Increase Profitability and Customer Satisfaction

The Problem - Multiply SMB storage sprawl by 50-100X for an MSP

The exploding rate of storage consumption has driven MSP client companies to add low cost standalone storage servers one after another to meet demand. The result is storage sprawl with high cost, high risk storage silos. For the MSP managing 50-100 of these sites - the result is is high cost, high risk and reduced profitability.

The Cost For MSPs

MSPs offering services at fixed price monthly fees require a strong operating foundation to ensure smooth operations in a customer site in order to maintain profitability and customer satisfaction. Storage sprawl eats away at this foundation and results in:

• Complexity - Saying is it complex to manage 101 flavors of storage contain in silos is an understatement to say the least. Processes such as backup, archive of hundreds of storage silos is less and less reliable each day.
• Cost - Call out rates for adhoc storage issues increases. Constantly having to go on site to add storage capacity or fix broken servers is time consuming and results in down time for customers.
• Risk - Each storage silo is a single point of failure that must be managed and backed up to ensure reliability. Managing hundreds of single points of failure is a futile exercise.
• Low Customer Satisfaction - As the storage foundation becomes more shaky - increased outages, failed processes and ultimately system failures result. For customers, the impact is system down time or failed storage often with data loss.

No Win Situation

For the MSP this quickly escalates into a no win situation. SMB customers are not in a position to consolidate - "rip and replace" - their storage silos into an enterprise class storage infrastructure. Even if a few could afford the upgrades, the MSP must still manage the remaining customers and their storage silos.

To make matters worse, customers now question the need to purchase even moderately priced entry level storage products when they can purchase 1-2 TB NAS disks at home at a fraction of the price. While the MSP is clear about the need for higher grade infrastructure - the customer questions why they need to purchase expensive hardware relative to what they can buy off the shelf.

There really is no viable way to move a base of customers all forward onto a similar platform that positions them for the future and enables the MSP to provide a profitable service.