Kurt, what attracted you to your current position?

The opportunity to work for a world-class vendor and being able to solve one of the biggest pain points for an organisation’s ‘backup and DR’ were the two main attractions.

What is the most memorable thing a customer said to you?

The customer was so impressed by the technology he asked me 3 times “what is the catch?”

What do you do when you’re away from your desk?

I am normally at the beach or doing some kind of outdoor activity.

What was your dream job when you were 5?

A pro surfer.

Describe yourself in three words.

Always enjoying life.

Rock concert or tennis game?

Playing tennis at a rock concert. I like being active.

What is your favourite place in the world?

Bali so far, but I’m planning a trip to Europe soon, so ask me again next year.

If you weren’t doing this job, what would you be?

Working as a surf tour guide and travelling (being a gypsy ha ha!).

The ShadowProtect IT Edition is provided on a serialised StorageCraft USB key. The “StorageCraft.id” file in the root of the device is critical to the software functioning successfully.

Our recommendation is that you should backup the StorageCraft.id file for your StorageCraft USB key and retain a copy of it in a safe place.

We have found in the past that a USB key can accidentally be overwritten by software such as Sandisk Cruzer software, have its partition deleted in a recovery environment, or become corrupt/unreadable. Without a backup of the StorageCraft.id file these issues would render this USB key useless and a replacement USB key would be required. A backup of the .id file will ensure that you can rebuild this USB key and help prevent time-consuming delays in requesting replacement hardware.

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The ShadowProtect IT Edition is the tool of choice for many IT professionals and consultants due to its ability to backup an unlimited number of machines during the subscription period without the need to install any software on the customer’s system.

To achieve success through a flourishing channels operation, it is critically important for any vendor to run a pro-active program that encourages partners to behave as if they are working for the vendor, and to deliver benefits to the partner accordingly. Understanding, enablement and engagement are fundamental to successful partnering.

The close teamwork engendered in treating partners in a similar way to employees will create strong bonds between vendor and channel that will inevitably yield mutual benefits and profitability for both parties and trusted adviser relationships with customers.

Our partners tell us that a 100 per cent channel-based model is critically important to their success as well as ours.  At StorageCraft we place exceptionally high value on our relationships with our partners, their expertise, their sales ability, their relationships and the fact that we will never compete with our partners in an end user account.

We are 100 per cent channel. Our partners are our lifeblood. They are our success. The more our partners sell, the more customers we win. If we provide them with the enablement tools they require, and make it easy, they sell more. This is proven by the fact that in just over 5 years in Australia and New Zealand we have grown from zero customers to over 30,000 – that is exponential growth and a symbol for truly symbiotic relationships.

Next, the product must be reliable and should ideally deliver a compelling value proposition to customers. In an ideal world, a solution should enable partners to differentiate themselves from other resellers and other products.

In many partner companies, services revenue is key to incremental profitability. Does the solution enable you to upsell services to your customer base? Does it provide the ability to upsell additional on-going services, even recurring monthly services?  As a vendor, we believe it is critical that our partners receive free or very low-cost technical training – after all, the better trained your partners are, the better enabled they are to install their customers’ systems and support them. This is another example of treating partners as if they are an extension of the vendor’s sales or technical team. Would you charge your internal teams to get trained to sell or support your technology?

Another key factor is keeping close to the channel. Partners should be considered as an extension to the vendor’s sales team; however, we still invest in active and skilled inside and field sales teams that regularly engage with them.  Regular face-to-face meetings help to ensure that our ever-evolving partner program is meeting the ever changing needs our partners. Listening and being able to react is one of the strengths that our partners deem a powerful incentive.

Finally, we find communication is vital: recently, we have been exploring a suite of communication options that help keep partners informed about StorageCraft and our solutions. Initiatives include a monthly e-newsletter and a mix of technical and thought-provoking webinars.

The IT team at Oaks Hotels and Resorts Limited had good reason to applaud their decision to change the group’s backup and recovery technology recently, when their Property Management System went down with a corrupt database.

Instead of taking more than a day to recover data and get back online, as it would have done using their former backup system, the ShadowProtect solution from StorageCraft had them up and running again within two hours. Business disruption was minimal.

The group runs a wide area network (WAN) covering 40-plus sites including head office in Maroochydore and a wide spectrum of serviced apartment properties under management in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and New Zealand.

IT General Manager Bryn Solly introduced ShadowProtect when he centralised the group’s operational systems into a single data centre running on IBM HS BladeCenters. Platforms comprise Citrix, Wintel 2003, while key applications include Maximizer CRM, MS Office, SunSystems Financials, Micros point-of-sale and Hirum hotel reservation software.

“The sheer size of our system after we centralised demanded that we used a backup solution that was easier to use and restored files faster,” said Bryn. “ShadowProtect is much faster than our previous solution – up to twice as fast depending on configurations – and better for our business needs.”

The Oaks group has 40 ShadowProtect Server licences protecting file servers, print servers, SQL clusters, an Exchange cluster as well as Citrix servers and general servers.  Bryn introduced ShadowProtect after using it in a previous job. Version 3 of the software is deployed manually on each server.

He says: “Using ShadowProtect it is much easier to restore files in a hurry.  How fast depends on how far back you want to go.  It can also hold a lot more information on file servers because the data is on disk instead of tape.  It’s made my life a lot easier.”

When the Property Management System database was corrupt, much of the downtime was spent checking exactly when it happened. After that, the restore process was speedy.

The Oaks group’s Hirum reservation system is backed up hourly, ensuring that little critical data can be lost. ShadowProtect replicates backups to the group’s disaster recovery centre, and these backups can be used for testing databases without affecting anything in production.

Bryn has used StorageCraft’s support facility once and found it to be responsive and efficient. But he says his team of six have never experienced a real problem – a testament to ShadowProtect’s reliability. For the future he is anticipating checking StorageCraft’s integration with VMware.

Business is booming in South Africa, as demand for ShadowProtect accelerates rapidly. Since StorageCraft announced Phoenix Software as our first distributor late last year, they have won a number of very large deals, while the reseller community is growing daily.

Paul Harris, Regional Manager NZ and RSA for StorageCraft, who launched operations in Johannesburg and Capetown, says: “Reseller feedback has been amazing. Phoenix has appointed a full-time, self-funded product manager and is progressing with a direct marketing campaign, which I will lead when I visit shortly.  I’ve been asked to spend a month there, to help field enquiries and manage growth.”

Paul says data theft is regarded as a major issue in South Africa, so ShadowProtect’s ability to replicate content to secure facilities is seen as a substantial boon. South African organisations still rely heavily on tape for backups, and the market is beginning to recognise ShadowProtect’s strength in delivering higher levels of recoverability.