A partnership between global tech companies CT4 and Veeam Software is making data protection accessible and affordable for clients around the world.
Australian-headquartered CT4 is the developer of several data protection products including Cirrus for Microsoft 365, a solution powered by Veeam technology for automating the protection of information generated by applications in the popular Microsoft 365 platform.
According to Dan Pearson, Chief Technology Officer at CT4, partnering with Veeam provided the ideal solution for resellers and enterprises, facilitating the company’s global expansion.
“Our goal is to make data protection accessible and affordable for our customers,” Mr Pearson said.
“Our first endeavour was to provide a solution that made it easy to back up and restore Microsoft 365 data, combined with unlimited storage at an affordable price. For us, unlimited storage means a predictable spend with no surprises for our customers.”
CT4’s challenge was finding the right partner to support Cirrus, expand market visibility and broaden global distribution to reach the maximum number of customers across all industries and verticals.
For small and medium enterprises, that meant creating an affordable solution that would take frequent backups of their data and store them securely in a local Microsoft Azure storage account. Rapid recovery was a necessity, as well as flexible data retention based on needs and requirements.
“Microsoft 365 is one of the most leveraged sets of business tools in the world, so when enterprises protect their data, they’re protecting themselves from loss, corruption and compromise,’’ Mr Pearson said.
“They want peace of mind knowing their data is backed up, secured and easily recoverable from ransomware, accidental deletion or deliberate removal.”
For resellers, CT4 wanted to provide a cost-effective, quick-to-set-up BaaS solution with 24/7 support, enabling resellers to focus on their core business. They would reap all the benefits of offering comprehensive data protection without having to build, manage or operate a supporting infrastructure. Moreover, comprehensive data protection would be a simple add-on to customers’ licences.
“To provide the ideal solution, we partnered with Veeam to create Cirrus for Microsoft 365,” Mr Pearson said.
“As the global leader in backup, recovery and data management solutions, Veeam provides the enterprise scalability and reach to support our rapidly growing customer base of resellers and enterprises.
“We consider our solution to be an extension of Veeam because it provides a SaaS platform for resellers and enterprises to use globally. This is just the beginning of more Veeam-powered solutions.”
Alan Warmington, Director – Cloud and Service Provider Sales Australia and New Zealand for Veeam, said the furious pace of innovation made CT4 a logical choice.
“CT4 have actually been a Veeam partner since 2014, however it wasn’t until December 2020 that I sat down with Dan for breakfast and we started discussing the areas we viewed as high growth in the data protection space,’’ Mr Warmington said.
“Dan started sharing his research into the SaaS backup arena and we shared our thoughts on where the opportunities were. From that discussion, some two years later, with Dan’s drive and energy and CT4’s amazing execution, a phenomenal new partnership has formed, culminating with the release of Cirrus for Microsoft 365, powered by Veeam.
“The continuous innovation and the furious pace at which it is happening made CT4 a smart choice for us. CT4 have built more than a product or service, they have built a vision and a number of routes to market to ensure success of that vision, and they are thinking big - expanding into most parts of the globe. It’s extremely exciting to watch,’’ Mr Warmington said.
“Veeam has an amazing partner ecosystem globally; what Cirrus brings to the ecosystem is an extremely simple way of helping even more partners and customers access Veeam’s market-leading technology.
“Building their own channel program as well as integrating into Veeam’s existing channel ecosystem means customers can access the services quickly and through their preferred supplier,’’ he said.
CT4 has worked hard to broaden routes to market as well, making the global consumption of Veeam as easy as possible. Cirrus for Microsoft 365 is available via CT4’s website and in the Microsoft Azure and Ingram Micro marketplaces.
Mr Pearson said marketplaces offered additional accessibility, flexibility and reach.
“Being able to transact in each marketplace has enabled continual international expansion and allowed us to create special deals for resellers and enterprises.”
Mr Pearson said CT4 wasn’t done creating and that Cirrus was designed to be adaptive.
“We recognise that technologies are continually evolving, along with the ever-changing needs of our clients, so we’re developing new Veeam-powered offerings like Cirrus for Cloud Protect Azure, Cirrus for Cloud Protect AWS and Cirrus for Salesforce.
“Our vision is for Cirrus to be considered the only data protection solution for SaaS products globally. This is the cornerstone of our business and go-to market strategy, and Veeam is supporting us every step of the way.
“With Veeam, it’s all about the partnership. They’ve helped us deliver a simple, reliable and cost-effective SaaS product on a global scale,’’ Mr Pearson said.