Datto Beats Backup Blues

Company:

Headquarters: Wilton, Conn.

Technology Sector: Storage

Key Product: Viridian

Year Founded: 2007

Number of Channel Partners: 200 worldwide

Ideal Channel Partner: Small business-focused solution providers

Why You Should Care: Datto makes Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices for onsite or offsite backup and recovery. The two-year old company already has 200 channel partners and customers in more than 40 states and Canada.

The Lowdown: Data storage vendor Datto started out in the consumer market, but now focuses on SMBs and MSPs, although it occasionally works with enterprise clients.

The company's product lines include the Datto G Series and Z Series NAS devices, as well as its' new Viridian backup line, launched on March 30, and it operates multiple redundant encrypted servers at data centers in Wilton, Conn., and in Los Angeles in support of its data backup and disaster recovery products.

Its latest offering, Viridian, provides onsite and off-site virtualization, as well as daily off-site snapshots that allow access to previous data versions for up to one year, even if the files have been deleted from local devices.

The Viridian series is programmed in-house and uses Sun Microsystems VirtualBox technology for pre-configured virtual machines that are ready to be used. Each Viridian device is capable of backing up an unlimited number of servers, and can virtualize up to four failed servers simultaneously, depending on the model, the company says.

While virtualization is a hot technology, Katie Braband, the company's sales director, said that when Datto started up, it had no intention of getting into the space. However, it looks like the strategy to jump in is working: April was the company's best month ever, Braband said.

Datto offers white-label products to its channel partners, enabling them to brand systems under their own names. The partner program also includes product discounts, a portal, and the ability to consult directly with the company's engineering and tech support teams.

Although Datto has partners across the U.S., Braband said the company has a "surprising" number of resellers in Canada as well.

"We got lucky," she said. "We found influential players in the channel."

The relatively unknown company was also able to get a lot of attention through business networking Web sites, said Braband.

"We were mentioned in a lot of blogs and user groups which generated a lot of Internet traffic," she said.

Looks like the power of Web 2.0 has paid off.