Channel buzz
Virtually There
We hope you saw the news that StorageCraft is now an “Elite” member of the VMware Technology Alliance Program. We’ve been part of TAP for several years now, and our technology has been integrated in VMware’s converter tool for about five years. It’s a natural partnership for us since we’ve been specializing in virtualizing data from the beginning. It’s why we’re virtualization experts.
Virtualization is great for protecting your systems and data for so many reasons. Because it’s not just about the backup — it’s about the recovery. If your data backup is virtualized, it’s very quick and relatively easy to restore all of that information, especially if you’re using best-in-class ShadowProtect backup. This is why StorageCraft places so much emphasis on having a local backup — not just an off-site/cloud backup. Nine times out of ten, the disaster you will need to recover from will be a local disaster: a server crash, human error or power failure, for example. If you have a local ShadowProtect backup, recovery is a snap.
If you haven’t standardized on virtual machines yet and you’re thinking about how to do it, keep ShadowProtect in mind. It will backup all of your physical systems, simplify migration to new, virtual hardware and then backup all of those virtual servers. You’ll want to check out ShadowProtect Virtual and our new pricing for virtual servers in ShadowProtect for Managed Service Providers. When it comes to virtualization, we’ve been there, done that and we may even write the book.
Artisan Infrastructure and StorageCraft Webinar Series
StorageCraft partners with industry leaders to give you opportunities and options for expanding your offerings and elevating your business leveraging StorageCraft solutions. We are pleased to have a joint webinar series with alliance partner Artisan Infrastructure, wholesaler of the Cornerstone virtual Private Data Center (vPDC) platform.
ShadowControl ImageManager: Using New Features with Cornerstone
Thu, Oct 27, 3 pm EDT/Noon PDT Watch Replay
You’ll learn best practices for utilizing Artisan Infrastructure Cornerstone as the cloud repository for storing ShadowProtect backup images and implementing a disaster recovery plan for your customers – easily and profitably.
Discover how the recently released ShadowControl ImageManager provides:
- Faster, easier off site replication to Cornerstore with ShadowStream
- More control over managing backup images created with ShadowProtect
- Tools to verify and re-verify ShadowProtect backup image files
Maximize Business Continuity with StorageCraft and Artisan Infrastructure
Tue, Nov 15, 3 pm EST/Noon PST Watch Replay
Learn how Artisan Infrastructure’s virtual private data center platform, Cornerstone, pre-installed with ShadowProtect enables you to:
- Easily provide a near-line and off-site backup and disaster recovery solution
- Remotely test, evaluate and monitor ShadowProtect and deploy in less than a few minutes
- Retain complete autonomy to deploy and manage your own cloud solutions
ShadowProtect and Artisan Infrastructure “How To”
Thu, Dec 15, 1 pm EST/10 am PST Register Today!
Get down to the nuts and bolts of using ShadowProtect and ShadowControl ImageManager with Artisan Infrastructure Cornerstone vPDC platform to:
- Easily provide a near-line and off-site backup and disaster recovery solution
- Remotely test, evaluate and monitor ShadowProtect and deploy in less than a few minutes
- Retain complete autonomy to deploy and manage your own cloud solutions
MSP University Boot Camps
We’re lacing up our training boots and hitting the road this year for MSP University Boot Camps across the United States. We’re not exactly the drill sergeant in this analogy, but we are offering some great training sessions for managed service providers (MSPs). We’re working with one of our strategic partners, eFolder, to provide MSPs with great information on how they can offer disaster recovery and cloud backup services to their customers.
You can learn more about it in the press release: http://eon.businesswire.com/news/eon/20110202007068/en/StorageCraft-Sponsors-MSP-University-Boot-Camps.
Powered by StorageCraft
Two of our partners announced they are working together with us on an offering that will make life a whole lot easier for MSPs. LabTech and Doyenz will be using StorageCraft ShadowProtect technology to power a new offering that allows server failover in the cloud. This makes it a whole lot easier for MSPs to monitor their systems with LabTech, backup their systems with ShadowProtect and failover to a virtual machine on-site or off-site in the Doyenz Shadowcloud.
Here’s more about this “Freemium” offering from the press release:
“MSPs need an efficient method of protecting their customers’ information and monitoring their systems to prevent problems before they happen,” said Curt James, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at StorageCraft. “This strategic relationship between LabTech, Doyenz and StorageCraft not only allows MSPs to keep tabs on servers and resolve issues before they become problems, it also allows them to backup and failover systems in the cloud, in case of a catastrophe that can’t be prevented.”
“By partnering with LabTech and StorageCraft, we are proud to offer the channel a truly innovative, end-to-end disaster recovery solution, previously only available to enterprise market,” said Eric Webster, VP of Sales and Marketing for Doyenz. “Managed Service Providers can now ensure complete business continuity and manage their clients remotely with LabTech—and make significant profit margins while doing so.”
“The formed partnerships with Doyenz and StorageCraft, and the newly developed Freemium offer is a huge benefit to our LabTech partners and the entire MSP industry,” said Matt Nachtrab, CEO of LabTech Software. “LabTech Software and its partnerships with other leading industry solution providers like Doyenz and StorageCraft is giving today’s MSPs the needed toolsets to help their IT businesses become more efficient, productive and profitable.”
This gives MSPs a lot of options for backup and disaster recovery. You can read the entire press release here.
On the Road Again
In North America, the leaves are changing color, the days are getting shorter, there’s a decided nip in the air, and we’re headed out to another trade show. It must be autumn. The next few weeks we’ll be busy meeting many of you at upcoming tech events across the U.S. and Canada.
This weekend, we’ll are in Las Vegas for one of our favorite trade shows – SMB Nation. Harry Brelsford always brings together a fantastic group of the industry’s best. We’re holding several different break-out meetings, including a technical deep dive of ShadowProtect ImageManage Enterprise, as well as co-branded seminars with two of our cloud computing partners: Symform and Doyenz.
If you’re still getting your feet wet in the cloud, so to speak, you may want to attend both sessions. They may give you some ideas on how to handle your cloud backups. Fortunately, ShadowProtect plays very well in the cloud, so you can use it to save your backups in the cloud no matter which solution you choose.
Next week, we’ll be heading north to Calgary, sponsoring ChannelNext in Alberta, Canada. We’ve been partnering with ChannelNext and TechnoPlanet Productions to tell Canadian solution providers about ShadowProtect. ChannelNext is October 25 in Calgary.
In early November, we’ll be sponsoring Cloud Computing Expo in Santa Clara, California. This will be our first time there. As I mentioned, ShadowProtect really plays well in the cloud, so we think this will be a great opportunity for StorageCraft. Cloud Computing Expo is November 1-4.
In mid-November, we’ll be back in Las Vegas where we’re participating in another Everything Channel XChange event. This year, XChange Tech Innovators is November 10-12.
We hope your fall is a little more relaxed than ours, but we’re definitely not complaining! It’s good to be busy and it’s great to tell people about ShadowProtect.
Intel and McAfee: A marriage made in cloud heaven?
The channel is buzzing on today’s news that Intel is acquiring McAfee, the security technology firm, for nearly $8 billion. The VAR Guy says this new union should cause a little fear and trembling in Redmond and Mountain View as it is signaling that Intel doesn’t trust Microsoft and Symantec to keep IT secure as everything moves to the cloud. So will this be a marriage made in cloud heaven? Will Intel, by acquiring McAfee, keep business data safe and secure, no matter where it’s housed?
It will be many months before we have answers to these questions, but it’s still fun to ask them. In the mean time, this could create great opportunities for channel partners with an eye on the future who are looking for serious security alternatives. If Intel can successfully merge the companies and the technologies, it will create an opening for solution providers who want to deliver solid security embedded in hardware, and low margins. It may be a leap forward for business continuity moving into the cloud era.
No one is saying Intel’s relationship with Microsoft is over. But they’ll certainly be depending on their own brand for security solutions in the future. Channel partners will want to be asking these same questions as they set disaster recovery planning and future business migration to the cloud.