What is our primary use case?
sumNERV offers AvePoint Cloud Backup fully managed as a service (MBaaS SaaS) to either end customers or MSP's globally.
We have built a fully managed service where we include all backup and restore capabilities from Microsoft 365, Dynamics, Salesforce, Google Workspace, Azure workloads, and Azure AD based on AvePoint.
sumNERV uses AvePoint Cloud Backup for internal IT since AvePoint is the leading vendor when it comes to SaaS protection. AvePoint Cloud Backup really meets our clients' needs but also our high security standards at sumNERV from a security perspective.
What is most valuable?
The fact that AvePoint focuses on restore capabilities, not just backup is valuable. The main intention of backup is to restore data, and that's the major differential with AvePoint compared to other vendors.
Many claim to do backup, but that's not the same. The crucial part is the ability to perform granular restores, having restore-level objectives (RLO) instead of restoring entire SharePoint sites when you only need a single document. AvePoint excels in providing extremely granular restore capabilities with great Recovery Time Objectives (RTO).
AvePoint Cloud Backup comes with Immutable Storage and our OPEX licensing model also includes Unlimited Storage.
What needs improvement?
This is where AvePoint shines. They are forward-leaning in their development. We had a conversation with one of their developers about an idea, and a few months later, it was implemented. Their innovation and responsiveness to client needs make them a leader in the market. I don't see any room for improvement compared to other vendors. We're truly satisfied with them.
The great thing is when we communicate these needs to AvePoint, they swiftly incorporate them in upcoming releases.
However, in future releases, it would be beneficial to have a more optimal Google Backup for larger environments.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution for more than five years. We use the latest version of AvePoint in our fully managed service offering called MBaaS SaaS.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability a solid ten out of ten. It is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability a ten out of ten. It is a very scalable solution. We have clients with 70,000 teams deployed, and it scales perfectly.
How are customer service and support?
We had some challenges with Google backups. The support rewrote the actual agent to improve this. AvePoint's support is amazing. They are actual people you can email or call, and their knowledgeable support was a major factor in us choosing AvePoint for our fully managed backup services offering MBaaS SaaS.
The support knows what they are doing.
How would you rate customer service and support?
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is super easy. You set up an enterprise application that communicates, instead of using the global admin account, between the AOS tenant and your Microsoft 365 tenant. Meaning that it will be more secure since you're leveraging and using the REST APIs, and you really just need to provide backup and restore capabilities for your data. It's a really simple process, takes just about two minutes maximum. And then you also have room for some coffee within those two minutes, so that's perfect. So, it's really, really easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We at sumNERV offer a true OPEX licensing model for AvePoint Cloud Backup so you only pay for what you use. Our MBaaS SaaS offering includes only the assigned Microsoft 365 licenses, no need to CAPEX pre-buy in bulk anymore.
AvePoint Cloud Backup also comes with Unlimited Storage and Unlimited Retention which is a great benefit for the clients.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend doing a proof of concept. You can do a 30-day free trial of AvePoint Cloud Backup. We at sumNERV are more than happy to help people set up free 30-day trials so they can try it out themselves.
Before you invest in something as crucial as backups you need to be very sure that you are investing in the right piece of technology because here's the thing.
Once you start building a backup history with one vendor, you cannot easily move that data to another vendor. This is because each vendor has their own storage protocols. So do a proof of concept to try out all the restore capabilities and make sure that the solution meets or exceeds your needs.
Overall, I would rate the solution a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
*Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner/customer
