Jungle Disk Looks To Consolidate Brands After ElephantDrive Buy

‘In the long run, it makes sense to have one B2B brand covering small business to enterprise. Companies of all sizes have the same needs. They want trusted partners to help,’ says Jungle Disk CEO Bret Piatt.

Question: What do Jungle Disk, LiveVault, KeepItSafe and OffSiteDatasync have in common?

Answer: Too much product and service overlap to warrant keeping four brand names for B2B data protection services under one roof.

Jungle Disk is in the process of rebranding the stable of data protection services it acquired over time into a single brand, CEO Bret Piatt told CRN.

[Related: 2022 Storage 100: Who’s Got Your Backup?]

That move comes as San Antonio-based Jungle Disk late last month acquired yet another company, ElephantDrive, which is different from its other brands in that it is focused on the direct-to-consumer data backup market, Piatt said.

Jungle Disk ended up with four B2B brands last September when it acquired LiveVault, KeepItSafe and OffSiteDatasync from digital media company J2 Global, which a month later split into Ziff Davis, which also owns Spiceworks and Mashable and cloud technology company Consensus.

While the four data protection businesses owned by Jungle Disk have some technology overlap, they each have their own slightly different take on data protection and their own customer bases, Piatt said.

That is a situation that will change, he said.

“In the long run, it makes sense to have one B2B brand covering small business to enterprise,” he said. “Companies of all sizes have the same needs. They want trusted partners to help.”

The final branding of the company and its technology has yet to be determined, Piatt said.

“I don’t know if any of our current brands are a strong global brand,” he said. “Stay tuned.”

Jungle Disk focuses on backing up data primarily for small businesses of under 50 users, Piatt said. Most of that business is direct, although a good portion is done via channel partners.

LiveVault does server backups and archiving and also has a mix of direct and indirect channels, he said.

KeepItSafe is nearly all indirect channel focuses, mainly via MSPs, while OffSiteDatasync works with Veeam channel partners to provide a cloud solution to go with Veeam’s data protection technology, he said.

Consolidating the four brings up a set of complex issues given the mix of direct and indirect businesses and the mix of MSPs and other channels, Piatt said.

“But now we’re also seeing increasing complexity with things like data warehousing and SaaS,” he said. “We’re also seeing bigger growth with channel partners who want to do more with customers looking for things like disaster recovery specialists.”

ElephantDrive, however, will remain independent, Piatt said. ElephantDrive CEO Michael Fisher, who has been with the business 16 years, will remain in charge, although Jungle Disk will add a chairman and other board members, he said.

The storage industry has seen several consumer-focused companies leave the market, a move that makes it difficult for individual consumers to protect their memories, Piatt said.

“ElephantDrive just released a new version of its technology, so it will be around for a long time,” he said. “It will continue to be direct-to-consumer, and will also continue its strong go-to-market partnerships with NAS providers such as Western Digital and Synology.”

While the acquisition cost of ElephantDrive was not disclosed, Piatt said the company and Jungle Disk are both profitable.

“We believe if customers want to trust someone to store their backups, it’s better to go with profitable companies,” he said. “It’s important to take care of obligations.”