Predictable Cloud Billing: A Game Changer for How MSPs and Their Customers Look at Cloud Backup

By Datto Guest Blog 2

Most of your customers don’t know the difference between a gigabyte (GB) and a terabyte (TB).  And, chances are, they don’t want to. What they do want to know is why their cloud storage bill is in constant fluctuation—a call I’m sure you welcome every month (not).

Research has shown that businesses would turn to the cloud more readily if cloud pricing was easier to understand and billing was more predictable. In fact, 38% of businesses say public cloud pricing is difficult to understand and 43% want more transparent pricing. So how do you balance that with the knowledge that a cloud-based backup approach is the best for your client, whether hybrid or virtual?

Predictable Model

What if you could set up a predictable model for cloud billing? What if both you, and your clients, could know exactly what the cost would be each month?

Predictable cloud billing can be accomplished with Time-Based Cloud Retention (TBDR). With TBCR, cloud storage is based on time frames vs. trying to estimate how many gigabytes a customer may need. Storage options are available in one, three or seven-year options. It doesn’t get much easier, or more predictable.

Eric Torres, an Elite Datto Partner with River Run Computers in Milwaukee, Wisc., utilizes Time-Based Cloud Retention, saying, “We can now offer customers a fully predictable cost on top of a fully predictable result. There are also no ‘hidden costs’ on our end—so pricing and billing is as simple as it can be.”

Cloud Acceptance

Did you know that your clients are more likely to buy a cloud-based solution when a fixed pricing model is included? Eliminating a point of struggle or misunderstanding in data backup and storage in the cloud gets your client one step closer to cloud acceptance. As a result, you can shorten the sales cycle, add more recurring revenue to your bottom line and protect more of your customers from the risks of business interruption.

Learn more about Time-Based Cloud Retention in a new Executive Brief from Datto.

Holly Wainwright is Director of Marketing at Datto. Datto Inc. is an award-winning vendor of backup, data recovery (BDR) and intelligent business continuity (IBC) solutions, providing  technology and support to more than 5,000 channel Partners throughout North America and Europe. Datto’s hybrid-cloud BDR/IBC technology provides instant on- and off-site virtualization of servers and workstations, serving the needs of small to medium-sized businesses.