Broader Channel Availability for Cloud-to-Cloud Backup
Cloud-to-cloud backup of major SaaS services will soon be available to a broader base of MSPs due to the acquisition this week of Swedish startup Cloudfinder by Atlanta-based eFolder.
Founded in 2012, Cloudfinder identifies itself among only a handful of companies working on the problem of backing up data from online SaaS platforms like Google Apps, making it possible for customers to restore their data if something happens to it, either at the provider level or through inadvertent problems like users accidentally deleting e-mail. Beyond backup and restoration, Cloudfinder allows full-text search and includes reporting functionality.
The product now joins eFolder's business continuity products and the business-grade cloud file synch services eFolder got nine months ago with the acquisition of Anchor Box LLC. Terms of the Cloudfinder deal weren't disclosed, but the entire seven-person Cloudfinder team, including CEO Marcus Nyman, is joining eFolder, which now has about 120 employees.
Nyman said in an interview that his company's technology stands out due to its platform-agnostic approach. The company launched in 2012 with a beta product focused on Google Apps, then added support for Salesforce.com and most recently Office 365.
His team suspected going platform-agnostic was a good approach, but even they were taken aback by how quickly the decision proved out. "Microsoft is really biting into that market faster than we had expected. In certain segments, already last year, we saw how Google Apps resellers started looking really pained. We were super happy that we had built Cloudfinder as a SaaS-agnostic platform rather than specifically for Google Apps or 365," Nyman said.
Nor does Nyman believe the market is stabilizing. "When the third and fourth service may enter into the battle, we'll be there, as well. It's hugely important to us and for customers and partners to avoid vendor lock-in," he said.
With that in mind, eFolder's Cloudfinder unit has a roadmap to start backing up other SaaS solutions. "We're coming for Dropbox, Box and Evernote before the end of the year, plus an additional number of services that we haven't disclosed yet," Nyman said.
While Cloudfinder brings new capabilities to eFolder, the company gets a lot of benefits from joining the eFolder organization.
On the technical side, the plan is to move Cloudfinder's backup from an Amazon Web Services back end into eFolder's petabyte-scale cloud. On the business side, Cloudfinder, which has been focused on technology rather than sales and marketing, will plug into eFolder's much more mature channel-focused sales engine.
Posted by Scott Bekker on June 12, 2014