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How MSPs Can Position SaaS Backup to SMBs

IT spending has been steadily shifting from traditional on-premises offerings to cloud services over the past five years, and it’s continuing to grow. In fact, according to Gartner, Inc., SaaS application spending will grow to over $99 billion worldwide by 2020. While the enterprise has adopted SaaS at a rapid rate, small-and-midsize businesses (SMBs) have been slower to move to the cloud. However, these companies are typically more agile than large organizations and while most have heavy investments in on-prem technology, they have the most to gain from transitioning to SaaS apps. This means MSPs have an immense revenue opportunity in moving all end users to the cloud.

Author: Datto’s Angela Diaco
Author: Datto's Angela Diaco

SaaS applications such as Google’s G Suite and Microsoft Office 365 are popular because they’re easy to use, highly scalable, standardize employees on the same applications like Word or Excel, and are relatively inexpensive. While it may seem natural for SMBs to adopt these tools organically, at Datto we find that it’s often the MSP that’s introducing these new benefits to business owners. SaaS applications require deployment, management, and data protection for business continuity and compliance, just like any other mission-critical app — presenting an entirely new market offering.

Making SaaS Backup a Priority

As your clients’ trusted advisor for all things tech, protecting customer SaaS data should be standard for your business. You’ll be the first person they call when data goes missing, and likely the one who they’ll blame if it’s not recoverable. Aside from recovering from data loss, your techs need a fast and easy way to efficiently manage these applications for clients. Thus, as an MSP you should have an efficient means of managing data and be compensated for the work you put into setup and management of SaaS applications.

If your clients are skeptical about the need for SaaS backup, educating them of this paradigm shift in IT is a good way to start.

Why Your Customers Need SaaS Backup

There’s a common misconception among SaaS users that backup isn’t necessary for their data because it exists in the cloud. However, MSPs know this is patently untrue. Business owners need to be taught that SaaS applications are just as vulnerable to data loss as on-premise apps. Why? Because the #1 cause of data loss is human error. People delete stuff, open phishing emails, accidentally download malware, and more.

Other scenarios where customers could lose data include:

  • Malicious deletion by a disgruntled employee or outside entity
  • Malware damage or ransomware attacks
  • Operational errors such as accidental data overwrites
  • Lost data due to canceled app license

SaaS apps provide limited protection against accidental data loss scenarios, and even less  when it comes to ransomware attacks or malicious end-user activity. The reason being that many vendors operate under the “Shared Responsibility Model” - they only claim responsibility for areas that they have complete control over. Microsoft and Google maintain the availability of their applications and protect their servers from disaster scenarios, but the end user is responsible for the data being created within their applications.

For end users who ask you to prove it (and they should ask!), be ready with examples of where SaaS providers state in their SLAs where their liability for data loss ends.

No matter what stage of growth your business is in, SaaS backup should be an important part of your service portfolio. The move to the cloud is accelerating, and the big picture story says that there’s still a world of opportunity for MSPs.

Datto SaaS Protection delivers benefits outside of insuring your business against data loss and generating recurring revenue - it saves you time and gives you peace of mind.

More: In our eBook, Selling SaaS Backup Made MSPeasy, you’ll learn the ins and outs of positioning Office 365 and G Suite backup, with advice from other successful MSPs. You’ll learn how to grow MRR with cloud backup sales, data protection responsibilities, and more. Download it here today.


Angela Diaco is product marketing manager for SaaS Products at Datto Inc. Read more Datto blogs here.