BackupAssist introduces MSP program into North America

The BackupAssist-as-a-Service program for MSPs makes the Australian-headquartered company a much more forceful player in the North American MSP market.

Troy Vertigan, BackupAssist’s Vice President, Channel Sales and Marketing

Australia-headquartered BackupAssist formally launched its SMB- and Windows-focused backup and disaster recovery solution this year, along with a new Version 10 of their software. They are now reaching out to the MSP market in North America with their BackupAssist as a Service (BAaaS) program for MSPs. The program has been operating previously in APAC and Europe.

BackupAssist sells through a hybrid sales model, with half of North American sales and 75 per cent globally going through the channel, with the rest going through Website sales.

“We have two reseller channels – perpetual license and MSP,” said Troy Vertigan, BackupAssist’s Vice President, Channel Sales and Marketing. “The perpetual channel has been there since 2008, but the MSP channel is new. We noticed a significant move to subscription billing, and so we launched the BAaaS program this year. We see this as a revenue growth play because the feedback from both our channel and our own market research is that a lot of customers are moving from CAPEX to OPEX, and this lets them to pitch those customers on an OPEX basis.”

In North America, while most of BackupAssist’s partners are traditional resellers who sold the perpetual licenses to customers, they also had some traditional MSPs who were using the license system, and the new program better aligns with their business model.

“A number of our perpetual resellers have pivoted as well, and have been changing their model,” said Linus Chang, BackupAssist’s founder and CEO. “Some of our Gold resellers have signed up for the MSP program.”

Gold partners are the high level in BackupAssist’s two tier program for traditional resellers, Silver being the other, but the BAaaS program is structured very differently.

“The Perpetual program has those two levels, and there is a fee, with Silver having to pay for two licenses and Gold five, although this does become a credit,” Vertigan explained. “Gold partners also don’t have to pre-pay like Silver, and get NFR software. The vast majority of partners join as Gold. In the BAaaS program, there is no one tier. There is no cost to join. They also receive subscription pricing, which is not available to the other partners.”

BackupAssist subscription pricing starts from $15 USD per month. Cloud Backup starts from $10 USD per month.

“Cloud Backup is a standalone with no local on-prem backup,” Vertigan said. “For some types of partners, this is all they want.

Modular add-ons are also available. These include Hyper-V, at $15, Exchange at $10, SQL at $7.50 and Tape Backup, also at $7.50.

“Margins are large, and billing and payments are automated,” Vertigan said.

Pricing has always been a selling feature for BackupAssist when they position themselves against their competition. Their on-prem product is approximately half the cost of the major players in the space. Their positioning with this is that it provides a lower price point while still having SME grade features for the SMB space.

Vertigran said BackupAssist’s support is also a differentiator. Technical support is available pre- and post-deployment, while account managers help close deals. There is also special pricing for larger deals.

A Multi Site manager is free to MSPs, facilitating multi-site management across a LAN or WAN.