Veeam: Backup Critical for Microsoft Office 365

(Pictured above: Veeam’s Jeanne Krull leads a session at VeeamOn Partner Summit in Chicago, May 15, 2018.)

VEEAMON PARTNER SUMMIT — You might be surprised to learn that more than three in four (76 percent) Microsoft Office 365 users don’t backup their data. About half rely on Microsoft’s infrastructure-level redundancy – even their recycle bins – to do the job. The other half say that they have plans to implement a backup solution. That’s a lot of opportunity for partners.

The 100 partners attending the No Naked O365 session at VeeamOn 2018 in Chicago on Tuesday learned about these Veeam survey stats, as well as how to make the case for backup with existing or new customers.

As Jeanne Krull, Veeam Backup for O365 business unit leader said, when it comes to data, “You own it, you protect it.”

Unfortunately, many businesses haven’t gotten the memo. It’s surprising that a lot of companies don’t realize that Microsoft O365 has a shared responsibility model which puts data-backup responsibility in the customer column.

A quick look at the O365 market reveals that there are about 140 million monthly users globally. When Veeam launched its O365 backup product in 2016, there were 80 million monthly users, and per Krull, the market continues to grow at about 20 percent annually. By 2020, about 65 percent of O365 users are expected to have a third-party backup solution in place.

“That leaves 35 percent of users, or millions, … who represent a big opportunity for us in the room,” she said.

Veeam reports that about 25,000 organizations have downloaded Veeam Backup for Office 365.

One other piece of info for partners is that Microsoft O365 dominates Google in the enterprise, but not so much for companies with 250 employees or fewer. In this segment, O365 only has a slight edge over Google.

Many customers think that Microsoft backs up their data. Not so.

Jeanne Krull

Jeanne Krull

“It’s messy,” said Krull.

To keep things simple, Microsoft backs up O365 in its data centers but it does so for its own purposes, such as for uptime and to make sure that the cloud service is available. That process is data replication. The customer reality is that Microsoft takes care of the infrastructure but the data remains the customer’s responsibility. Protection and long-term retention of data are the customer’s responsibility.

Partners need to have a conversation with customers about Microsoft’s O365 shared responsibility model. It goes something like this: Microsoft’s responsibility is Microsoft’s global infrastructure. Your responsibility [customer] is your office and protecting your data that resides in Office 365.

When customers fail to back up their Office 365 data, they have: limited access and control of their data; retention policy gaps and data loss dangers; security vulnerabilities; and regulatory exposure.

“Educate your customers on why they need Office 365 backup. It’s about the integrity of the data,” said Krull.

She also stressed that recovery is what the customer needs for continuity — not archive.

“Backup is easy; it’s recovery that’s hard, yet critical, for business continuity.”

Businesses across vertical markets need backup. For example, in the education market, there’s been a huge rise in ransomware. Ransomware attacks in the education sector are three times the rate compared of health care, 10 times that of financial services, and are experienced by one in 10 people.

In health care, organizations are dealing with HIPAA and other regulations. While Office 365 is compliant, cloud vendors operate under a “shared responsibility” model, bringing the data responsibility piece back to the business.

Financial-services companies also have many rules and regulations such as compliance, security and privacy. Audits are a major risk for companies, Krull noted.

In the retail industry, businesses need undisrupted communications for customers that have very high digital-experience expectations.

There’s a huge partner opportunity to sell to new and existing customers.

“It’s a good time to have a conversation about selling bundles — O365 and backup solution,” said Krull.

She wrapped up the session talking about pricing, packaging and incentives.

Veeam offers $1.50 per user, per month introductory pricing. One-, three- and five-year subscriptions are available, and there are stacked discounts for multiyear commitments. There’s a minimum purchase requirement of 10 licenses.

Regarding partner promos and incentives: Veeam is offering three months free for unlimited users, and for Veeam ProPartner Program partners the attach is 3 percent for gold partners and 5 percent for platinum partners, the vendor said.

One example of what the recurring-revenue opportunity looks like for a partner with an SMB customer with 500 users: at $1.50 per user, that adds up to $9,000 per year.

Krull’s message to partners: Go out and conquer.