Carbonite Revamps Cloud Offerings, Plans Backup Appliance

Cloud backup provider Carbonite (CARB) is streamlining its lineup of services offerings to better meet the needs of its solution provider partners and their customers.


The company is doing away with its current five-plan menu of services and is now categorizing its plans into three core areas: Personal, Pro and Server, said David Hauser, senior director at Carbonite. The move coincides with what the market needs and how the market is purchasing new cloud services, he noted.

“What we found out with our current structure is people have different needs—some SOHOs have a personal need for backup, while some just want to do servers,” he said. “These better align with what the market is asking for.”

The Personal plan mirrors the current Home offering, with plans ranging from $59.99 to $149.99 list price for one PC or Mac. The Pro plans, meanwhile, now target businesses and start at $269.99 per year for as many PCs or Macs as a company needs to back up. Higher-priced offerings in the Pro plan include backup for Windows File Servers and up to 500GB of storage.

The third plan, Server, starts at $799.99 list and comes with 250GB of backup, which can be cloud-based or on-premises, Hauser said. “Live apps, open databases … all of that can be backed up.”

The Server Plus bundle comes with 500GB of backup, while the Server Pro Bundle also includes endpoint protection. All plans, Hauser said, are HIPAA-compliant.

“All Server plans and Pro plans allow an unlimited number of endpoints you can back up,” he noted. “You can have as many data sets as want. If you need to buy more storage, it’s $99.99 per year for 100GB.”

The company is also introducing Sync&Share functionality, which automatically and securely syncs files across a network using 256-bit encryption, giving users the ability to access the most up-to-date version of a file on any device, as well as roll back to earlier versions of a file if necessary.

“With Sync&Share, there is no dragging, dropping, removing or remembering—all your files are up to date,” Hauser said.

Finally, Carbonite plans to bring to market a backup appliance offered only through its solution provider partners. “It’s a device we would lease to the customer for $99.99 per month, and as we move forward we will have more flavors,” Hauser said. The first iteration will offer bare metal backup, 500GB storage in the cloud and 1TB on the box.

All pricing is list, Hauser noted, and partners receive discounts of 15 percent to 25 percent depending on their level of engagement with Carbonite. “From a transactional perspective, our partners can charge customers whatever they want to, plus they can bundle it with different services, maintenance, installation—all that goes right to their margin,” he said.

The new plans are available as of Jan. 8, according to the company, and the appliance is slated for availability by the end of the current quarter. 

“Now we have different solutions that meet the needs of our customers—and our partners—at attractive price points,” Hauser said.