The most valuable features our Technical Administrators talk about are the Incremental Forever Backups and DS-NOC. The Incremental Forever Backups gives confidence that after an initial backup, we are able to meet most customer’s backup requirements within respectable time frames. The DS-NOC allows us the ability to manage and monitor our customers easily from any internet enabled devices. This is extremely useful in cases where customers manage their own Backup Appliances and it can be time consuming trying to gain access to the server to make simple updates.
In the Parent Organization where we have replaced Tape backup with Asigra, we have managed to free up approximately 30 minutes per day which was previously used to check backup status and change tapes. The distance between the office, server room and tape storage areas is quite vast and it would be a daily task of the IT Team to collect the new tapes from storage, travel to the server room, swap the tapes and take the old tapes back to storage. The IT Team now simply look at a status report and action items as required, all from their desk. This allows them to be available to support users and provide a better service all around.
The Asigra product on the whole is a fantastic solution and I would highly recommend this as it delivers everything our business and our subsequent customers required.
From my knowledge of the technical roadmap I can safely say Asigra listens to their partners feedback and are working hard to deliver on ongoing market leading solution. Below are two of the suggestions we recently made to Asigra from our experience.
Firstly, the introduction of a ‘DS-Updates’ system similar to Microsoft’s WSUS would be a much welcomed addition to the Asigra family. This system would automatically check Asigra for updates and hot fixes and download them to a DS-System. Administrators would then be able to approve the changes and distribute them accordingly and selectively from within the DS-NOC. At present, downloading the relevant files and placing them into a directory on the DS-System is a little cumbersome and open to error/malicious use. The system could also be used to get updates from upstream, rather than from Asigra, meaning that MSPs that go through a Partner for a private cloud can only get the updates that the partner wish to provide them.
Another area that could enhance the offering is within the DS-NOC. This is a very useful tool in its current state, but I believe it could be improved further with the introduction of a simple help desk function and an in depth knowledge base linked to the error codes received. The help desk would be useful to allow customers to log issues with Asigra from within the NOC environment, rather than having to connect to another system to do so. It would only need to capture basic info, and buttons could be placed against certain areas such as Backup Activities so these can be quickly raised by a customer as required. The knowledge base could be built and centralized at Asigra, but allow the ‘community’ to update it, similar to how Wikipedia works. This would allow the vast network of Asigra Engineers to help one another and help build a community of expertise across the world.
Hello Stephen,
While I don't doubt your candor, I have to admit to having a different experience with the Asigra management team.
I've been leading Cloud Backup/DRaaS companies since 2005, and have been a very happy Asigra partner since then. While I admit that they can be rough around the edges at times, they have always seem to be very direct and honest in my dealings with them. As a reseller, I found many of their actions supportive of my efforts to build and expand the overall business value.
I also admit that an end user may not find these things as valuable, but as a resell partner I have a much different view point.
Guy