Author: Alistair Mackenzie

1. There are over 150 million virtual machines in existence.

Just take a minute to think about that. The move from physical servers to virtual machines has been huge and has happened quickly. But it is now starting to slow down. A key reason for this is the invention of Containers.

2. There will be over 1 billion containers by 2023.

Containers are the new kid on the block, and businesses are starting to figure out how containers can help them become more agile and competitive. Key drivers behind this are the fact that containers are so much more portable, scalable and quick to deploy than traditional virtual machines. If businesses can get this right, it will allow them to be more reactive to customers, market trends and competitors.

3. There are over 25 million developers worldwide.

Software and data are fundamental to the majority of businesses and because of this, Developers have become the rock stars of many organisations. They are seen as the people that can give a business that competitive edge and the agility needed to thrive. But this is only one part of the picture. With businesses pushing Developers for more speed and agility, the landscape of the Data Protection & Storage administrators needs to change. Developers now want new environments in minutes, not days. Gone are times when a developer would ask for a new environment and then be content to wait for several days while it is provisioned. Now, they will use their own credit card and spin up their own environment in a third party cloud so they can get working. The impacts of this are huge as your IT, Data and Costs are out of your control. Welcome to the world of Shadow IT.

Bringing the Infrastructure Superhero out of the shadows.

Data Protection and Storage administrators are the unsung heroes of any business. It is these teams that are the last line of defence against ransomware while ensuring your data is protected and can be retrieved at any point, for any purpose. In today’s modern agile world, unfortunately this is not seen as enough. So how can these superheroes meet these new demands?

The answer is automation. Modern platforms allows for a higher degree of automation than ever before. Imagine if with the click of a button, a Data Protection and Storage administrator could provision space in an environment, create a new container, add this to the backup schedule and even restore the data from a live system into this ready for a developer to begin playing with. Now that would be a super power, wouldn’t it?

Written by Rick Norgate, Managing Director
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For whatever reason, it might not be practical to use the existing environment to backup new workload. This could be because the new environment is distant from the original environment (on-premise vs. public cloud, for instance) or because that original environment isn’t compatible with the new workload.

This is how organisations end up with two environments running at the same time and it can lead to duplication of resources, both technological and human.

What’s the best way to cope with this?

If you’re calling on teams to support new environments, is it fair to expect them to still ensure the old one is getting fed? Alternatively, is it fair to expect a team that might have years of experience supporting an old environment to skill up and manage a new one simultaneously? Whichever way you look at this, its not simple to overcome unless you throw two separate teams at it – with the obvious cost implications.

How would you feel about a Management Portal that allows your teams to take control of both of those environments with a single view? A management portal that abstracts the software products under the cover and just allows everybody to focus on the most important task; ensuring that your workloads are protected and proving that they are recoverable.

Superheroes go to work with a Utility Belt. With Predatar in your arsenal, you can be sure that your teams can cope with the workload that is thrown at your backup environment, whether it’s the new one or the legacy one.

By Steve Miller, CTO
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The Summons

The odds seem stacked against you, but you roll with it. It’s what you do, solve problems.

You manage the backup system. And 99% of the time a few people notice what you do. But then comes the 1% – the mission critical restore. Then they notice; this is it – the moment of truth. They’ve come to your arena, to see you perform. You won’t be embarrassed this time, you’re prepared. Like the elite athlete, you do your training away from the eyes of management.

Except you’ve not done the training. The IT Director doesn’t see your fingers crossed…

Loki

Time. It’s the only problem you can’t fix. Since the recession of 2008, you’ve faced reduced budgets and bandwidth. But you enjoy learning new skills, fixing new problems. The bigger the better, right? But it’s the time stealers that hinder you. Supplier software audits, compliance officer requests, constant security patching and client updates. And that proof of concept, for some new tech your boss read about on a flight to a swanky conference.

You’re not afraid of a challenge – you save your best work for evenings and weekends. The 1970 Chevy El Camino you’ve restored from a rusted-out shell, is waiting to be unveiled to the boys at the next Daikoku Night, Caffeine and Machine. At least they appreciate what goes into making something great.

So, the restore worked; if a little slower than expected. Self-esteem intact, you are the master of mayhem. As you do for the Chevy, a bit of performance tuning would be good preparation for the next restore. But management have moved on and its back to fighting fires, constant interruptions and performing heroic deeds. Tomorrow will bring another round of problems to tackle.

Shield

You decide to get on the front foot; become more proactive. If they won’t give you more people, maybe management will let you buy the right tool. Software, to give you back that most precious resource; time. The stakes get bigger every day. The company faces stiffer competition and margins are under pressure. More processes are digital, and any downtime is costly. Hackers, writing malware, bring a new threat they did not budget for back in 2010. You are the last line of defence. You are a data protection superhero!

But every super-hero needs support. And gadgets.

You don’t want to be embarrassed by a misfiring backup system. You need a platform to help you stay head of the hackers and clowns. Software, like Predatar, you can program to fine-tune restore performance. What if you could test multiple combinations of system restores? You could be more proactive. Setting expectations for application owners and database administrators. It’s how you really want to be measured, data availability. Guarding the business against loss.

The Joker

You need time to sharpen your axe. Time to think and time to plan. Overcoming the threats to your data in the future will require a different approach. Your enemies are smart. Be the superhero.

But who are you? Are you Batman? A superhero with no special powers. Just tough, adaptable and highly intelligent. An introvert, hiding in his cave, adapting his crime fighting weapons. Like you, he doesn’t seek the glory. When people need help, they send out the Bat Signal. Glory finds Batman. He saves the day and then disappears into the night.

You don’t run away from the big challenges either. But you need the best tools to help you beat your deadliest enemy; time. Take our superhero challenge…

By Alistair Mackenzie, CEO
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There you are, ensuring data is backed up and recoverable, but does the business still just see the activity as a cost centre and not a benefit?

Today’s data is the new oil if treated as such, organisations have amazing data stored and backed up but only look for it in the case of data loss. Imagine if you could use the data that is sitting there, using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies data can be mined for information, insights and trends.

Let’s also look at making the data protection part of the business shine, a place where the company oil is stored, a place seen as strategic investment. Our world no longer needs to be a place of three-year capital investment out lays, based on roughly predicted data growth, with under used investment lying dormant for a significant amount of time or worse still capacity running out too soon, initiating unexpected and unwelcome additional budget requests to the board.

Imagine a world where you pay for what you use, a world where each business department pays for the IT services they consume on a monthly, weekly or even daily basis? Suddenly the IT department becomes a business centre generating its own income and operating in a lean and efficient manner.

We wouldn’t think of buying CDs anymore, why should we buy IT infrastructure, software and even hardware when it can be consumed in a pay as you go model, on site or in the cloud? So go for it, become a data protection superhero and turn your data protection cost on their head, become an income generator, not a cost centre.

Now you are a centre of excellence for data protection let’s push for even more value, we all hear the word DevOps banded around, now you are right in the middle of this exciting and dynamic world, by spinning up a sandbox environment from the backups you have an environment that can be used for development and testing on current data in a safe and secure environment, away from main business operations. Work complete, erase and move on, more value added for the business.

Lastly in your assent to a data protection superhero, take this data, spin up your sandbox environment and deploy AI to mine the data, looking for trends, insights and intelligence, this data is the super oil giving the business invaluable data on which to plan and grow with the ability to target markets, clients and costs with laser accuracy!

Congratulations, you are not only a data protection superhero, you are a business superhero.

By Andy Loydell,
Global Partner Sales Manager
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Businesses love a big new initiative don’t they? They roll them out on a regular basis with a lot of pomp and excitement from the Leadership team about how this new way of working will have an amazing impact on everyone and lead to big results. Having had many of these schemes thrust upon me and having launched a fair few myself I have never seen one of them fully work and stick around for more than 18 months before they are replaced with the latest and greatest initiative and the cycle starts again. There is nothing more soul destroying than launching the next big thing and seeing your employees’ eyes rolling with that ‘here we go again, another new scheme which will die out after a few months’ look.

When you look at most of these initiatives they all have a similar goal of improving collaboration between people, teams and departments to ultimately increase business performance. But take a moment now and ask yourself honestly how many of these schemes have fully worked for you? Can anyone really answer ‘yes’? Think about the money and time spent on these initiatives for it then to not fully deliver the benefits promised. The simple reason many of them fizzle out is it is actually really hard to get right. But does it need to be hard?

My thoughts are racing ahead

Over the Christmas break I had what I think is a bit of personal revelation that I want to share with you.  For those that don’t know me, I love cycling and on most dark and miserable winter nights I can be found in my garage on my turbo trainer. For those of you that have a life and friends a turbo trainer is a device you sit your bike on and peddle on the spot, the turbo trainer has resistance built in to simulate hills and you can link it up to a tablet and ride around virtual worlds (It is all pretty sad I know). So over Christmas I entered a virtual race around a virtual version of London. In my lycra in my garage I logged onto my tablet eager to race and was joined by over 1600 other people from all over the world waiting for the green light to start. The green light came and what happened next was amazing.

Everyone set off at full pelt pretending they were Bradley Wiggins (Or that could just be me) and within about 1 min a hierarchy started to establish. The elite racers disappeared off into the distance like rockets whereas the rest of us ended up breaking into bunches of approximately 50 riders all with similar speed and performance. The bunch I ended up in had people from the UK, Germany, New Zealand, Russia, Korea and many other countries probably all sat in their garages on their bikes racing away with no way of communicating other than via virtual high fives and thumbs up. It was this next part that amazed me. Within 1 mile the bunch had organised itself in a group with people rotating at the front (where you have to pedal harder due to virtual wind resistance) and encouraging those at the back to keep up and push. Because of this the groups average speed was about 20% faster over the course than it would have been riding solo and due to the team work I completed the course faster than I have ever done before and set a personal record. I could not have done this on my own.

Breaking the Cycle

Apart from having really enjoyed the race this got me thinking. How is it that a group of people from all over the world who have never or will ever meet, with no real way to communicate could organise themselves into an effective team so quickly and effortlessly? Over a mince pie or 4 I talked to family and friends about this and they all said ‘you cant compare this to work as the goal of cycling is much simpler’. ‘Fair point’ I said. But the idea would not leave me and I kept thinking about it until I realised my friends were right. The mission of that cycling race was simple. Get from point A to B as quick as you can. Since the goal was simple everyone in the group understood it and because we understood it we were united and because we were united we all knew that the quickest way from A to B was by working together and taking turns at the front of the group.

What would happen if we spent the time and money we set aside for these initiatives into formulating one simple goal that your entire business understood, believed in and most importantly could visualise their role in it? I personally think you would have a cycle of change and improvement you have never seen before. What do you think? Am I right or should I get on my bike?

Written by Rick Norgate, Managing Director
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Are you 100% confident your backup service will deliver when called upon?

And when you need to recover a system, do you really know how long it will take?

In this podcast I’m joined by Predatar CTO, Steve Miller and for his first podcast, Predatar Managing Director, Rick Norgate.

We discuss three new features in the “Orca” platform release (r11.2), all designed to help you deliver dynamic, consumer-friendly, data protection services.

Building on a recently awarded EPO Patent, we extend the DR recovery orchestration to support Storage Protect Plus backups.

We also discuss asset usage to help you keep a handle on costs and billing.

Finally, for IBM Spectrum software users and builders, we help you make the transition to Storage Protect Plus, just a little bit easier. Have a listen to find out how.

Keep the feedback coming. This is your platform built on your ideas.

Being responsible for large backup and recovery environments is not easy. Multiple backup servers, hundreds, probably thousands of clients, and growing data stores require constant vigilance. Being a highly-skilled, data protection expert, you’re happy to take guidance. Just like a golf professional consults with his or her trusted caddie to help make the perfect shot. Unfortunately, not everyone can afford the luxury of a salaried adviser, which is why many people invest in golf aids such as range finders. Tools and technology can help us to make better decisions.

Just like in golf, the working environment of the backup professional is constantly shifting. We feel your pain. But you’ll be glad to know the Predatar team will be rolling out it’s Orca release (r11.2) on Thursday 19^th December; just in time for Christmas. If you are part of the Predatar community be sure to download the release notes from the portal. If you can’t wait, here are some of the highlights of this release.

Recovery Certainty

Many people see backup as an insurance policy and when they need to make a claim, they expect an unabbreviated recovery, in short order. The speed of server recovery is a blind spot for so many people, it has become the elephant-in-the-room. When I have been in meetings to hear a manager ask how long a recovery will take, the answer given has been shrouded in caveats. A typical answer is: “it depends on the amount of data, the storage medium and the network bandwidth”. It’s not good enough. It’s like asking the expert who packed your parachute if it will slow your descent in time and being told it depends on wind speed, the quality of the stitching and your weight. Not something you want to hear.

Predatar can help you answer these questions with certainty. It automates recovery via Storage Protect for Virtual Environments (SP4VE) and Storage Protect Plus (SPP). You can choose to schedule a recovery for one or many servers, at a scheduled time of your choice, and repeat periodically. Alternatively, you can ask Predatar to randomly select any number of servers to recover. By keeping a log of all recoveries, their success and speed, you can be confident in your answer the next time the question of recoverability is put to you.

It’s not just about backup verification. With a simple press of a button you can move virtual machines into production, a handy component of any disaster recovery system.

Get the Big Picture

You’ve been asking for more features to help you manage Storage Protect Plus installations. We heard you and the 11.2 release includes additional monitors on Storage Protect Plus jobs such as replication, and housekeeping. Remember, we keep the data to plot activity over time which helps you to more easily visualise the health and performance of your backup.

The Stocking Filler

You have also told us you don’t like big vendor, software licencing audits. Not much of a surprise! How many of you have experienced an audit, or have you erased it from your memory? We know it’s painful, which is why we have improved the License Snapshot feature by adding in support for Storage Protect Plus. You can now also see changes over time or calculate medians to simplify pay-as-you-use invoicing. You get to stay one-step ahead of compliance teams, with almost zero effort. And if you’ve ever wondered if you are using the most cost-effective licence model, you have all the information at your fingertips to make a good decision.

Stay tuned for more announcements coming in January but for now, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Thanks for being part of our ecosystem in 2019. Keep the ideas flowing.

It seems every channel company likes to use the MSP moniker as a description of their business model. Understandable, since business valuations for MSPs tend to be higher than more traditional VARs. This identity crisis can cause big problems. I must first acknowledge that the VAR model is still very successful, and profitable, for many channel players. Why attempt to fix something if it’s not broken? However, a schizophrenic business is more often than not, a poorly performing one. It divides opinion, sows the seeds of confusion and instead of building a fly-wheel, can create a horrible doom-loop.

If you are undergoing a transition to a service provider model, how do you determine if you are in tune with the music? As we head towards the end of another year it’s worth taking stock and reviewing your progress.

One obvious measure is your percentage of recurring revenue business versus transactional business. If its not more than 50% of revenues, can you call yourself an MSP? The best performers don’t include vendor contracts, such as vendor software support or third-party maintenance. In our book, they should be classed as VAR-type business, part of a resell model.

Painting by numbers can be a bit one-dimensional, so we thought to compile a list of non-obvious, telltale signs you are hitting the high notes. If you’re guilty of too many of the following, it doesn’t mean you have a bad business, just that it’s likely you are still in the foothills of your journey to XaaS.

Wonderwall

When visiting IT channel companies anywhere in the world, I can tell the type of business they are as soon as I walk into the reception area. The bigger the VAR, the bigger the vanity wall of vendor plaques and trophies. Immediately, these companies have defined themselves by their vendor allegiances. Laying out your wares in this way, like some IT department store, can you be surprised if your margins suffer from persistent erosion?

I’m not saying don’t invest in training and accreditation. On the contrary, you should go technically deep into the technology to trust it enough to base your service offerings on it. You build the knowledge because it’s essential to maintain long-term relationships with clients. That’s very different from having a huge array of vendors on your roster, in the hope that you can appeal to somebody; like some Venus tech fly trap. I’m all for diversity but an MSP builds diversity to protect their supply chain, not to increase their customer appeal.

Fools’ Gold

Which business metrics or KPIs do you use? If your top metrics are landed revenue, or profit for the quarter, chances are, you’re still a VAR. Profit is essential to pay the bills and to invest in improving the business but for a successful MSP, it should be a lagging indicator. Most notably it lags the more important metrics, such as Net Promoter Score (NPS), retention rates or customer lifetime value (CLV).

I bet you look good on the dance floor

The cadence of a successful MSP is very different to that of a VAR. A VAR’s rhythm is led by their vendors, who in turn are led by shareholders to deliver solid numbers every quarter. Most channel companies are not required to file quarterly returns, yet I bet you are heavily influenced by the vendors who are. The big tech companies, Dell, HP and IBM right now are gearing up for their usual end of quarter, or end of year, hockey-stick sales dash. How many calls will you get from your vendor rep in the next two to three weeks?

Look at your invoicing pattern over the year and if you see a clear saw pattern, with the peaks at the end of each quarter, you guessed it, you are a VAR.

You’re in love with a psycho

It’s only natural for us all to be tech neophiles, to be obsessed with the shiny new thing. Tech companies like Apple rely on our basic urge to not get left behind. When I first joined the IT industry, UK channel chiefs would visit Comdex, Las Vegas, in the hope of discovering the next big thing, securing exclusive distribution rights to lock down healthy margins for several years. Who gets exclusive rights these days?

FOMO drives many channel chiefs to sign up new, venture-capital backed, disruptive tech vendors. Old habits die hard but ask yourself if you are guilty of always hunting for greener pastures.

Successful service providers have, if not neophobia, at least a healthy dose of scepticism. They know its just as important to focus on how to deliver amazing customer service. Have a look at how you spend your time in management meetings. Is the majority spent discussing tech, or service?

I predict a riot

Every successful VAR I know has at some point had a great sales culture, sales director and sales team. In the channel, sales teams are the fuel which accelerate businesses. The marketing burden falls mainly on the OEM vendor, leaving the VAR to focus on demand generation and bid management.

Problems can occur when selling services is added to the mix. Its common and understandable for VAR sales directors to want to protect the resell business and the existing customer base. So, they add a new overlay team of services-only sales people. They can be perceived as the “cuckoos-in-the-nest” and are often pushed out of core accounts or relegated to a subservient role. It’s a hard gig and all too often they fail, citing lack of cooperation from the core sales team. The remaining sales team think “there but for the grace of god” and continue doing what they have always done.

If you really want to grow your recurring revenue business, you might want to consider removing your foot from first base, so to speak.

Summary

If you look like a duck, swim like a duck and sing like a duck, then you’re probably a duck. I am a huge admirer of value-add resellers. In fact, I saw a recent piece of financial analysis which pointed out that the UK’s top VARs had a higher valuation multiple than many well-known systems integrators and service providers. Success in business is as much about playing to your strengths and knowing who you are. For many, the best course of action could be to double-down on the reseller model and not get distracted by becoming something you’re not.

If you are intent on accelerating your evolution to MSP, then these five telltale signs might just help you assess your progress in 2019.

Have a happy Christmas and everyone at Predatar hopes your business is on song in 2020.

“Well the highway is alive tonight
But nobody’s kidding nobody about where it goes
I’m sitting down here in the campfire light
Searching for the ghost of Tom Joad”

“It’s hard, it’s expensive and it takes a lot of time”

Rob’s story of constant business evolution is reminiscent of the struggles of the Joad family, the collective protagonist of the great Steinbeck novel, The Grapes of Wrath.

In a reversal of the Okie migration after the Dust Bowl depression, Rob describes his journey from California to Oklahoma to build a business and transform it from successful IBM reseller to independent service provider.

Where once migrants left for the golden fruits of California, Oklahoma is a place where Oil derricks can spring up on small land holdings and the population is growing again. Rob’s team at Pinnacle Business Systems is helping enterprises exploit the new oil; data.

Having started on a three-year MSP evolution programme he is staying the course, because just like the book’s hero Tom Joad said, there can be no turning back.

With a strong background in accounting, Rob gives a different perspective on the changing landscape of the IT channel and what he feels is needed to be successful.

Capturing the spirit of the Oklahoma pioneers, the early farmers of the “Sooner State”, Rob understands the maxim “you reap what you sow”. Listen to the podcast to hear Rob tell a story of managing risk and taking tough decisions. Despite the toughness, Rob actively manages and nurtures the business culture. He realises a business is like a family working together to ride out the times of drought and celebrate the bountiful harvests.

Patience is a virtue in the Sooner State.

To follow The Predatar Podcast find it with Spotify  or Apple

Following the recent release of Predatar 11, the platform for cloud data protection service providers, the team wanted someone to lead the next chapter of our story.

We are delighted to welcome Rick Norgate who joins Predatar as Managing Director. Rick brings superb team building and people management skills, which combined with his background in strategic product management and implementation, made him the natural choice.

Doug Sawers, Non-Executive Director Predatar, on hearing the appointment of Rick, commented “Predatar already has world-class technology which it is using to disrupt the traditional data protection industry. Rick Norgate will ensure the technology continues to disrupt, whilst shepherding the next phase of the company’s growth.”

Rick joins Predatar from SD Worx, a global leader in payroll and HR SaaS software and Managed Services. Rick was instrumental in their transition to a SaaS business model. Outside of work, Rick is a bit of a fitness nut, spending most of his spare time cycling and running.

Rick’s first task will be to get to know the Predatar partner community and to find out how the company can help accelerate their transition to profitable, SaaS enabled businesses.

Commenting on the appointment, CEO Alistair Mackenzie had this to say, “I’m delighted to welcome Rick to the team. Rick’s thinking is always so precise, and he will add a big dose of professionalism to everything we do.”

The appointment of Rick Norgate comes at a time when the data protection business is going through a period of rapid investment and disruption. Predatar’s patented technology for more “intelligent recovery” is at the forefront of this disruption.