NovaStor
Cost-Effective Datacenter Backup Solutions for SMBs

The quantity of business information is on a continual rise, and is tormenting to SMBs, as their data grows faster than their storage capacity allows. Budgetary issues that arise from renewal fees and capacity based licensing models are ar¬eas where SMBs face significant challenges. “Affordable solu-tions that offer a high caliber of reliability and data protection are lacking in the current market,” remarks Mike Andrews, Manag¬ing Director at NovaStor. Assessing these factors, NovaStor pro¬vides scalable and cost-effective date protection solutions for data residing in any environment. The company has come up with a cross-platform network backup software—NovaBACKUP Data¬Center, which provides new technology with hands on service and support.

Nova BACKUP DataCenter is a highly scalable and reliable network backup solution that supports heterogeneous environ¬ments. “The purchase of the product comes with a support system called NovaCare that includes upgrades, installation support, and technical support via phone, email or web,” informs Andrews. Whether a client is just testing the waters or requires help install¬ing a new product, the company has a dedicated team of technical support experts averaging over five years of experience with Nov¬aStor products. NovaStor also carries a line of SMB solutions that are ideal for businesses with single server environments, where each license comes with one year of NovaCare.

As every business is different, NovaStor is not locked to a single license or pricing strategy. “Our licensing is ’all inclusive’. There is no additional charge for every agent or feature set a cus¬tomer needs. We sell based on the number of servers being used and that is our only pricing measurement,” says Andrews.

Included as part of the pre-sales process, NovaStor offers the service of an architectural review to help determine a custom en¬vironment and expansion plan for a potential client’s situation. This is before the client makes any commitment and even if the customer is unsatisfied and decides to seek help elsewhere, they are free to utilize the information.

As each business is different, NovaStor is not locked to a single license or pricing strategy

Customers are also given the opportunity to directly com¬municate with the company's CEO and executive management, keeping a free flow in hierarchical communication. While most of NovaStor’s competitors are looking upstream to larger enter¬prises for the big ticket wins, “we offer our attention to a smaller businesses looking for solutions at a reasonable price, combined with a level of service that other solution providers do not offer,” reveals Andrews. Currently the company sees maximum traction in the public sector vertical which includes state, and local gov¬ernments along with colleges.

In one instance, Expressions College in California was not able to secure a working backup for weeks.Their previous prod¬uct had crashed and on testing NovaStor, they realized that its features were completely compatible with their requirements. The catch was that the College was locked into a contract and budget for six months with their previous solution provider and they couldn’t commit to NovaStor. Not wanting a potential customer to be unprotected, in exchange for a future license agreement, No¬vaStor extended their trial for six months at no cost. This guaran¬teed safe backup for the college in their waiting period. “Also our initial price was higher than their annual budget, so we adjusted our pricing in a way that allowed them to equalize their payments over time,” says Andrews.

Looking ahead, NovaStor plans to push deeper into support for cloud technology and building solutions that can satisfy the toughest vertical market requirements. We will be launch¬ing a line of appliances, revolutionizing and reinventing the concept of how channel partners can distribute our products, concludes Andrews.