OWN Off-Site Backup Experiences

We have a policy to try out any and all services that we are going to resell. This gives us a practical user based experience of the services.

Thus, we can have answers to the questions that our client’s users are bound to ask during their use of the services.

Here is what one of our directory’s upload speed is running at:

Note that our ADSL upload speed is currently around 1.0Mbit though our actual throughput is higher as the CO is a stone’s throw away.

Depending on the types of files being compressed and encrypted, the upload speed has jumped up as high as 8Mbit per second.

Since we have a long weekend here in Canada this coming up, seeding our off-site backup via upload will work just fine.

For our clients that may have a large amount of data to start off with, we can send a USB hard drive down to OWN to “seed” the backup. No additional fees apply to do so.

The backup client is fairly straight forward to operate, though we will be providing the initial backup agent configuration for our clients. The systems where the backup agent will run will have the users trained on its usage so that they can make changes to the backup folders and schedules if there is a need.

All in all, the service will provide peace of mind for our clients and us knowing that our data resides somewhere other than our building that may someday be toasted by fire, flood, or some crazy clown with a huge magnet. ;)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

Off-Site Backup Services with OWN

We have mentioned in the past how partnering up with OWN provides an excellent passive revenue stream for our company: An Opportunity for Passive Income with OWN.

As an OWN partner, we are slowly moving into reselling more of the services that OWN offers.

We are now in a position where Cloud storage is going to provide the best off-site backup solution for one of our clients in the immediate future. This client has multiple sites with a different market focus at each site. Two of those sites incorporate volumes of scans and images as part of their product and service offerings.

A loss of any data for those two sites would be absolutely devastating to them and the community they serve.

So, given the volume of data that needs essentially a static place to sit, along with the fact that multiple sites juggling multiple NAS units (we are talking huge volumes of data here) for their backup routines is essentially out of the question.

The cost of either wiring up direct cable or fibre connection between the sites, or even putting in a fibre connection in the main site with the branches using standard DSL or Cable Internet to upload to cannot be justified when compared to the cost of OWN hosting the data.

The OWN storage fees provide an excellent value for the product and service we will receive from OWN for the Off-Site Storage service.

This is the kind of partnership that gives us the best of both worlds:

1. We do the leg work to bring our clients onboard with the service. We get to charge a setup fee based on service configuration and also invoice monthly for the service thus providing a passive revenue stream for MPECS Inc. Our clients get a phenomenal service in the process.
2. Vlad and his crew get to do all of the exciting stuff keeping that data safe and available! ;)

Partnerships are the way to make sure we stick around folks! Finding good, honest, and upstanding corporate citizens to partner with is the future proofing foundation for our own company.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer