Managed services software maker SolarWinds MSP has introduced a new component for its MSP Backup & Recovery solution that locates and protects documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and other files on end user workstations automatically.
Called Backup Documents, the optional add-on was officially introduced yesterday at the 2017 edition of IT membership organization CompTIA’s ChannelCon partner conference, which wraps up today in Austin, Texas.
Fewer than three percent of workstations are properly backed up at present, according to Dave Sobel, senior director of community at SolarWinds MSP, which is based in Durham, N.C. Cost and complexity, he continues, are the two biggest reasons why.
Backup Documents seeks to eliminate both issues. Though MSP Backup & Recovery has long been equipped to protect files on workstations, technicians had to manually tell the system which folders and directories those files are in. Backup Documents automates that process.
“You don’t have to do a bunch of configuration,” Sobel says. “It’ll go find all the documents across the machine and roll them in.”
The product’s flat $3 per workstation per month price tag, meanwhile, is designed to prevent cost from being a barrier to keeping endpoint files protected. That fee includes unlimited storage.
“We’ve priced it very aggressively so that it should be very, very easy to integrate into a manage services offering,” Sobel says. “That’s the same price point that we talk about anti-virus at or email security at, as opposed to a traditional backup product.”
According to Sobel, backing up files on client workstations is more important than ever amid today’s rampant and increasingly perilous security threats. Research the vendor conducted recently found that while 87 percent of businesses in the U.S. and U.K. have total faith in the effectiveness of their security techniques and technology, 71 percent of those organizations have been breached in the last 12 months. Even companies that employ a layered security strategy with patch management, anti-virus, web monitoring, and email security can safely assume they too will endure a successful attack eventually.
“This is a when, not an if,” Sobel says. “You can do everything perfectly, and at some point you’re likely to get breached.” Protecting workstation data thoroughly, he continues, will significantly limit the damage.
“Your machine might be compromised, but you’re not going to lose the data,” Sobel observes.
The launch of Backup Documents comes just over two weeks after SolarWinds MSP introduced a new mobile app that provides remote access to support tickets and customer information on Android and iOS devices. More new offerings are on the way soon.
“We’re not done,” Sobel says. “We have several more product announcements coming this year.”
Partners can expect some of those to take place during the U.S. edition of the vendor’s Empower MSP event, which takes place October 26 and 27 in Orlando. According to Sobel, company executives will provide a big picture view of SolarWinds MSP’s strategy at that conference as well.
“There’s a lot of conversation about vision and direction right now in the industry,” he says. “I think we’ve got a pretty big bold one. We want to present it to the partners first.”
†
