The cloud has introduced multiple ground-breaking innovations and has disrupted business models across the modern economy. Businesses everywhere have had to adapt to this new technology paradigm and organisations in the technology industry have needed to transform their engagement models radically to accommodate this new business case.
Cloud Services Have Impacted MSPs but Have Also Introduced Opportunities
The impact to Managed Service Providers (MSPs) in particular, where business models have had to adapt from providing on-premise services to accommodating new cloud offerings, has been significant. Customer service offerings have needed to change, impacting traditional MSPs' business lines, affecting profit margins and forcing MSPs to re-skill their staff.
However, MSPs who have made the transition to providing cloud services have reaped the benefits. Research conducted by Microsoft and the IDC found that partners with 50% of revenue generated from cloud-related sales and services made 1.5x the gross profit of their less cloudy peers.
The cloud may have introduced uncertainty, but it has also created a new market for MSPs by giving them the opportunity to sell more to existing customers and attract new ones. Organisations need guidance when they decide to migrate to the cloud. MSPs who have existing relationships can leverage this to their advantage while acquiring new customers with their broadened service offering.
Backup and DR Are the Primary Use Cases for Organisations Looking to Move to the Cloud
Cloud solutions have matured, and businesses have noticed the benefits of migrating their services to the cloud. It is now no longer a question of if they migrate, but what services they migrate first. Organisations can choose multiple ways to start their cloud migration journey, but the most popular choice is data backup and disaster recovery.
Starting a cloud migration with data protection has several benefits. Firstly, as backup and disaster recovery function on the periphery of IT, moving these services first has minimal impact on day to day operations and also frees up precious IT resources which customers can put to better use. Furthermore, the operational cost model of a cloud-based subscription versus the capital-intensive model of purchasing hardware and software, make moving backups to the cloud a compelling reason for organisations looking to maximise cash flow.
MSPs Have an Opportunity with Backup for Office 365
When it comes to cloud-based backup solutions, MSPs have a great opportunity with Microsoft Office 365. Office 365’s subscriber base has grown to over 120 million active subscribers since its launch in 2011. With many businesses migrating their productivity workloads to this platform, MSPs have an excellent business opportunity to educate and sell backup services to this market.
Office 365 operates on a Software as a Service (SaaS) model where Microsoft is responsible for the platform, and the subscriber is responsible for their data. Although some data protection functionality is offered in the form of high-availability and retention policies, data on Office 365 is not genuinely protected.
Statistics shared by Veeam indicate that 38% of organisations are not backing up their data on Office 365, with a further 38% still looking to implement a backup solution. These statistics translate into 76% of Office 365 customers having no backup, and with an active subscriber base of over 120 million, MSPs have a tangible business opportunity. However, MSPs taking advantage of this opportunity need to educate customers on the common misconception that they do not need backup on Office 365.
Office 365’s data protection features do not mitigate the risks of accidental deletion, security risks, and misconfigured retention policies. To genuinely protect their business, customers must back up their Office 365 environment using a third-party product which creates an independent offline copy of their data.
Unlock New Revenue Streams with Veeam and Probax
MSPs can unlock new recurring revenue streams from both existing and new customers by taking advantage of the Office 365 backup opportunity. By partnering with Probax and offering Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365, MSPs can provide customers with a solution which reduces the risk of data loss on Office 365 and increase their revenue streams.
Backup for Microsoft Office 365 gives customers the ability to protect their Office 365 data from accidental deletion, security threats, and retention policy gaps. It also allows users to rapidly restore individual Office 365 items and meet any relevant legal and compliance requirements.
