Data Deposit Box Changes Name, Adds Features

Online storage specialist Data Deposit Box is changing the name of the company to KineticD. But the changes don't stop at a new moniker, said CEO and founder Jamie Brenzel.

The Toronto-based company is looking at enhancing its offering with more complex features and a managed services model so that VARs can integrate the storage services into their larger services bundles, Brenzel said.

"Last year we invented a new product where we allow users to gain remote access to the data from anywhere in the world. We started thinking about how the new product would affect customers. They could do business anywhere. It leveled the playing field for micro small businesses that don't have an IT department," Brenzel said. "When you combine that with a fully [secure] online backup, it was a perfect opportunity to rebrand."

Data Deposit Box was founded in 2003 leveraging a continuous backup technology that allowed small businesses to affordably (about $2 per gigabyte per month) and securely keep data off-site.

For the last seven years, the company has built a stable of about 1,000 channel partners and 40,000 customers, Brenzel said.

"We didn't want to go direct and use the Internet as our channel. We were attracted to micro businesses [of up to 10 employees] and the resellers and independent computing consultants serving those customers. We liked that the small, small business tech consultants were touching the machine," he said.

Resellers get a 25 percent sales rebate commission on KineticD's backup services, according to Brenzel. "Resellers quickly realized that once we introduced them to their customer base and they primed the pump with 10 to 20 customers, they'd get a nice annuity every month," he said.

Next: KineticD's Scalable Services

Some customers that started with fewer than 10 employees now are approaching 100, evidence that KineticD's services are scalable, Brenzel said.

"We have a fully redundant facility in downtown Toronto. It's a 'telco hotel' where all the major carriers like AT&T, Deutsche Telecom, have their operations," he said.

Brenzel said KineticD differentiates itself from other backup providers by treating data like an archive. Even if a user deletes a file from his machine, it may stay archived for up to seven years without using a cleanup wizard.

Also, KineticD stores up to 28 revisions of a document, he said.

"We did a survey and found that 57 percent of our customer base has to access and restore their data. And 25 percent had a need for accessing it remotely. That told us that this isn't just an insurance product. Our customers' data is active," Brenzel said.