Backup as a Service (BaaS)

Backup operations are an essential yet increasingly time consuming and expensive activity for the mid-sized and large organisation. As data volumes continue to grow and users demand shorter backup windows and better recovery objectives, controlling costs and service levels is becoming more challenging.

BaaS is a flexible out-tasking solution for the enterprise backup and recovery environment designed to control costs and improve service levels. Backup data remains in-house but we use enterprise-class backup software and advanced management tools from IBM and EMC and a team of backup and recovery experts to administer operations remotely.

Typically BaaS delivers a 20% reduction in backup software and administration costs over 3 years. Pricing is based on the capacity of protected data and has a price point substantially lower than on-line outsourced backup solutions.

Flexible Service Options:-

• Fully managed service where we take full responsibility for backup operations
• Monitored service where your operations team still have some involvement
• Reporting service where we provide a wide range of alerts and reports to assist your service team

Both options are designed to reduce administration hours and improve service levels. Our service delivery expertise is based on ten years experience delivering and installing enterprise-class backup and recovery solutions to mid-sized and large organisations across the UK and Holland.

Service Levels & Capacity Planning Capacity Based Software Licensing Existing Hardware infrastructure Service Options BaaS Pricing & ROI References Common Customer Concerns BaaS Features and Benefits - At a Glance

Service Levels & Capacity Planning
BaaS delivers differentiated tiers of data protection via a customer defined Service Catalogue. This enables multiple service levels that reflect the relative importance of the data to the business and reduced costs by avoiding excessive backup or retention policies for non-critical data.

A key element of BaaS is regular capacity planning to help manage the volume of protected data.
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Capacity Based Software Licensing
The Backup software used for BaaS is enterprise-class and priced on the capacity of protected data. This differs from existing pricing models which are based on server core count and backup functionality. Many mid-sized and large organisations avoid using advanced backup functions such as database agents and SAN-based backups because of the additional cost of the software. Software costs are likely to increase further as the growth in server virtualisation is prompting software vendors to re-think their pricing models.

The capacity based model enables the user to select from a range of backup agents to deliver the required service levels, all at a single price per terabyte.

Both the backup and management software pricing reflects heavy discounting arising from Tectrade’s volume purchasing of licences across our entire support base.
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Existing Hardware infrastructure
If BaaS is being considered as part of an infrastructure refresh then Tectrade can advise on the hardware that will deliver the required Service Catalogue and meet the forecast data growth. Alternatively, BaaS can typically reuse existing tape libraries or disk-based data deduplication devices.

If required, we can incorporate backup hardware and maintenenace into the BaaS pricing.
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Service Options - Managed Service
The managed service option delivers best practice administration and reporting on your backup environment. Our service currently delivers 99% backup success on Tier 1 servers and we currently provide support for 10,000 servers across all tiers. Backup success is defined at the individual file level. Many organisations have backup success rates in the range of 80% to 90% but these rates often apply to server backup success do not necessarily include missed or skipped files. Whilst these are typically non-critical files and can be excluded, it is essential that these files are subject to regular review and reported on.

We have access to individual backup clients and identify and resolve issues without customer involvement (unless the resolution requires access to restricted areas). Our managed service option will reduce your backup administration costs by up to 100%.

The key to both our managed and monitored services is Tectrade’s experience of over 10 years of installing and supporting large backup and storage environments.

Service Options - Monitored Service
The backup software used for BaaS is Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) and for organisations with skills in this software we offer a monitored service option. Under this option, we provide 24 x 7 monitoring and reporting but incident resolution remains the responsibility of the customer. Typically, we are able to reduce administration time by up to 75% and deliver significant improvements in service levels.
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Service Options - Reporting Service
This is an entry level service that delivers Tectrade’s BackupCare and BackupReport as part of a BaaS capacity model. Tectrade have collaborated with EMC on the development of their data protector management software to assist mid sized and large organisations improve the management of their backup environment. The reporting service collects information from the backup environment and presents key information back to the operations team that helps reduce administration time and improve service levels. The service also provides a wide range of reports for management and compliance purposes.

The reporting service is primarily designed for organisations that wish to retain operational control of their backup environment but are looking for improved visibility of their environment and access to operational support to assist with incident resolution. Users of this service can upgrade to the monitored and managed options if they want to further reduce backup administration time and deliver further improvements in service levels.
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BaaS Pricing & Return on Investment
We combine capacity based software pricing with our managed or monitored service options, including any migration costs, and calculate a fixed price per terabyte or gigabyte to deliver an agreed amount of backup data capacity for a period of 36 months. The capacity is based on the estimated data growth over 3 years. Charges are payable annually in advance.

We include a ROI report together with a BaaS proposal. We are also able to deliver a detailed Backup TCO study where we review and report on the current costs of running your backup environment and service delivery.
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References
We have references covering both the public and private sectors and across a range of industries.
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