PCWB gets clever with SmartBackup service

Managed backup service promises to fill the gap for small businesses without dedicated staff

PC World Business (PCWB) has further strengthened its service offerings with the launch of a remote data backup service for small businesses.

Smart Backup, developed in conjunction with DataBarracks, is an off-site data security service designed to provide protection from virus attacks, power cuts, hardware failures, human error and potential data loss.

Richard Harrison, services director at PCWB, told CRN: “Backup is a fundamental topic at the moment. We saw smaller players testing the technology and thought we would get involved. We trialled Smart Backup for three months, and we are now rolling it out.”

The cost of Smart Backup is determined by the amount of data stored. The service starts at £7.50 a month, and is supported by a £1m data restoration guarantee.

“Firms with 50 employees or fewer often don’t have a dedicated IT person for backup. The key benefit of Smart Backup for customers on a day-to-day basis is that backup is done automatically.

“Also, if customers accidentally delete a file they will be able to locate it and pull it back,” Harrison said.

He added that in the event of a systems failure, Smart Backup can pipe the backed-up data to a client’s server over the internet within an hour. Archive recovery and physical recovery support services are also available.

Alistair Edwards, senior analyst at Canalys, said the launch would provide more competition for other service-orientated VARs.

“My impression is that a lot of customers use PCWB to buy products and then go to a local reseller for managed services. But now that PCWB is providing a lot of these managed services customers might use PCWB for both,” he said.