4 Reasons MSP Technicians Love Axcient
Generally speaking, most MSP business leaders don’t hear about day-to-day technical operations unless there’s a problem. As long as MSP technicians have solutions that do what they say, are reasonably easy to work with, and don’t add stress to the team, business can run as usual. But as any MSP leader will tell you, technicians will sound the alarm if a solution isn’t living up to expectations or requires an unjust amount of attention.
The crux of an MSP business is the services provided to clients. When technology fails to deliver those services within expectations, technicians can’t do their job. Costs increase with the additional resources needed for break/ fixes, troubleshooting and time with support, increased management demands, and distracted technicians who cannot work on more important growth projects. Morale dips, and potentially, technicians seek new employment opportunities. A tech-unfriendly solution can cost MSPs in more ways than one.
This article focuses on technician happiness, highlighting feedback from honest MSP techs who work with Axcient products via their MSP’s security stack.
- Hear the top 4 reasons why technicians love Axcient to understand their priorities and better support your technical professionals.
- Get first-hand insight into what it’s like for technicians to work with Axcient support and compare those sentiments to what you hear about the products in your stack.
- See how Axcient prioritizes the development of our technology with a large support team and continued focus on innovation based on MSP needs.
Table of Contents
#1: Reliability
The primary concern of any technician is that solutions work. It really is that simple. If a vendor claims X, Y, and Z during the sales process, the solution better deliver in production. Features need to be available and operable, consistent, and reliable. This is especially true in business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) because of its critical role in keeping businesses running. When the worst happens – a ransomware attack, server outage, natural disaster, and so on – your business depends on your BCDR solution to limit downtime, maintain productivity, and continue services for end users. Otherwise, a data loss incident could become a business-ending event.
“We have used almost every service provided regarding disaster recovery and file level restoration, and it hasn’t failed us yet.”
– Colby Combest, Technology Consultant at Absolute Technology Solutions
Multi-Layer Security Features Increase Dependability
Axcient’s solutions include many unique features to ensure reliability for technicians. These added layers of protection are consistent with our security-first approach to cyber resilience. Instead of hoping data loss doesn’t happen, we assume that it will and give technicians the tools required for rapid and reliable recovery.
- AirGap: Anti-ransomware and data loss technology that separates data deletion requests from deletion mechanics to prevent malicious or accidental deletion from permanent removal while ensuring near-instant recovery. For additional reliability, AirGap is third-party tested by an independent information security management company.
- Virtual Office: Self-managed disaster recovery and DR testing with virtualization of one or more systems in the Axcient Cloud to temporarily replace all impacted production infrastructure for business availability. Techs can prove the effectiveness of the BCDR solution before a disaster scenario to highlight their value for clients while instilling confidence all around.
- Local Cache: Optional, fully independent, and patented recovery acceleration layer that pairs x360Recover Direct-to-Cloud (D2C) hardware-free BCDR with an inexpensive USB or NAS device to maintain a local datastore of backup block data to decrease recovery and failback times. Another way to virtualize systems is in the Axcient Cloud, a private cloud, or directly on the local cache device to prove BCDR effectiveness.
“[In my opinion], the greatest positive impact is that Axcient backups allow for the highest level of granularity and largest retention periods of any of the backup solutions we manage. Backups typically complete successfully, and if/when the client needs data restored, the backups mount reliably, and the data is able to be successfully recovered (and the client is happy). This is huge.”
– Craig Dowell, Backup Admin at LANAIR Group, LLC
#2: Ease of Use
If the primary concern for technicians is that solutions work, the secondary concern is how well they work. Many of today’s MSP techs juggle a packed stack of ‘one-trick pony’ solutions, each with their own onboarding, training, certification, maintenance, support, and billing process. The last thing they need is complicated, multi-step systems that prohibit output. Technicians want to focus on improving and innovating, not vendor management.
“Years ago, when we were introduced to Axcient, it was through backup. We had a system, probably like many MSPs, that comprised of three or four different solutions. There was a lot of chaos. The team was unhappy and dissatisfied with all of the work on many different platforms.
Axcient gave us the opportunity to really rally around a single platform. I think we have happier customers. I know our staff is much happier because it’s less engineering time. They can focus on more critical projects because they have the assurance that the continuity is there.”
– Jason Holbrook, Owner at Empower Information Systems
One Platform for MSPs to Protect Everything™
It’s not our tagline for nothing… The Axcient x360 Platform is a unified, single pane of glass where techs can manage BCDR, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace backup, and secure file sync and share (FSS) all under one roof. With multi-tenant management in a single sign-on environment, administrative functions are streamlined for ease of use and maximum productivity.
“Backups are really easy to set and forget.”
– Michael Zoll, SOC Team Lead at Business Information Solutions
- Choose Your BCDR Deployment: x360Recover BCDR covers endpoint backup, hardware-free backup, and disaster recovery (BDR) with Direct-to-Cloud (D2C), full-service BDR, and private or public cloud with x360Recover for Microsoft Azure. All-in-one BCDR significantly reduces management complexity, and the number of vendors techs need to balance.
- Ongoing and On-Demand Training: To ensure technicians feel comfortable with the x360 Platform, they’re provided with a 4-tier onboarding program that includes product training and certification, deployment review, 1:1 personalized support, and the Axcient Marketing Portal (AMP).
- Extensive Knowledge Base: On top of always available training, Axcient’s in-depth onboarding program, and 24/7/265 support – there are also roughly 1,700 articles in the Axcient Knowledge Base that are constantly being edited, updated, and added to based on product changes and new launches.
“The restore process is easy and doesn’t cause a lot of headaches whenever it is needed. We have a high amount of confidence in the product in general.”
– Stephen Tracy, VP of Service Operations at Entech
#3: Speed
Speed is an obvious priority for technicians because anything that slows them down stalls output. Complex manual tasks are often responsible for lengthening time-to-market and meeting stringent SLAs. Both are incredibly important to achieving a competitive advantage in the channel and maintaining client relationships. Be aware of any solutions continuing to rely on legacy functionality that stifles technicians’ abilities.
“Using the newer [x360Recover] solution, we have far more client sites backing up regularly with far fewer failures and with faster speeds. We can easily backup file and SQL servers and often can have multiple backups a day. Off-site replication is way faster using this platform as well.” – Stuart Allen, Senior Engineer at DataTrends Technology
Automation, Innovation, Usability
The x360 Platform was designed first for speed, second for reducing management demands, and third for giving techs a single platform for multiple backup requirements. When recovery is necessary, there’s only one process to follow, which increases the time to recovery and decreases client downtime. Technicians can master one solution, rather than learning the ins and outs of multiple vendors. Focusing on a single solution also allows technicians to take an active role with the vendor. Fostering your partnership with vendors can be a positive way to impact the product and provide feedback and advice on their roadmap.
In addition to the foundation on which our stack is built, Axcient’s proprietary features are also designed to accelerate the capabilities of technicians.
- AutoVerify: Intelligent, automatic, and daily backup integrity tests on protected systems with verification and proactive alerting ends “backup burn” and eliminates time-consuming manual verification.
- RPO and RTO: With a recovery point objective (RPO) of just 15 minutes and a recovery time objective (RTO) of less than 1 hour, disaster recovery is almost instantaneous.
- Chain-Free Image-Based Backups: Axcient’s patented Chain-Free backup technology replaces legacy chain-based backups to eliminate reseeding, storage bloat, and consolidation while enabling pooled storage and retention, long-term compliance, and near-instant recovery.
“[Chain-Free] is where Axcient excels above all others [in my opinion]. Because recovery points have such a small storage footprint, we can provide much greater granularity and retention with Axcient than other backup solutions.
Additionally, because backups use reverse incremental method, we don’t have the same issues as with other solutions, like chain management (retiring/rebasing) and the storage impact considerations that need to be made when taking new full backups.” – Craig Dowell, Backup Admin at LANAIR Group, LLC
#4: Support
A vendor’s support team is essential to technicians because they act as an extension of the MSP during recovery or when issues arise. Responsiveness, urgency, and technical capabilities are crucial aspects of the support MSP techs receive. Onboarding and ongoing training availability enable consistency across technicians regardless of when they were hired.
“It’s a good blend of comradery but focused on helping Empower Information Systems grow, and that’s the key. You always want partners that are going to throw in with your success. We all win together, and I think that’s a really strong undercurrent to the culture of Axcient and what attracts us so much.”
– Jason Holbrook, Owner of Empower Information Systems
Going Beyond Ticket Management
Axcient’s 70-person, 24/7/365 support team is dedicated to improving our products and solving partner problems so MSPs can overcome the evolving cybersecurity issues they confront every day. To ensure partners always have the training and understanding they need to maximize Axcient solutions; live training sessions are available at any time in addition to our extensive online knowledge base. Tickets are answered quickly with a 60-minute response time for critical issues. Additionally, MSP techs can take advantage of the following…
- Post-Support Surveys: After tickets are closed, Axcient surveys both the MSP partner technician and the Axcient technician to get feedback on our processes to continually audit and improve support.
- Request a Feature: Technicians are always invited to provide suggestions for improving Axcient solutions using the Request a Feature form to help us roadmap the tools MSPs need most.
- Prescheduled Support: When MSP technicians know they will be setting up a new user or going on-site to resolve an issue, they can preschedule an open case so that an Axcient tech is available and ready to help.
- Tech Escalation: If MSP techs are unsatisfied with the Axcient tech assigned to their ticket, they can escalate up to a T2 or T3 whenever they feel necessary to get the quality of support they expect.
“Axcient actually cares. With many other vendors, you are just a number to them. Axcient takes time to listen to their partners and clients, what they need and how they can improve.”
– Patrick O’Krogly, CIO at DataTrends Technology
See What Axcient Can Do For Your Techs
Give your technicians the gift of Axcient! Schedule a 1:1 demo or start your free 14-day trial now to get first-hand experience with the x360 solutions techs love. Schedule a 1:1 Demo or…
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