Rising energy prices got you worried about backup server costs?

With energy prices rocketing, understanding the total cost of ownership of your backup solution is now more important than ever. 

With a large range of options, approaches and solutions in the market, organisations that are reviewing their backup and recovery solutions have much to consider. 

Technical ability and product features can set solutions apart but with budgetary pressures in many industries cost is often a key factor. 

But, with the different approaches and solutions available, comparing prices may not always be straightforward, especially for those that don’t want to compromise on features and aspects like speed of recovery. Key pricing questions that should be asked include: 

• What are the associated set-up costs? 
• Are there any ingress or egress charges for data? 
• Is there a charge for accessing customer support? 
• Are data volumes charged on front-end or back-end storage? 

All these factors start to add up and give a clearer picture of a solution’s total cost of ownership (TCO). 

However, especially when trying to compare cloud solutions to those that utilise hardware, it’s key to also look at ‘grey costs’ such as those associated with energy consumption, heating and cooling, and of course any direct cost of implementing such hardware, while remaining aware of performance factors like speed, coverage and usability. 

Is the cost of energy driving your TCO through the roof? 

With energy costs rising globally, the amount of energy/electricity being consumed by your organisation has likely come into focus. 

If you’re still reliant on a backup and recovery strategy that utilises hardware, like servers or tape libraries, then TCO’s have likely spiked in recent months and with no price cap on energy costs for businesses, could be set to increase further. 

Even if this is the case, simply turning off backup servers to cut costs is not viable without an alternative to protect, and more importantly, recover data in the event of a disaster.

What’s the alternative to hardware-reliant backups? 

When looking for alternatives to potentially resource-heavy hardware-based solutions, the most logical option is a solution that has all inclusive pricing. 

SaaS options and cloud-first backup solutions commonly utilise these billing models, delivering a scalable but predictable cost for protecting data. 

When it comes to speed of recovery, a cloud solution that can offer streamed or prioritised access to backup data can replicate the speed benefits often seen by using local hardware. 

It is still important to review any associated ‘grey’ or hidden costs to gain the TCO as previously unconsidered support costs or set-up fees have the potential to rapidly inflate initial quotations. 

Not all solutions have these costs, and for organisations who choose to protect data using the Transparent Communications solution, which is underpinned by Redstor’s technology, this is the case. You simply pay for the data you choose to protect. 

And with Redstor’s InstantData™ technology, you can stream access to data on demand, cutting recovery time objectives to near zero, with no reliance on hardware. 

Key pricing questions: Transparent Communications and Redstor 

What are the associated set-up costs? 

There are none. The Redstor solution can be set up with end-to-end online onboarding over a simple, video stream like Teams or Zoom. One of our trusted technical experts can guide you through the process in a matter of minutes, giving you full access to the solution and the ability to back up a broad range of data sets including physical and virtual servers, laptops and SaaS applications like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. 

Are there any ingress or egress charges for data? 

No. As with any cloud-first backup, the first backup will take the longest, before incremental-only backups kick in. If bandwidth or time constraints exist, Transparent Communications and Redstor can organise for the initial backup to be done via secure, removable media and ingested directly into the Redstor platform, all free of charge. 

Is there a charge for accessing customer support? 

Redstor’s price per GB/TB approach to data protection includes access to a UK-based support team with over two decades of experience at no extra cost. If an issue arises a member of the team is only a call or email away. 

Are data volumes charged on front-end or back-end storage? 

The pricing for the Redstor solution is based on the total volume of data that needs to be protected on the front end. This means, no complex calculations to work out de-duplication and compression rates and multiplications to factor in data retention. Pricing simply comes down to the amount of data you select for protection, across all of your data sources. 

And, as the solution is not reliant on hardware, there are no top-heavy costs to implement the solution and start protecting your data.