Revolution Group Boosts Margins 10% After Consolidating BDR

Flexible deployment options in x360Recover support operational maturity for MSP-wide efficiency.

With Axcient’s comprehensive BCDR, Revolution Group is solving multiple use cases with one solution to reduce technician training time, bolster security and lower recurring costs for overall margin growth.

Outgrowing Multi-Vendor Stack Complexities

After many years of relying on StorageCraft ShadowProtect for backup, Revolution Group sought an alternative backup and disaster recovery (BDR) solution. Vince McCullum, the Project Team Manager for Technology Services at the MSP, explains why. “The problem with StorageCraft was that it required onsite and offsite storage solutions. But with the data security and insurance requirements that have blown up over the last couple of years, we wanted an up-to-date solution that was reliable, so we partnered with Axcient.”

Like many MSPs, Revolution Group was working with various providers to meet each customer’s unique needs. For large-budget customers with faster recovery time objective (RTO) expectations, Revolution Group used Datto appliances. For budget-conscious customers who didn’t need a server, they used ShadowProtect plus a small appliance for backup storage. On top of that, Revolution Group used Axcient to store ShadowProtect backup data. And finally, they used Cloudberry for file and folder backup.

While their complex stack was working, Revolution Group was maturing and needed to streamline vendor management to increase operational maturity. Furthermore, there was a security concern. The more vendors an MSP uses, the more exposure is at risk. Revolution Group needed a comprehensive business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) solution that would simplify backup without restricting services while, at the same time, delivering robust cybersecurity.

We had multiple backup platforms that we were trying to support between Datto [now Kaseya], StorageCraft [now Arcserve], Cloudberry, and Axcient. Now, Axcient has one solution for all of that – a very flexible and easy-to-sell product with an easy pricing model. – Vince McCullum, Project Team Consultant, Technology Services at Revolution Group

The Challenge

Balancing Vendors vs. Value

While their complex stack was working, Revolution Group was maturing and needed to streamline vendor management to increase operational maturity. Furthermore, there was a security concern. The more vendors an MSP uses, the more exposure is at risk. Revolution Group needed a comprehensive business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) solution that would simplify backup without restricting services while, at the same time, delivering robust cybersecurity.

We had to consolidate. We had multiple platforms, not to mention that were multiple aspects of the ShadowProtect engine when it came to local software management. Then we had a cloud management or shipping component. We took all of that down into a single install with one portal to manage everything. Now, it’s easy to get a full landscape view of all of our customers and the backups we have.

Vince McCullum, Project Team Manager, Technology Services at Revolution Group

The Solution

x360Recover Drives Stack Simplicity and Backup Confidence

Just as Revolution Group was outgrowing its multi-vendor stack, Axcient launched a hardware-free deployment option as part of the x360Recover BCDR solution. x360Recover with Direct-to-Cloud (D2C) allows MSPs to provide endpoint backup, no-hardware BDR, full-service BDR, and public or private cloud backup with just one solution and vendor. Vince says D2C was the driving force for Revolution Group to standardize on Axcient. He explains, “With D2C, you’re taking a cloud-first approach. First, you want to mitigate disasters and D2C makes that easy because you’re doing it in the cloud. You also have Local Cache – a local solution to make sure you can get up and running and improve RTO. The cloud-first approach also makes it super easy to talk to customers.”

D2C capabilities also simplified Revolution Group’s migration to Axcient. During a six-month span, they moved about 80 TB of data to Axcient. Describing the process, Vince says, “D2C deployment makes it very easy to get a solution in place in less than 30 minutes. I don’t have to worry about the customers’ storage or what their environment is like. As long as they have an internet connection, I can get a backup solution set up. That gives us so much flexibility in how we want to restore the content. Most of the time, I have it installed before I leave the customer site during onboarding.”

Revolution Group continues moving customers to Axcient based on existing customer contracts. As those contracts expire, Revolution Group explains the benefits of Axcient appliances – cost, vendor stability, and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) policies. The choice to standardize on Axcient also allows the MSP and their clients to avoid the typically unpleasant growing pains of recently acquired vendors.

D2C gives customers confidence because they know they have a backup solution in place without needing to buy hardware or having to get anything additional. We can take care of that later, but at least they have something running at all times. Later, we set up Local Cache after the fact for accelerated recovery.

Vince McCullum, Project Team Manager, Technology Services at Revolution Group

The Results

BCDR Consolidation Pays Off in More Ways Than One

Vince speaks about some of the improvements Revolution Group has experienced since consolidating its stack:

Flexibility:

“There are a lot of different methods for recovering from the Axcient platform. I love it. It’s amazing. The great part is, when a technician doesn’t know which path to take, we call into support, give them our scenario, and Axcient tells us what path to take. So the fact that we can rely on support at any point is amazing, and they’re good.”

Security:

“I have seen Axcient taking steps to make sure that the solutions are secure and meeting the needs of any potential customer. They are actively thinking about and regularly adding more wheels and cogs to make sure everything is secure.”

Support:

“Axcient support is great. All my team members have had great experiences with the support people. We had a disaster at 10 at night and had someone on the phone in less than five minutes who answered questions, listened, and supported us.”

Operations:

“Operational costs are hard to discern, but everyone on our executive team says the Axcient deployment was a success. It’s greatly improved operations from their standpoint. High efficiency across the board.”

Training:

“Now we’re not trying to train all our staff on a bunch of different types of products. Instead, we can train the majority on one product, and they really get to know it inside and out. Less training is required across multiple platforms and we don’t need to focus as much on our non-Axcient platforms from a training perspective.”

Administration:

“Accounting isn’t worried about working with four or five different vendors with different agreements and different contracts. Now we just have one contract for about 95% of our customer base, and it’s drastically improved pretty much every aspect of our financial departments.”

Functionality:

“Another great advantage with Axcient is the SSO [single sign-on] options, specifically with D2C for Azure. Once the account set up is done, it’s pretty easy to train engineers and technicians on how to get to the portal and get into the system.”

Where are They Now?

We’ve increased our margin by about 10%. Previously, ShadowProtect licensing and cloud licensing ate into our margin pretty badly, but when we consolidated into a single product with Axcient, we’ve seen that margin increase. Axcient costs us less money. – Vince McCullum, Project Team Manager, Technology Services at Revolution Group