Canadian data protector Asigra is launching a SaaS app backup product with an SDK for developers to write connector modules and marketplace for customers to buy them. HYCU has competition for its third-party SaaS app backup connectors and marketplace.
There are a huge number of SaaS apps and writing connecting code to link backup software to every SaaS app’s APIs is impossible for any single backup supplier. Asigra began working on a scheme to have MSPs and their partners write connectors instead around the end of 2021.
Eric Simmons, Asigra CEO, said in a statement: “IT professionals are coming to understand that the protection of SaaS application data throughout an organization is not only a legal obligation but also vital for protecting reputation and finances. The importance of this cannot be overstated and drives our focus on protecting the entire SaaS application spectrum.”
SaaS adoption is widespread. According to Fortune Business Insights: “The global Software as a Service (SaaS) market size was valued at $215.10 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow from $251.17 in 2022 to $883.34 billion by 2029,” a 19.7 percent CAGR.
Asigra reckons the average user has nine SaaS apps while the average company uses 137. There should be a single backup facility for SaaS app customer data and Asigra intends its SaaSBACKUP to be exactly that.
Asigra’s software already works with the most popular SaaS apps – M365, Google Workspace and Salesforce. Connectors are needed for the mass of other SaaS apps.
The software has an SDK and supports multi-tenancy and AWS, S3-compatible storage, and Wasabi and Backblaze as backup destinations. But it also supports the use of an MSP’s preferred storage backend, either a cloud vault or an on-premises object store, as well. It has a pay-for-use business model and a marketplace for discovering and accessing connectors. Security is helped by having more than one person needed to make backup decisions such as storage vault deletion.
It is partnering with third-party supplier Augmentt so potential customers can discover their SaaS app exposure and manage it.
Asigra says SaaSBACKUP software adapts to and protects data in an unlimited number of SaaS environments, and provides mass deployment across hundreds or thousands of SaaS application users simultaneously. New users are automatically detected and included in the backup environment. Users can recover data at any level of granularity, including recovering a single email or a complete email system. When the lost data is identified, restorations are made to a user’s account or alternative location. Data can be protected for as long as required, and encrypted and defended with multi-factor authentication to meet regulatory and compliance mandates.
The SaaSBACKUP beta program will start in May 2023. Managed service providers may register to participate in the program here. Asigra thinks it will announce general availability in North America for MSPs in the third 2023 quarter, and GA for the UK and mainland Europe, VARs and VADs in the fourth quarter. Support for other geographies will come in 2024, along with multi-language facilities and a SaaSBACKUP marketplace for connectors and any other services.
Comment
Both HYCU and Asigra have independently recognized that protection of customer data in the great mass of SaaS apps isn’t always covered by the backup software vendors writing their own connectors. Hence the proposition of having it done by third parties. We think other backup vendors might come to the same conclusion. If they want to enter the general SaaS data protection market, they will have to provide an SDK for their software, motivation for connector writers, a what-SaaS-apps-do-I-use facility, and a marketplace for finding and accessing connectors.
