astro posted on July 09, 2010 14:26
Bothell, WA-based Moose Logic, a managed service provider recognized by Citrix as a Gold Solution Advisor and by Microsoft as a Gold Certified Partner, has been bringing Virtualization, Storage Consolidation, Active Directory, Exchange, and Remote Desktop Services to its Pacific Northwest clients since 1994.
Scott Gorcester, Moose Logic president, says he had been looking for a better way to do backups for at least a year and when he was introduced to Systems Center Data Protection Manager, part of the System Center family of management products from Microsoft. Integrated into server-based, available for purchase hardware, this Data Protection Manager (DPM) solution, he saw it as “pretty cool.”
DPM seamlessly uses disk, tape, and cloud-based repositories to deliver an easy-to-use and best-of-breed backup and recovery solution for Windows environments.
After a tall, cool drink of the DPM/SCDPM Kool-Aid, he first brought the solution into his own business. Since then, Moose Logic has placed a number of backup appliance units, both single and HA pairs, with customers. The appliances consist of a bundle of SCDPM and Microsoft Server licensing pre-installed on server hardware built to Moose Logic’s specifications.
Gorcester says “I am happy to report that our Sentry has ‘saved the day’ more than a couple of times.”
SMB Nation spoke to Gorcester about his available, branded Moose Sentry product following a detailed blog post on the subject.
Fellow SMB tribe members can use the Moose Sentry product themselves, or sell it to their own customers, if desired.
Moose Logic provides three months of unlimited support to those who purchase the single or dual pair hardware product from “The Moose.” Those buying for themselves or others will want to know the solution is built on Server 2008 x64 R2, the 2010 release of SCDPM, and includes FireStreamer Tape Emulation Software.
“We act as the reseller of the product, but we believe we can re-sell to resellers,” Gorcester said of the dedicated appliances infused with enterprise level Hyper-VTM virtualization technology. “We recommend a physical machine for DPM so data is on site, and we also recommend streaming data off-site, perhaps to a second DPM appliance that can be either physical or virtual.”
The single and dual boxes have a price point starting at $5,500 for a base unit with hardware, licensing and software installed and configured, moves to $7,000 at the enterprise-level and goes to a high of $14,000 for their dual,(high-availability enterprise-level pair.
“We have not really seen anyone else build this type of product,” Gorcester said in a telephone interview from his office just before the Independence Day holiday.
“In the past year, DPM has become a powerful tool, a new paradigm for us all to offer a better way to back up,” he said. “We have sold dozens of these units in the past two years. With DPM, clients can manage their data backup 7/24.” Module options are available to resellers who want to include some sort of managed service capability to these units. “If a reseller sells a unit and the client chooses to add to their units, some sort of commission will be worked out to compensate him or her.”
Readily available from the contracted unit manufacturer, small or large installations are easily fulfilled. The three months of unlimited support is given to the purchaser from Moose Logic. Comfortingly, their engineering experts stand by to provide support.