virtualDCS Strategic Alliance with ramsac to Safeguard Microsoft 365 Data

IT support and secure managed service provider, ramsac, is one of the latest companies to start supplying CloudCover 365, the backup service for Microsoft 365, created by channel-first cloud and DR specialist, virtualDCS Ltd.

The 2 companies have worked together for 7 years after ramsac initially added virtualDCS’s Veeam Cloud Connect service to its product portfolio. Veeam Software, Inc. is the ≠1 leader by market share in data protection and ransomware recovery. Cloud Connect offers an integrated, secure way to transfer customer backups off-site to the cloud. The solution provides the additional benefit of air-gapped data protection, which is crucial in the event of a ransomware attack.

CloudCover 365 is a UK’s advanced backup and recoverability portal for Microsoft 365. Powered by Veeam, the solution enables individual end users to view and restore their own data and fully backs up all aspects of Microsoft 365, including email, contacts, public folders, Teams, documents in One Drive and the intranet service, SharePoint.

Matt Longman, head commercial, ramsac, said: “When it came to reviewing our previous Microsoft 365 backup solution, in terms of its pricing and features, the level of support was a key concern. This was especially true with the ongoing system alerts, which had become very time consuming and cumbersome for our support team.

“We looked at various options and CloudCover 365 was immediately top of the pile due to its Veeam foundations, our existing relationship with virtualDCS and the company’s channel-first strategy. The flexible pricing options also made it commercially attractive.

“Having successfully trialled the solution with a small selection of clients, we have now moved dozens of clients onto CloudCover 365 and it’s now our go to product for all new customers. We also use it as our own in-house backup solution.

“In addition, virtualDCS’s deep-rooted knowledge of Veeam means that instead of simply providing licencing, we can offer an enhanced service to our customers, without compromising on our relationship with Veeam. This service gives us greater flexibility and the ability to scale up or down, depending on requirements.”

Lawrence Wilkinson, solutions architect, ramsac, said: “In recent years, as technology progressed, physical servers were replaced by virtual servers and Veeam became the go to software solution in this new world. In 2016, we decided to look for a specialist data centre partner for our backup and replication services, that could offer both expertise and a high level of support, where we could pick up the phone and speak to a named point of contact when required.

“We considered several options, but it was immediately obvious that virtualDCS fully understood our requirements and had the Veeam specific technical capabilities to become our partner of choice. Its Veeam Cloud Connect product was exactly what we were looking for. From a technical perspective, this also put an immediate end to the endless troubleshooting of issues that we had become accustomed to when using physical servers and tape-based systems.

“As virtualDCS began developing more of its own Veeam-based software solutions, it strengthened the relationship further. Although any partnership has to work commercially, working with virtualDCS is based on much more than a good financial decision. The depth of knowledge and experience of the whole team means that we always feel like a priority and receive an unrivalled level of support, which is key to the longevity and success of our relationship. Crucially, the development team are also very responsive when we’ve identified possible modifications to the software, and in some cases, these have been actioned within a matter of days, which is almost unheard of.”

Kurt Kiefer, CRO, virtualDCS, added: “We always pride ourselves on building longstanding relationships and ramsac is a great example of this. The company’s decision to make CloudCover 365 its backup solution of choice for clients using Microsoft 365 speaks volumes about the overall quality of the product, as well as our ability to further enhance Veeam’s services to provide best in class backup solutions.

“We’ve also worked closely with ramsac to offer a clear pricing model and streamline the onboarding process, meaning they can set clients up to use or trial the product themselves, without having to contact us, which is proving to be another big advantage for them. We’re now looking forward to seeing how this develops over the coming months.”

Guildford, UK headquartered ramsac employs 116 people and currently has more than 160 contracted clients that typically have between 50 and 300 employees and operate across all industries.