Carbonite wants VARs to help grab market share from BT
Online backup vendor has its sights on the UK
Online backup vendor Carbonite is looking for UK VARs and distributors to help it grab market share from main rival BT.
Launched in May 2006, Online PC Backup is the vendor’s sole product, and has predominantly been sold via Carbonite’s web site, but more recently it has also been available through US retail partners. The vendor has now set its sights on the UK.
Floyd Bradley, Carbonite’s senior vice president, Europe, told CRN: “BT is probably our main competitor in the UK with its Digital Vault product. However, our service is less than £30 per year for unlimited storage, compared with BT’s £59.88 per year for up to 20GB of storage.”
Bradley is actively looking for retailers, resellers and distributors in the UK. “One broadliner and one specialist distributor would be ideal and we are open to as many resellers coming on board as possible,” he added. “Our product is aimed at the small office/ home office [SoHo] and consumer markets.”
Bob Tarzey, service director at analyst Quocirca, said: “Carbonite’s greatest challenge will be BT’s market penetration; directly or indirectly it owns the pipe into the majority of consumers and SoHos (about 70 per cent).
“Carbonite will need some good ISP partners to get to the potential users. Unlimited storage could also become a long-term headache for it, so it would be wise to impose some discipline on its customers from the start.”
A BT representative told CRN: “The online PC backup market is important. Consumers like to access their stored files from any internet connection via the web, rather than being tied to the PC that is being backed up or only being offered a mirror of the data on their hard drives.”