Time to rethink backup
By Carrie Reber
When was the last time you thought about your backup process? Is it one of those things you’ve just accepted to be the way it is? If so, your backup may be consuming more time and resources than it should.
The state of backup technology has moved forward, and many of the old assumptions about it are no longer true. N‑able recently interviewed about a dozen MSPs from around the world and heard first-hand what they discovered when they took a fresh look at backup. The interviews, and other resources, are available at https://www.n-able.com/re-think-backup.
According to Paul Foley of Procision IT, doing things the old way was costing his staff time—and money: “If you spend nine hours a week on the backups and then another four or five hours fixing it, and that went in as a ticket under the agreement, that was money that was lost.”
Since switching to N‑ableTM Backup, Paul says, “We’ve been able to recover that money, plus the checking time. I’d say we’ve recovered about 10 hours a week in real terms. That’s billable time that can go elsewhere. We’re talking $1,500 a week at a minimum.”
Other MSPs we interviewed found that:
- Traditional image backups aren’t the most resource efficient. Switching to cloud-first backup meant consuming up to five times less storage for the same number of restore points.
- Traditional backup administration takes up more time than it needs to, resulting in boredom and frustration for technical staff and higher costs for the business.
- There was a higher chance of human error and potential data loss due to unnecessary complexity from managing multiple backup products, keeping up with growth in storage requirements, and connecting to third-party cloud storage providers.
- Uncertainty and doubt about backup recoverability caused some sleepless nights, and switching to a more streamlined and reliable process improved peace of mind.
Brett Mason of Traction IT thought he had the best backup product already, but over time, he realized they easily had months where 20 to 40 hours of senior staff time were spent on backup management. “For the business to move forward, we did need to free up those resources,” he said. The complexity and potential room for error resulted in sleepless nights before he made the switch to N‑able Backup.
As these MSPs found, there is a real difference between the way it’s always been done and a modern, cloud-first approach to data protection. The time and resource savings are real.
As data volume and criticality have grown, not every market leader has kept up. Moving to cloud-first backup brings decreased cost and complexity, resulting in more reliable and efficient data protection.
But don’t take our word for it. Find out more about the N‑able Backup solution.
Carrie Reber is senior product marketing manager for N‑able.
© 2021 N‑able Solutions ULC and N‑able Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.
The N‑able trademarks, service marks, and logos are the exclusive property of N‑able Solutions ULC and N‑able Technologies Ltd. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
This document is provided for informational purposes only. Information and views expressed in this document may change and/or may not be applicable to you. N‑able makes no warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information contained herein.