BluPointe DRS, an old hand in the storage cloud market, is making a fresh start with its Monday introduction of a new cloud backup solution for businesses.
BluPointe's new cloud-based backup solution is targeted at solution providers looking for a fast way to get customers' data on a storage cloud with both local and remote protection of the data, said Ron Roberts, CEO of the Atlanta-based company, which has been providing online data protection technology for nine years.
The solution was designed to get customers on the cloud in only five to seven minutes, Roberts said.
"The VAR signs up with us, and registers the opportunity," he said. "We give them a Web portal, which is their account. They can just download the software to the client, set it up, and start backing up data."
BluPointe's software can be loaded onto any physical or virtual Windows-based server to build either a local storage cloud, one that is based in a remote location, or both, Roberts said. It provides security and data integrity by encrypting the data during transit and while in the customer's vault, and gives customers instant access from anywhere along with full reporting. Also included are e-mail message-level archiving, and the ability to work with most common applications such as Exchange, SQL, SharePoint, and Oracle.
While BluPointe counts several managed service providers among its partners, the software is especially suited to more traditional solution providers, Roberts said.
Data can be stored locally at the customer site, in a solution provider's data center, or remotely, in a very simple fashion, Roberts said. "This gives the reseller the chance to sell a solution, including his own storage and servers," he said. "We help them build private clouds for customers."
Working with BluPointe channel partners, customers can get a private storage cloud starting for under $7,000 for a system with 2 TBs to 4 TBs in capacity. Yearly maintenance starts at $1,500 for such a system, and decreases every year after that. This includes unlimited agents for any customer end-user devices, Roberts said. For a low-cost disaster recovery solution, customers could purchase a second license.
Roberts estimated that such a solution with three years of maintenance will result in a cost of about 8 cents per GB per month.
BluPoint DRS in the past was the developer of the Robobak suite of network-based data protection software for the remote office and branch office data protection market. Robobak was eventually sold to an Ontario, Canada-based company, VisionWorks Solutions, Roberts said.
