Kaseya backup takes on Office 365 with Spanning's help
Kaseya Office 365 Backup is integrated deeply with the vendor's remote monitoring and management software. Spanning's cloud-to-cloud technology provides the muscle behind it.
IT management software provider Kaseya moved into software-as-a-service backup this week with protection for Office 365 powered by Spanning.
Kaseya Office 365 Backup, geared toward managed service providers (MSPs) and midmarket enterprises (MMEs), is the result of an OEM partnership with Spanning Cloud Apps.
The Kaseya backup product protects email, calendars, OneDrive and SharePoint, said Frank Tisellano, vice president of product management and design. Cloud-to-cloud backup has gained traction in recent years, as organizations seek more comprehensive backup for Office 365, particularly for data lost through user error. Office 365 data is created in the cloud, and Microsoft offers limited backup.
"It gives MSPs a way to start taking control back of Office 365," Tisellano said of the Kaseya backup offering.
Kaseya Office 365 Backup provides Office 365 data protection through an integrated module within Kaseya VSA remote monitoring and management (RMM) software. The integration enables MSPs to centrally manage and monitor Spanning Backup for Office 365 for their customers.
'Best in the business' for Office 365 backup
Frank Tisellano
Kaseya jumped to Office 365 backup because a lot of the vendor's customers are in the Microsoft camp, Tisellano said. Eighty-seven percent of Kaseya MSP customers provide Office 365 services, according to the vendor.
Spanning is one of the leaders in the Office 365 backup market.
"They're the best in the business," Tisellano said.
Mat Hamlin, vice president of products at Spanning, based in Austin, Texas, said the partnership helps his company increase its user base.
"The partnership allows Spanning to quickly expand our offerings to the growing SMB and MME markets through Kaseya," Hamlin wrote in an email. "And it enables tens of thousands of Kaseya MSPs and midmarket IT professionals to easily protect and secure their customers' critical data in Office 365."
The Kaseya backup option marks the first time Office 365 protection is integrated this deeply in RMM software, Tisellano said.
"It's one of the simplest integrations we've ever done," he said.
Though Kaseya backup for Office 365 is also available on its own, Tisellano recommended using it as part of VSA.
It is 100% cloud-to-cloud, so there is no software to download and no servers to set up for installation, Tisellano said.
Other vendors offering Office 365 backup include Datto Backupify, Barracuda, Asigra, Druva and Acronis.
Kaseya, Spanning look ahead
Kaseya envisions more partnerships in its backup line. If Kaseya engineers can build best-in-class software, they'll do it. But when it's too costly and time-consuming, the vendor seeks partnerships, Tisellano said.
Though Spanning has a reseller relationship with Dell EMC and a reseller agreement with Unitrends, the Kaseya backup collaboration is unique.
It gives MSPs a way to start taking control back of Office 365.
Frank Tisellanovice president of product management and design, Kaseya
"It's the first partnership where we've specifically invested to deliver an integrated solution with another technology provider," Hamlin wrote.
Spanning also provides backup for G Suite and Salesforce. Though Kaseya does not have specific plans for adding platforms, Tisellano said expansion is a possibility.
"There is a very high rate of adoption of Office 365 within Kaseya's customer base, which is why we've focused on this partnership," Hamlin wrote. "Many of their customers, however, also use G Suite, Salesforce and other SaaS applications, so I anticipate the partnership will continue to grow as we work together to ensure all of their customers' critical SaaS data can be protected.
"Everybody loses data at some time, but there's no reason data loss has to be a disaster."
Customers at Kaseya's user conference, Kaseya Connect, in May will get a first look at the product. The vendor will likely release a beta version after the conference and anticipates general availability in the second half of 2018.
Pricing information is not available yet.
Kaseya also offers cloud backup powered by Acronis and physical backup with technology from Unitrends.
Frank Tisellano
