Make Money with Managed Backup the GFI Way

GFI MAX is the MSP supply arm of GFI Software, and MAX is known for its mad remote monitoring and management (RMM) and VIPRE security software.

Now there is a brand new tool that integrates with the MAX lineup – GFI MAX Backup.

GFI MAX, while it can work in conjunction with GFI’s RemoteManagement RMM tool, is also now available to MSPs as a pure standalone product.

So where did the cloud backup offering come from? Just last month GFI bought IASO, a Dutch backup software and service company with whom it was already partnered.

Under this prior arrangement, many GFI MSPs simply added backup services to their RMM installations. Now, MSPs who don’t use the RMM can make some cash from backup services as well.

“Cloud-based backup is a natural addition to the portfolio of services that MSPs provide their customers,” said Dr. Alistair Forbes, general manager of the GFI MAX Business Unit, in a statement. “GFI MAX Backup removes the stress and hassle from on-premise backup solutions that require media handling to provide the off-site storage capability necessary for security and regulatory compliance and allows MSPs to increase their revenue by providing competitively-priced, highly-efficient, encrypted backup at a time when more and more customers look to adopt cloud services.”

GFI bought IASO after carrying its software for the past year. “We have been using IASO’s technology in GFI MAX RemoteManagement for over a year and it has been a great success with our customers. Acquiring IASO’s technology provides us with a huge opportunity to expand this side of our business, target new opportunities in the MSP community and among businesses that want to reduce the technical and logistical overhead of backup and benefit from the fastest cloud based restore available,” said Walter Scott, CEO at GFI Software last month.

Here’s what GFI thinks makes GFI MAX Backup stand out:

• Flexible deployment - backup individual servers and workstations or all devices at the client level
• Get going in minutes - quick to install and straight forward to configure. Free, secure seed loading to import your existing data.
• Automatically backup multiple data types in the vloud - files and folders, system state, network shares, Exchange information stores, SQL databases, Oracle, Sharepoint, virtual machine backups using VMware and Hyper-V snapshots
• Low bandwidth load - the True Delta Technology reduces backup volume. Intelligent, incremental backups only include block-level changes so you only back up the part of the file that has changed, not the whole of every changed document each time.
• Military Grade Security - Encrypted transmission and encrypted offsite storage to protect your customers' business data (128-bit AES, 256-bit AES -- Blowfish 448-bit encryption using webdav over SSL).
• Lightning fast - backup and easy file recovery with our Local SpeedVault
• User File Recovery - Virtual Drive Technology replicates the user's file structure so they can self-serve file restores straight from their desktop.
• Infinitely scalable - backup large volumes of data and the storage infrastructure will grow as required.
• Multi-platform support - Windows, MAC OSX, and Linux

Time to Toss that Tape

GFI MAX hopes to make a few bucks for its MSPs and at the same time help out IT shops that are stuck in the backup past – the sticky world of tape.

“While the industry retains a strong attachment to tape backups as the conventional medium to use, GFI MAX believes that best practice in data protection can best be delivered using the Disk-to-Disk-to-Cloud (D2D2C) or hybrid approach. The technologies in GFI MAX Backup, including the unique True Delta and Local SpeedVault, deliver this hybrid approach, meaning that not only are backups and restores ultra-fast but also that the data is secure and available at the touch of a button, whenever and wherever it is required,” the company argued.

With this approach, your file server or primary storage is backed up to on-premises to a disk and also to the cloud. Tape has no place in this vastly easier and more reliable arrangement.

 “We believe strongly that best backup practice follows the Disk-to-Disk-to-Cloud (D2D2C) or hybrid approach. The unique True Delta and Local Speed Vault technologies developed by IASO enable MSPs and businesses to follow this best practice, benefit from ultra-fast online backups and remain confident that their data is secure and available at the touch of a button, when they need it,” said Scott.