Melbourne reseller Interconnekt has become an early adopter of Quantum's "no upfront payment" backup-as-a-service and disaster-recovery-as-a-service offerings.
"It's a true MSP model – we effectively subscribe to what we require," Interconnekt managing director Jacob Kino told CRN.
"Everyone talks about cloud computing transferring capital expenditure to operating expenditure, but for a reseller you're just moving it to your capex," he said. "That makes it difficult for smaller players, but with this 'pay-as-you-grow' model we can leverage capacity on demand licensing."
The vendor is offering the service as a grey label product, which in Interconnekt's case is called 'Connekt Protect - powered by Quantum'.
A Quantum statement says that the MSP "charges customers on a monthly basis for Quantum software that manages the backup". The backup is de-duplicated and replicated to the MSP's data centre. The vendor then "bills the MSP, in turn, a fraction of the cost of what the MSP charges the customer on a monthly basis".
Interconnekt's customers who have taken up the BaaS and DRaaS services include a financial services firm and a large hardwood timber mill in Gippsland, Victoria.
"With the risk of bushfires, they didn't want onsite primary infrastructure," Kino said. "We have their primary copy in a Melbourne data centre and we replicate data back to Gippsland – they're their own DR site."
Quantum's current MSP programme was launched in October.
"Alliance members can apply for extra certification to be a Quantum MSP," director of channel sales Anne Collins told CRN in February. "Once approved and trained, Quantum MSPs can make tremendous margins selling backup and disaster recovery as a service to their customers."
ANZ country manager for Quantum, Adrian Sharkey, told CRN of the importance of channel incentives: "We do 99.9 percent of our business through channel.
"Typically speaking we don’t do direct sales – in three-and-a-half years I've approved one direct deal."
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