What Are the Choices for Hosting RBackup Online Backup Software?

Before starting your Online Backup Service you have several decisions to make about hosting your RBS Server. Your decision will help define the kinds of services you can offer your end users, your costs, your “trust factor,” and your profit potential. 

Will you operate your RBS Server on your own premises or will you host it in a Data Center?

By hosting in a Data Center you can inherit the built-in trust factor of the Data Center. Your Server will be in a certified, climate-controlled, secure facility. It will probably have backup generators and a facility-wide UPS.

Its power may be filtered, and it may have very high speed redundant Internet connections. It may have guards and cameras, biometric access control, automatic fire suppression, lightning protection, and it may be in an earthquake-proof, storm-proof building.

If you host in a Data Center you will be able to talk about these security measures in your marketing and sales campaigns to gain the trust of your customers.

However, if you host in a Data Center you will not have immediate access to your hardware. This will prove troublesome if you need to import an Onsite Backup from a customer (produced with the Copy to Disk function,) or if you need to do a fast Bulk Restore using portable media.

You will have to drive to the Data Center and get through the access process, and then either stay there and wait for the data import/export process to finish, or make a second trip to pick up your portable media. Copying many gigabytes to and from a USB drive can take hours.

Of course, you can charge your customers for your time, or you can simply decide not to offer this level of service.

Alternately, by hosting your RBS Server on your own premises you have immediate access to your hardware, so it’s easy to offer bulk loading and bulk restore. You can even connect your customers’ computers to your network and restore directly from your RBS Server to your customers’ computers.

For this reason most computer retail stores and service shops who offer Online Backup Services using RBS software host their Servers on premises.

Once you have made the decision about where to host your RBS Server you have some choices about purchasing the software.

All RBS Server software comes with free installation. So in all these choices below, RBS will handle the installation.

 

Choice 1: Buy software from RBS, buy a server and storage, install our software on your hardware. Host your hardware on your premises or in a data center.

This is the most popular way to set up an Online Backup Service. More than ninety six percent of our customers buy the software outright and install it on their own hardware.

This gives you the most flexibility and control over your Service, and the highest profit margin. It allows you to offer the most customization and branding of all choices, and the highest degree of integration with other systems like websites and billing.

It gives you the best control over backups for your RBS Server, and best supports redundancy and failover and other system maintenance functions. It also offers the best support for Bulk Backups and Bulk Restores, so you can offer the highest level of service to your end users.

This choice allows you to charge the highest fees of any choice, and has the lowest costs.

Pros:

  • Our most popular choice, by far.
  • Highest profit potential of all choices, by far.
  • Lowest cost for storage of all choices, by far.
  • You own the software and hardware outright.
  • You have absolute control over back-end tasks like backups, failover, scaling and migration.
  • If you rent space for your Server in a Data Center, you will have good security, high-speed, reliable bandwidth, and backup power. This is good for your marketing.
  • You have physical access to the hardware so you can provide the highest level of service by being able to do very fast bulk backups and bulk restores.
  • You can code-sign your Client installers (certificate required.)
  • You have complete control over your business.
  • Very high flexibility in branding, customization and integration.

Cons:

  • Largest initial investment of all choices.
  • You pay the maintenance costs for Hardware.
  • You upgrade and maintain the operating system.
  • If you host in a Data Center there will be ongoing hosting charges.

 

Choice 2: Buy software from RBS, rent a dedicated server and storage in a data center, install our software on the rented hardware OR virtual servers like Amazon’s EC2 Service.

Hosting on Amazon EC2: http://www.remote-backup.com/ec2.htm

Pros:

  • Second highest profit potential of all choices – a very popular choice.
  • Very high flexibility in branding, customization and integration.
  • You have much control over back-end tasks like backups, failover, scaling and migration.
  • Your Server is in a certified Data Center with security. You will have good security and backup power. This is good for your marketing.
  • You own the software, so you can move it whenever you like.
  • Bandwidth is usually very high-speed and reliable, with multiple backup paths.
  • Usually the hosting provider maintains the hardware.
  • The hosting provider might also upgrade hardware at his expense when it is time.
  • You can code-sign your Client installers with your own Code Signing Certificate (certificate required.)
  • If your Server is Virtual (like Amazon’s EC2 Service) it is easy, quick to back up. It is also easy and quick to scale up, replicate, and provide failover services.

Cons:

  • Second largest initial investment.
  • You have to maintain the operating system.
  • If you host in a Virtual environment you will have to learn how to use it.
  • You will have ongoing hosting charges from your Hosting provider.
  • Ongoing costs for storage are not in your control, and may be far higher than choice 1. For example, owning your own storage arrays can cost as little as 4 cents per gigabyte per month. Data center storage can cost more than 15 cents per GB per month.
  • Monthly charges are often unpredictable, varying with bandwidth, power usage, and storage space usage.

 

Choice 3: Rent a dedicated Cloud Server from RBS.

http://www.remote-backup.com/online-backup-amazonservers.htm

Pros:

  • Quickest and cheapest way to start a full-featured Online Backup Service. Takes about 2 days with startup costs less than $1600.
  • You have almost complete control over your Server.
  • Optionally code-sign your Client installers (certificate required.)
  • RBS manages your Server, keeping it upgraded.
  • Your costs are predictable.

Cons:

  • No access to the Desktop of the Server.
  • No access to the Server at all, preventing quick Bulk Backups and Bulk Restores.
  • You do not own the software or the hardware.
  • Ongoing monthly charges for Hosting, Software rental, and Storage Space.
  • Storage space costs can be 35 cents per GB per month as opposed to Choice #1 at 4 cents per GB per month.

 

Choice 4: Sign up for a Virtual Hosting account with RBS.

http://www.remote-backup.com/vhosting.htm

Pros:

Cons:

  • Least profit potential of all choices.
  • You share a server with other Service Providers.
  • No access to the Desktop of the Server.
  • No access to the Server at all, preventing quick Bulk Backups and Bulk Restores.
  • Not much flexibility to brand or customize.
  •  Difficult or impossible to integrate with other websites.
  • You do not own the software or the hardware.
  • Ongoing monthly charges for Hosting, Software rental, and Storage Space.


Regardless which choice you decide on, you will be using our famous RBackup Online Backup Software, with varying degrees of control over how it operates.

If you need help deciding, just contact us here at Remote Backup Systems. We have experts who know our products and can help you design a perfect solution.

 

Remote Backup Systems has provided brandable, scalable software and solutions to MSPs and VARs enabling them to offer Online Backup Services since 1987.

 

About The Author

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Steve Roberts / http://remote-backup.com

Steve Roberts is VP of Engineering at Remote Backup Systems (http://remote-backup.com), developers of the RBackup Online Backup software platform, providing software powering more than 9,500 Service Providers in 65 countries since 1987.