Affordable cloud backups for all with Exaba and Datacentre220

Talk to managed services providers about providing data storage and backup services, and they'll generally pinch their fingers together and squint an eye while bemoaning the miniscule margins. Talk to customers about the same thing, and they'll generally grimace and wonder why it's so damned expensive.

"So expensive, in fact, that for many of them there's inadequate backups in place. Their data is either at risk, or in some cases, not backed up at all," said AJ Tills, Exaba Chief Customer Officer.

Tills and Ross Delaney, Datacentre220 Chief Executive Officer, are chatting about the combined value proposition of a local data centre and storage/backup software platform provider. It's a fascinating topic, because the 'economy of scale' premise of data centres has been captured and dominated by hyperscalers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform and others.

But it doesn't necessarily ring true. And certainly not, it seems, when it comes to essential data storage and protection.

Many companies, including both sides of the MSP/customer divide, have since discovered that hyperscale does not necessarily mean inexpensive. In many cases, it doesn't even mean affordable, particularly (though not exclusively) if you're one of the 90+% of small businesses with under 10 employees. Going into further detail, Tills said, "One way the hyperscalers have succeeded is it's incredibly attractive and easy to initially sign up and start…but when you get to scale, the bills start becoming an unpredictable headache."

"Cost is absolutely a big part of it for a lot of our customers, along with data sovereignty and privacy," confirmed Delaney. "And as AJ says, and I'm sure he has the numbers, a lot of businesses don't back up some or all their data because it just costs too much."

An Affordable Alternative to Hyperscale Costs 

Put plainly, that's a serious business risk, not only in terms of potential data loss, but also in terms of business continuity should a single production data set suffer a compromise. "What Exaba and a data centre like ours can do costs anywhere between 80 to 90% less than copies of data sitting in a hyperscale cloud," Delaney added. "And that [pricing] is really important for our customers."

Offering products and services that are inexpensive to provide and yet carry a high perceived value with customers is the sweet spot for any business, and it is this that the partnership between Exaba and Datacentre220 has carved out. From its Auckland datacentre, which Delaney proudly said is the most connected in all of New Zealand, and the 8th most connected across Australasia, it now serves customers throughout the region.

Exaba's 'Localscaler' Platform 

For its part, Exaba is a storage platform provider describing itself, and the MSPs that leverage Exaba, as 'localscalers' to differentiate from the cloud services big names. Tills said there is nevertheless a bit of 'hyper' involved in Exaba, in that it is hyperfocused on storage, and storage alone, predominantly working with MSPs to solve that thumb-pinching, eye-squinting problem. It does that, he said, delivering backup and restore capability with generous margins for partners, along with simplicity and efficiency that the hyperscalers can't match.

Delaney was quick to add that this value proposition doesn't undermine those of any other service provider, but rather sits alongside it. He noted the success of the hyperscalers, adding: "Hybrid platforms and systems is something I've been passionate about for years; Exaba gives you that ability to connect your sovereign, secure, localscale data into any platform, often alongside places like AWS or Microsoft or Google, and that's great. You've got the best of both worlds."

Particularly when following the rule of 3 copies for a backup; when production is on one platform and business continuity provisions on another, a further layer of resilience is the result.

Security, Flexibility, and Market Expansion 

The hyperfocus on storage sits alongside a similar attention to detail on security; Tills says Exaba is written entirely in Rust, noted for its security and efficiency. The result is a platform designed for flexibility. "Despite the way it's been positioned for the last 20 years, there's no one size fits all in storage," he said.

The Exaba value proposition isn't limited to New Zealand or its near neighbours, and it is here that Tills refers to his numbers while noting an expansion into the USA. "We commissioned a report in the States, and found that two thirds of MSPs specifically said that hidden fees and unpredictable bills are the single biggest frustration in the industry. And even looking at alternatives like colder storage, as soon as you need to actually use the data, God forbid that you actually need to restore it, as that can incur an almost crippling cost."

Other Considerations for Going Local 

There are, of course, other considerations for 'going local', which include the ever-present issue of data sovereignty, whether for cultural, compliance, or comfort reasons. Both Delaney and Tills talk this up, including referring to the practice of fine prints giving some organisations the right to use personal or business information in the service of LLM training models.

There's no question that this is indeed on the minds of many. However, when it comes down to brass tacks, cost is the biggest of the big deals, particularly if the bills are so high that businesses think twice about essential services. With their combined value proposition, Exaba and Datacentre220 reckon it goes straight to no brainer, for MSP and end customer alike.