Survey Finds Managed Cloud Backup Services Crucial For Resellers To Compete

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Resellers count on the availability of reliable, affordable managed cloud backup solutions in order to compete in the ever-expanding marketplace, according to a recent survey conducted by CloudBerry Lab, a vendor of backup and management solutions for public cloud storage services.

These findings are particularly significant, given the prediction of many respondents that demand for managed cloud backup services will increase dramatically, coupled with the fact that these services are extremely important to their overall profitability. More than half (51 percent) of participants said it would either be impossible or difficult to remain competitive without managed cloud backup solutions, and 79 percent predicted that managed cloud backup service demand would increase over the next year.

Channelnomics observes from the report “three times more partners working with managed cloud backup solutions are leveraging it to sell higher margin services than just using the solutions for a one-off service.”

CloudBerry Lab CTO Alexey Serkov, explains the significance of the survey’s findings: “This becomes even more interesting considering the current climate of falling prices for cloud storage. Clearly, resellers understand the distinction between full-featured, managed cloud backup solutions and solutions that do not offer much beyond the basic ability to store data in the cloud. Many SMBs may not fully understand the major differences between the two, but resellers and MSPs serving them know exactly what’s required, and they demand backup solutions combining the best features, performance and flexibility while allowing them to grow their market share.”

The survey polled 434 U.S.-based IT resellers and managed services providers in March 2015 to determine the impact cloud backup solutions have on their businesses.