The ability for an enterprise to automate the local, as well as offsite backup software and data protection process can be an extremely beneficial, even critical component to success. How does the cloud fit in? What is the importance of data backup?

NovaStor, a leading international provider of software solutions for data protection and availability, provides software, SaaS (News - Alert) solutions and services for local and online backup, restore and retention of business-critical data. The company’s cost-effective solutions are platform- and hardware-independent and ensure that optimal technological and economical use is gained from the customer’s existing and future IT environment.

I had the pleasure to sit down with Mike Andrews, NovaStor’s managing director, at TMCnet’s recent Editorial Event in San Jose to discuss NovaStor’s current position in the marketplace, as well as its upcoming plans.

TMC (News - Alert) CEO Rich Tehrani also had the chance to speak with Andrews. The complete video interview follows the article.

TMC: Describe NovaStor’s target audience?

MA: NovaStor targets its solutions for SMBs and high level enterprise customers. We also focus immensely on our channel of professional MSPs, IT resellers and distributors.

TMC: What product or service do you find most successful with your customers?

MA: Our cloud platforms, NovaBACKUP xSP (for a public cloud infrastructure) and NovaBACKUP Remote Workforce (for a private cloud infrastructure with remote installations) are both very successful. Our xSP product has become especially popular because it not only allows service providers to backup their online storage, but it also enables them to offer this as a service to their customers, giving them a unique advantage over other cloud platforms. In addition, our enterprise solution, NovaBACKUP DataCenter has shown immense growth in the past year due to its scalability and ability to handle increasing data loads, not to mention its affordability.

TMC: What are your customers saying?

MA: We’ve received great feedback, especially in regards to our cloud and enterprise solutions. We have large reference accounts that have shared their high satisfaction with not only our software, but also their contentment with us a business partner. They commend our software for its ease of use, reliability and affordability and also appreciate the dedication and support we provide as a partner. One of our customers (Fasthosts (News - Alert), one of the UK’s largest web hosting companies) just recently shared their insights on using NovaBACKUP and our partnership with them in a video. (Click here to see the video).  

TMC: What are the main challenges you face in the industry today?

MA: This is a very large industry so one challenge lies in brand recognition. NovaStor has been around a long time. We have a lot of great reference accounts, but breaking into new accounts sometimes provides a challenge for us. Although, once we do get our software into the right hands, we can actually show off the great products we do have and take over in this area. 

TMC: What makes you stand apart from your competitors?

MA: At NovaStor, we abide by three principles: Easy to do business with us, offer simple pricing, and be different. When it comes to pricing, we ask customers one question and one question only – how many servers do you have? Everything else is all inclusive. This makes things easier for our end users and confirms our principal of being easy to do business with. In addition, we truly feel that NovaStor has one of the most reliable enterprise backup software products on the market. There are not many other vendors who can say they have installations with over 12 petabytes of monthly backup volume, more than 10,000 servers managed from a central management tool, and a failure rate of less than 0.01%, but we are one of the very few who can say that. This is our advantage.

TMC: What trends do you see happening in the industry today?

MA: Data backup is a huge business segment and is growing very fast (roughly 5 percent to 7 percent per year). We see that data is constantly growing, backup windows are becoming smaller, and the trend to outsource entire IT infrastructures to managed service providers is increasing. In addition, the cloud trend is huge right now, thus, we’ll continue to see the online storage and backup markets take off.

TMC: What can we look forward to from you in next year?

MA: Our software currently supports several heterogeneous environments, but we’re in the works of developing our software to support mobile operating devices, tablets, etc. We’re always adapting and updating our products to support that latest technology. On the business side of things, we’ll continue to expand our global channel and partnership base.

TMC: How do you deal with the “growing pains” every company inevitably faces?

MA: NovaStor has millions of licenses deployed all over the world. We’ve been around a long time and know this industry well. We’re 100 percent confident in our products and our business strategies. If anything, we always do our very best to listen closely to our partners and customers’ feedback in order to offer them the best SMB and enterprise backup solutions on the market and to keep them happy.

TMC: How much importance do you place on “customer service?” How do you fulfill that responsibility?

MA: We place immense importance on customer service and satisfaction. We listen closely to our partners and customers’ feedback. We fulfill this by providing local technical and customer support, which assures our customers that we are easily reachable, accessible and willing to help them with any issue or concern they may have.

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