check this live blog multiple times today for recaps.

Recap: CEO Austin McChord

  • Company’s backup solutions now on 6 continents.

  • Datto has managed half-a-billion backups.

  • Sometime before Sept. 2014, Datto will take its 1 billionth backup.

  • The company has made 112 new hires this year.

  • $2.1 billion BDR market opportunity for MSPs and Datto.

  • 55 percent of current backup users in the industry are focused on File-based backup. Datto’s image-based solutions are the natual upgrade path.

  • Big focus at Datto is tech support: Customer satisfaction is over 95%.

  • Every tech will be A+ and Network+ certified from CompTIA.

  • New management team added this past year to raise the tech support game.

  • News: Tech support now 24x7x365 for Direct2Tech: “It’s a huge advancement,” McChrod said.

  • News: Siris completely rebuilt remote access solution, new user interface and new billing model effective Oct. 1 to simplify billing. Check in with Datto for details.

  • News: Some new Backup Insights capabilities shows you exactly what file changes occurred between incremental backups.

  • “We want to make backup data valuable every day. Backup Insights is a first baby step in that direction to make the Siris product more valuable every day. You can look forward to more innovations in that direction.”

  • Datto is HIPAA Compliant. “Yes, Datto will sign your Business Associate Agreement for HIPAA compliance.”

  • Datto is making additional HIPAA compliance investments.

  • News: New Fortris product line will empower MSPs to offer backup in regulated markets like health care and financial services.

  • News: Siris will gain encryption technologies; beta starts Monday. Fortris will also gain encryption later this year.

  • HIPAA Compliance: Datto or the end-customer can maintain the encryption keys. This shields the MSP from potential HIPAA violations since the MSP can’t get at the data.

Recap: Investor Steve Herrod — VMware’s former CTO

  • “A lot of MSPs will evolve to become CSPs — cloud services providers.”

  • This is the first keynote Herrod has given since exiting VMware.

  • “MSPs will become brokers of multiple cloud services.”

  • Why customers move to public cloud: Speed to service.

  • Herrod touched on VMware’s software defined data center (SDDC) strategy.

  • He discussed compute, storage and network security — how to abstract, pool and automate those resources as part of a bigger SDDC strategy. He believes the compute area is well under control, but said network and security is the weak area.

  • He sees Datto’s opportunity as protecting mission-critical virtualized applications like Exchange, SharePoint, SQL Server, Oracle middleware, Oracle databases and SAP.

  • Without discussing specifics about the Datto investment, Herrod told attendees he hopes to be arround and discussing trends with them for at least five years.

Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Keynote

More updates coming soon.

About the Author(s)

Joe Panettieri

Former Editorial Director, Nine Lives Media, a division of Penton Media

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