Continuum Rolls Out New Programs To Help MSPs Better Support Customers

Most recently, the company announced the kickoff of its new Tech Advantage program, through which MSPs can leverage the resources of Continuum's Mumbai, India-based network operations center team to execute on a variety of projects.

"Our NOC operation is a core capability," said Steve Ricketts, vice president of marketing at Continuum. "It represents a significant investment that allows us to provide full remediation capabilities for our partners. We are not just sending alerts and tickets. In many cases we are resolving the problems on their behalf."

[Related: Continuum Inks Deal To Add MDM From Fiberlink ]

The new program now extends those capabilities to projects that Continuum can execute on behalf of the MSPs. "It could be an Active Directory setup, antivirus installation or any of 80 different projects that we have delineated on our list, which will continue to grow in the future," explained Ricketts. "They are going to leverage our NOC and our expert staff of more than 200 certified engineers and technicians to execute those projects. In many cases, we can do those projects on a more cost-effective basis by offshoring them to India. Plus, we can do projects around the clock so that while they are sleeping, work is being done on their behalf."

Other projects on the list include VMware vCenter, ESX and ESXi installation and configuration, and Exchange Server migrations.

The MSP accesses the Continuum portal and places a work order that defines the customer, the scope of the work and the timeline. Ricketts says that because Continuum works exclusively through the channel, there is no need for partners to fear disintermediation of any kind.

In a separate announcement last week, Continuum also unveiled its new BDR Revive Solution, which enables MSPs to install Continuum Vault backup and disaster recovery (BDR) solutions onto existing hardware appliances, using a USB stick.

Continuum Vault features enterprise-class protection, instant virtualization, cloud-based replication and recovery, full monitoring and management support, and optional unlimited cloud storage.

"The SMB space has a number of BDR vendors, including Continuum, who typically sell their own hardware appliances as part of the business continuity solution that the MSP is selling to the end customer," explained product director Jeff Neumann. "If the partner wanted to change BDR vendors, they had to buy a new device with the software already on it. But BDR Revive allows partners to leverage their existing hardware investments and repurpose those devices with the latest technology."

The re-imaging tool can be used to upgrade BDR hardware from a number of vendors, including Zenith Infotech, Dell AppAssure, Axcient, HEROWare and Chartec. Neumann also noted that the India-based NOC can also assist with those transitions, including the supporting archiving process.

The upgrade technology is being offered free of charge until April 15. Prices after that date have not yet been disclosed.

PUBLISHED JAN. 15, 2013