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Seagate’s i365 subsidiary has a new package of products and services for channel resellers who find themselves having trouble selling cloud-related services because, well, they’re all out in the cloud and being sold by service providers.
On Nov. 17, the online storage company launched its EVault Cloud-Connected Service Provider (CCSP) program. The package is housed in an appliance combining EVault and corresponding best practices to help participating VARs build a profitable, localized cloud-based data protection service backed up by i365 and the EVault Cloud.
i365 expanded EVault’s remote disaster recovery service last August in preparation for this move.
The new EVault program is the first of its kind to give the channel community a way to build a cloud storage business and generate a recurring revenue stream, i365 President and General Manager Terry Cunningham told eWEEK.
“The reseller community brings tremendous value to their customers with customer and industry expertise at the local level,” Cunningham said. “They have a key role to play in the delivery of cloud services, but no one had figured out how to make it work for them. We’ve come up with a way to expand our cloud-connected storage solutions vision into the channel, and make it a winning proposition for everyone.”
i365 provides the technology and best practices for hosted service delivery; in return, the reseller adds the local presence and knowledge of the customer base.
When a customer buys into the program, that data is stored on the VAR’s own cloud and replicated to the EVault Cloud, giving CCSP partners and their customers an automatic multisite disaster recovery plan for their data, Cunningham said.
“Many in the IT reseller community have concerns about the impact of cloud-based IT services on their existing business models. They are, however, the primary IT advisers to many SMBs, and their endorsement of cloud-based storage solutions will go a long way toward accelerating market acceptance,” said Brad Nisbet, program manager for IDC’s Storage and Data Management Services.
The EVault CCSP bundles preconfigured hardware, storage, EVault Software, and unlimited agents and plug-ins in one box. Appliances come in several sizes to meet an individual partner’s needs, with expansion packs to extend storage capacity as they grow the business, Cunningham said.
The appliance is also configured to replicate backup data to a remotely located vault in the EVault Cloud. The CCSP partner purchases the multitenant appliance and pays a monthly licensing fee per replicated gigabyte.
Appliance pricing starts at $15,000; license fees vary according to replicated storage footprint. To reduce monthly operating costs, the reseller is also able to prepay license fees for a discounted price.
The EVault CCSP program extends i365’s Cloud-Connected storage solution portfolio, which includes EVault data protection software, appliances, SAAS and managed services.
EVault now serves more than 30,000 SMBs and enterprises with remote and branch offices worldwide.