Why It’s Time to Standardize on One Storage and Backup Vendor

Your vendors provide essential tools, software, and services, but let’s face it—they can be a hassle. It’s not that any individual vendor is a problem, it’s that there can be so many. IT providers must develop solutions that map to a client’s needs and budgets. With so many options out there, the tools become the job. Juggling solutions can make it tough to get the most out of any one of them. This is particularly true when it comes to storing, backing up, and recovering data. Every MSP provides storage and backup for their clients. Many use different storage and backup solutions depending on the client. This leads to a rat’s nest of hardware boxes, management platforms, and cloud services. Meanwhile, the most profitable MSPs are simplifying and streamlining storage and backup by using one vendor instead of many. Let’s look at why this makes sense.

Skill-Building and Focus

Storage and backup solutions can be complex. Unlocking a solution’s potential is a matter of using it often, becoming certified, and understanding how new features impact your service offering. With so many solutions out there, it’s tough to get the most from any one, let alone a few. That’s why standardizing on one end-to-end storage and backup platform makes sense. By focusing on one platform your team gets more functionality and saves time in terms of setup, troubleshooting, and recovering data when they need to. Many partner programs include access to thorough on-site training that walks you through all the nuances of a platform so you can maximize its effectiveness.

Seamless Integration

Some MSPs struggle to ensure that production servers, storage appliances, clouds, and disaster recovery (DR) boxes play nice. It’s a bigger mess when you need to make sure data is compressed, deduplicated, encrypted, and—most importantly—recoverable. OneXafe Solo 300 is a great way to bring loads of functionality into one end-end-platform. One easy-to-deploy box gives you all of the following (and more) in a single, tightly integrated platform:

• Simple multi-site management and replication
• Seamless integration with cloud services
• Diverse recovery options (v2v, p2p, etc.)
• One-click virtual failover
• Data encryption

Partner Programs

By using one vendor instead of a few, you can maximize the partner incentives available to you. Volume discounts ensure that you’re maximizing profit margin. Co-branded marketing resources save you time while helping you sell more services. Dedicated account managers give you personalized attention to help you grow your business. The more business you do with a vendor, the more opportunities you can unlock. Why not focus on getting the best incentives from your best vendor?

Conclusion

While consolidating your vendor list has a bevy of benefits, it only makes sense if they offer features that fit your portfolio and growth trajectory. Take the time to evaluate the vendors you currently work with. Look for feature overlaps and gaps in what you’re already using. Then decide whether going all-in on one platform makes more sense. In most cases, you’ll find that standardizing will lead to more focus, functionality, and profit. Are you looking for ways to maximize the effectiveness and profitability of your storage and DRaaS offering? OneXafe Solo 300 makes it easy to give clients a massive amount of functionality with incredibly simple set-up.