Data Security Automation Delivers Proactive, Human-Friendly Backup
As the economic climate changes worldwide, businesses across industries attempt to prepare for what might come next. A recent survey of MSPs revealed that a central focus for surviving the future is maintaining a high-performing workforce. The survey also highlights cost-cutting and operational maturity as principal business priorities. Luckily for MSPs, with data security automation and a focus on human-friendly backup, they can accomplish their goals while riding whatever waves come next.
In homage to this year’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month theme – “See Yourself in Cyber” – we’re seeing ourselves in our technicians to help MSPs win talent, increase efficiency, and lower total cost of ownership (TCO). It’s not all about high salaries and big benefit packages. Today’s employees assess their professional lives from a personal perspective, and with Axcient’s x360Recover BDR solution and AutoVerify feature, MSPs can give them just what they want.
In this article…
- Take a sneak peek at some of the latest MSP survey results from Axcient and Channelnomics to gauge the current state of the channel.
- Understand the connection between ease of management, data security automation, and technician retention to foster long-term relationships with talent.
- See how Axcient x360Recover and AutoVerify deliver human-friendly business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) for MSPs, their SMB clients, and their technicians.
Table of Contents
What Do MSPs Want? Low Costs, High Efficiency, and Loyal Talent
In September 2022, Axcient and Channelnomics surveyed over 300 MSPs about their BDR and business continuity needs and the overall state of their business. The results highlight three critical takeaways:
1. Cost controls are more important than profitability.
This is not to say that MSPs don’t want to increase their profits; all businesses do. However, MSPs understand the impact of cost-cutting on their bottom line. This isn’t surprising among 40-year high inflation, rising interest rates, and increasing wage expansion. The cost of doing business is significantly more expensive, and MSPs are trying to offset the surge. To do so, MSPs must choose the right BCDR vendor, take advantage of data security automation features, and keep technicians happy to maintain operational overhead.
2. Solution efficiency for higher operational maturity is a top priority.
Almost half of the survey participants say they prefer a consolidated platform for delivering managed services, and most MSPs report valuing performance over all other considerations. Despite knowing what they want, 36% of respondents say their current stack is inefficient. An almost equal amount of MSPs say they can’t replace their current stack due to a lack of viable options in the channel. And the three things MSPs want most from vendors to improve efficiency are:
- Competitive or flexible month-to-month licensing terms
- Free or low-cost training
- Superior technology performance
Replacing inefficient systems is cited as the best way to optimize and the most important action for success amid a bad economy. So, based on that, MSPs are on the right track with knowing what they want – i.e., high-performance, efficient, and consolidated BDR with ample training. However, only 14% of survey participants are attempting to automate and streamline processes.
3. Retaining talent is both harder and more important than hiring new employees.
The tech skills gap and the Great Resignation have plagued MSPs long before quiet quitting and quiet firing were even a thing, so MSPs are no strangers to labor challenges. What’s noteworthy about how survey participants are responding is they’re shifting their focus from finding new talent to retaining the talent they have. One-quarter of survey respondents say they are investing in staff retention. Unfortunately for MSPs, in this market, retention is difficult.
“Research indicates that most people who switch jobs are increasing their real earnings versus people who stay at their current job. On top of that, “Roughly one-in-five workers say they are very or somewhat likely to look for a new job in the next six months, but only about a third of these workers think it would be easy to find one.”
-PEW RESEARCH CENTER
The One-Two Punch: Data Security Automation and Vendor Consolidation
MSPs can have exactly what they need and want to thrive in the unknown future with controlled costs and happy employees. The answer is data security automation. Data security automation leverages innovations that allow MSPs to consolidate on an all-in-one BCDR solution. These innovations empower technicians with hands-free features that enable them to deliver the rapid and reliable recovery you promise clients. Without tedious and time-consuming manual tasks, technicians are free to add value for your clients by improving their understanding of the solution and building on its capabilities.
When you standardize on a BCDR solution that capitalizes on data security automation, you can hire lower-skilled workers because the solution increases ease of use and management. Technicians are happy because too many solutions and inefficient technology do not bog them down. MSPs are happy because costs are reduced. And clients are happy because they feel protected and confident in their business continuity. This dynamic creates a circle of efficiency that directly addresses MSP pain points so they can control costs, achieve higher operational maturity, and retain technicians.
Comprehensive BCDR with x360Recover and AutoVerify
As a 100% MSP-only solution provider, Axcient is delivering for the channel. Axcient x360Recover satisfies multiple BCDR use cases – including appliance and cloud-based deployments for endpoint backup, no hardware BDR, full-service BDR, and public or private cloud backup. This all-in-one foundation allows you to consolidate your stack and standardize on the x360 Platform for BCDR, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace backup, and file sync and share (FSS).
AutoVerify is one of Axcient’s patented data security automation features that help MSPs reduce costs, empower techs, and increase efficiency. It automatically and intelligently tests your backup integrity, verifies the backup data on the protected system, and ensures the quality and recoverability of backups. Doing so removes the time and manual intervention typically required to verify backups. With support alerting and escalation rules, MSPs determine when, how, and who is notified of potential issues. If everything looks secure, safe, and recoverable, your x360 Portal dashboard will prove it for backup confidence, peace of mind, and sleep-filled nights.
“Whenever AutoVerify says that it will start, it starts – so that’s a huge component from a time-saving point. …[AutoVerify] is going to save my guy 20 to 30 hours a quarter…That’s another savings.”
-PHILLIP LONG, FOUNDER, AND CEO AT BUSINESS INFORMATION SOLUTIONS AND AXCIENT PARTNER
5 Ways AutoVerify Helps MSPs Reduce Costs and Increase Security
Automation reduces costs by eliminating the manpower necessary to complete a specific task. In addition to this one obvious result of modern innovation, AutoVerify also helps MSPs in the following ways:
- Proactive alerts and notifications flag issues at the source production server level so you can address them in the production environment before backups even begin. Without this forward-thinking technology, detecting problems during recovery could be catastrophic.
- Holistic reporting ensures that all protected systems are preserved with backup snapshot status, boot VM checks, and results from the latest data encryption test. This easily accessible aggregate health status information lets you sleep soundly without fearing “backup burn,” backup corruption, or unrestorable backups.
- Escalation rules let you determine when techs need to be made aware of an issue so that notifications guide techs, not fear. Other vendors do offer solutions said to trigger certain tests or workflows, but they’re vulnerable to mistakes when the solution is initially configured or a new protection server is added. AutoVerify, however, is built-in to x360Recover, so it tests everything it can, every time.
- Eliminates the risks of human error by automatically virtualizing the latest backup recovery point daily for each system. This is huge not just for cost-cutting but also for increasing security. Automated integrity checks ensure that the database is mountable and capable of granular recovery.
- Technicians love it because it eliminates the daily, tedious, and time-consuming task of manually verifying backups and fixing issues during recovery failover. Instead, automatic issue detection and alerting, escalation rules, and proactively addressing backup consistency issues contribute to innovation in SLA-based alerting and RTO insurance, deeper PSA integration, focus on business growth, and, overall, lower total cost of ownership.
Learn More About AutoVerify and the Benefits of Data Security Automation
Are you wasting technician time and patience with legacy BDR solutions? What’s the cost – in time, resources, tech frustration, and backup failures – of relying on antiquated manual operations? How much could you save by eliminating these costs and leveraging modern technology?
Compare your current solution with the data security automation benefits of AutoVerify to ready your MSP for the future. Share this information with your techs to see how they can improve operations to reduce costs and grow your bottom line.
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8 Tips for Optimizing Your Disaster Recovery Strategy
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Take a deep dive into Axcient’s proprietary, automated security features to see how we’re ensuring uninterrupted business continuity — no matter what:
