Backup Clients For MSPs Overview 2024

Published 7 months ago5 min readBackup Considerations for Cloud Applications...

Backup clients is the discussion of all articles in this grouping of backup related articles.

Included in this group of articles is anything to do with storage operating systems.

These are articles specifically related to topics backup service providers have relating to their clients. Common issues from the intricacies of invoicing for backups to how to communicate effectively with backup clients so as to obtain the optimum outcome in any given situation.

The topics here also touch on the risks service providers take when offering a complex backup offering and I have several articles that go into detail on the importance of cyber security insurance coverage whenever offering backup solution strategies regardless as to if it is a locally based backup service, a hybrid backup service, appliance backup solution or a budget cloud backup service.

The articles in the list below are all certified 100% human written and are not regurgitated AI articles that I am sure most of us are sick of seeing by now. I have however used mostly artificial intelligence images to create the images you see, primarily because I am not the world's most artistic when it comes to images and I do not want to use other people's images on my site.

While you are here, take a look at some of our other Backup overviews which break down several important backup topics that may interest service providers:

While it could be argued that BaaS should be part of the topic when discussing clients consuming backup solutions, that along with backup hardware equipment, backup strategies, backup invoicing processes or articles specifically to do with local based backups and or cloud backups will be handled under the more focused categories below.

Backup Client Types

Below are some of the types of clients that the articles below will focus on. Each backup client type comes with advantages and disadvantages and of course they all come with at least a medium level of risk.

Backup Project Clients

Projects Involving Existing Clients: Existing clients that either want an upgraded backup solution put in or perhaps a total backup replacement project will often come in several different sub categories.

Existing backup clients tend to be very loyal with reasonable expectations due to having been exposed to your quality of workmanship either from previous backup projects or due to an ongoing backup agreement in place. The loyalty generally flows both ways in that as a service provider, you have built up trust that the client is not going to ask for outrageous requests, change the scope of a project halfway through or forget to pay you.

Projects Involving New Clients - Project Only

Projects Involving New Clients - Project Only: These clients can both be quite profitable however they are of the hit and run variety of backup client.

Either they believe they have enough internal technical support that they do not need a backup maintenance agreement after the project is complete or they already have a service provider they are happy with that may not have had quite the technical expertise to complete a backup rollout project.

These types of clients can be risky in that you have no history with them. I often question why a prospective client would come to a completely unknown provider to undertake a complex and sensitive project such as a backup installation or upgrade.

It is very important to vet these type of clients very carefully especially if they are a straight up cold call with not even a mutual contact recommendation. In my experience, get the money up front for any work being undertaken because there is a good 50% chance a backup project obtained this way is likely to be a failure.

The other 50% are made up of backup clients who either have no industry contacts and have probably just typed backup solutions New York into Google.

Projects Involving New Clients - Project And Agreement

Projects Involving New Clients - Project and Agreement: New potential backup clients that land in your lap wanting a greenfields backup project with an ongoing agreement can make you feel like you have won the lotto.

In my experience, if these potential clients have suddenly appeared out of the blue without any mutual contact recommendations then as above there is a higher than normal chance that they are an undesirable client.

The usual countermeasures here, cyber insurance plans in place, block time agreement up front before any work begins and as good a background check as you can do on the business. While they do bring a higher initial risk, often these types of clients if they workout can be very profitable.

Some of my best clients came from someone doing a google search. It blows my mind because it really is rolling the dice and essentially picking a service provider at random. I suppose that obtaining a client that way these days is becoming a bit more rare.

Also be careful with these opportunities as there is an elevated chance of a new client telling you that they want an agreement after the project work as a way of sweet talking you into doing the project in arrears. They will act as if an advance payment is out of the ordinary and get you to complete the project at which point you will never hear from them again.

The laws of course are much stricter in this day and age however in the really old days, I would always have kill switches built into any work that I had done. I was dumb in my early days and took people at their word and often worked in advance of payment. If you are starting your own MSP my advice is to never engage in that sort of practice as it puts you at a severe disadvantage.

Current Articles Relating To Clients And Their Backups

Below are a selection of articles that I have chosen that are likely to be relevant to our clients and topics related to maintaining their backups:

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Please feel free to explore our other articles and click on any that interest you. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about how we can help you with your documentation.