Is your company too big?
I had a run-in with a potential customer recently. At The Backup Plan, we provide backup services as a managed service that IT solutions providers can offer to their customers. So, we approach companies that off IT support and say, “Hey, you, yeah, IT support provider…do you have a backup offering? Oh, you do, does it do versioning and imaging and continuous data protection and replication and disk to disk…” and so on. 1 in 10 listen and 1 in 10 of those sign up and offer our services to their customers. 10 in 10 of those are satisfied with their decision. 1 in 100 of those like it so much that they start their own backup plan service and stop paying us for it. What?? Yes, I’m serious.
Anyway, my real point is that there are even a few IT solutions providers that we have approached, or who have approached us, that already offer backup services. The most recent was so striking because it is a nationwide chain…and…THEY OWN a BACKUP provider?!!!? Seriously, they bought a company for millions of dollars and offer backup services through that company. But they are interested in using us to offer the same services. And when I asked about the service provider they already own, they drew a blank. Like, didn’t know about it. So the SCal regional management has no knowledge of all the offerings of the parent company. But hey, I’m not one to turn away business. I wish someone would buy my company. Any takers? $3 million and it is yours. And, I’ll we’ll all even continue working for it for a year…cannot beat that. OK, I’d only sell to the right shop, but if there are companies that are so big that they do not realize that they already own an offering, it really makes you wonder about the wisdom and waste of dealing with some large companies. More on this later. It has me thinking.
Syncing is not Backup
Dave Greenbaum points out, quite well, that syncing is not the same as backing up.
http://theappleblog.com/2010/03/26/syncing-does-not-a-backup-make/
It is a really great post, which notes the distinction between making something available in multiple places and actually backing up. MobileMe, DropBox, and Sugarsync, for example, are not online backup services, they are sync services, and while they offer some potential to use file versioning to retrieve files, there is no guarantee! Of course, Mozy doesn’t guarantee anything either. But some folks do, like The Backup Plan 
iPad backup considerations
My guess is that Apple will sell 1 or 2 iPads this weekend. If they do, then there will be quite a few folks out there taking pictures loading pictures, storing music, books, files, apps, etc. So, remember, this is not an item that is approved for end-user service. So, if your device dies, or the screen cracks, or the battery dies, then you may end up sending the iPad in to Apple for warranty “repair” – depending on your service options. Apple has already stated that for battery issues, they will be sending out REPLACEMENT iPads, and it seems likely that the same may be true for most depot service orders for the iPad.
SO??? So, make sure you sync it with iTunes often. That is the only current backup method for the iPad, and doing so will make you feel much better if or when you do have to swap it out for a replacement.
Backing up Media files
There have been a number of devices in the past year that provide streaming media “home server” type options. A really interesting one is the Pogoplug, which released some new features today. Among them: streaming to XBOX 360 and PS3, and the ability to backup media files. It brings to mind the question of the worth of backing up media. Pictures, sure, but mp3s, movies, etc? It would be nice if there were, ahem, some sort of perpetual license that precluded the need to back these up. I wonder about the global cost and resources eaten up by having millions of copies of the same songs floating around, clogging network drives, being backed up, etc. When LaLa first came out, it seemed like a solution. But when Apple bought it, well, that was the last I’ve heard of it.
Also in the news today: Exagrid appliances are validated to backup and provide dedupe for NetBackup.
Also, Backup Exec 2010 was released last week, check out this review…
And last but not least, The Back-up Plan Movie, Release Date 4/23/2010 – check out the blog about it
Fileslinger review of Cloudberry Online Backup
Fileslinger has a great and thorough review of Clouberry Online Backup…which is not actually an online backup service. It is a slick and well designed client that helps the end user do their backups…and the destination is the Amazon S3 storage cloud. So, you buy this software, and then you also pay the (rather small) fees to Amazon for storage. Check out the article, it is well written and quite useful, as usual.
I do wonder sometimes about the business model in situations like this. I would personally lean towards distributing the software for free and wrapping the S3 service into monthly billing…it may have some more issues in terms of collection, but recurring income is better than 1 time income.
At $30 a pop, if you sold 100 licenses you’d bring in $3000.
If you were able to up charge the S3 service by about $1 a month, the same 100 customers would net $100 a month. But, over 3 years, you’d bring in $3600…and possibly much more if their data requirements expanded over time. Free downloads also remove the initial obstacle of purchasing software. This is the model Vembu is following for their @home service. This is NOT the model that Mozy or Carbonite follow….their models make almost no long-term sense, given that unlimited use generally means that costs will get bigger while revenue stays flat…so i guess they hope to make a lot of profit early on?
All that said, the Cloudberry Online Backup software does look really solid, and they have other offerings that also make use (and sense) of the sometimes confusing S3 interface.