A partnership between global tech companies CT4 and Veeam Software is making data protection accessible and affordable for clients around the world.
Australian-headquartered CT4 is the developer of several data protection products including Cirrus for Microsoft 365, a solution powered by Veeam technology for automating the protection of information generated by applications in the popular Microsoft 365 platform.
According to Dan Pearson, Chief Technology Officer at CT4, partnering with Veeam provided the ideal solution for resellers and enterprises, facilitating the company’s global expansion.
“Our goal is to make data protection accessible and affordable for our customers,” Mr Pearson said.
“Our first endeavour was to provide a solution that made it easy to back up and restore Microsoft 365 data, combined with unlimited storage at an affordable price. For us, unlimited storage means a predictable spend with no surprises for our customers.”
CT4’s challenge was finding the right partner to support Cirrus, expand market visibility and broaden global distribution to reach the maximum number of customers across all industries and verticals.
For small and medium enterprises, that meant creating an affordable solution that would take frequent backups of their data and store them securely in a local Microsoft Azure storage account. Rapid recovery was a necessity, as well as flexible data retention based on needs and requirements.
“Microsoft 365 is one of the most leveraged sets of business tools in the world, so when enterprises protect their data, they’re protecting themselves from loss, corruption and compromise,’’ Mr Pearson said.
“They want peace of mind knowing their data is backed up, secured and easily recoverable from ransomware, accidental deletion or deliberate removal.”
For resellers, CT4 wanted to provide a cost-effective, quick-to-set-up BaaS solution with 24/7 support, enabling resellers to focus on their core business. They would reap all the benefits of offering comprehensive data protection without having to build, manage or operate a supporting infrastructure. Moreover, comprehensive data protection would be a simple add-on to customers’ licences.
“To provide the ideal solution, we partnered with Veeam to create Cirrus for Microsoft 365,” Mr Pearson said.
“As the global leader in backup, recovery and data management solutions, Veeam provides the enterprise scalability and reach to support our rapidly growing customer base of resellers and enterprises.
“We consider our solution to be an extension of Veeam because it provides a SaaS platform for resellers and enterprises to use globally. This is just the beginning of more Veeam-powered solutions.”
Alan Warmington, Director – Cloud and Service Provider Sales Australia and New Zealand for Veeam, said the furious pace of innovation made CT4 a logical choice.
“CT4 have actually been a Veeam partner since 2014, however it wasn’t until December 2020 that I sat down with Dan for breakfast and we started discussing the areas we viewed as high growth in the data protection space,’’ Mr Warmington said.
“Dan started sharing his research into the SaaS backup arena and we shared our thoughts on where the opportunities were. From that discussion, some two years later, with Dan’s drive and energy and CT4’s amazing execution, a phenomenal new partnership has formed, culminating with the release of Cirrus for Microsoft 365, powered by Veeam.
“The continuous innovation and the furious pace at which it is happening made CT4 a smart choice for us. CT4 have built more than a product or service, they have built a vision and a number of routes to market to ensure success of that vision, and they are thinking big - expanding into most parts of the globe. It’s extremely exciting to watch,’’ Mr Warmington said.
“Veeam has an amazing partner ecosystem globally; what Cirrus brings to the ecosystem is an extremely simple way of helping even more partners and customers access Veeam’s market-leading technology.
“Building their own channel program as well as integrating into Veeam’s existing channel ecosystem means customers can access the services quickly and through their preferred supplier,’’ he said.
CT4 has worked hard to broaden routes to market as well, making the global consumption of Veeam as easy as possible. Cirrus for Microsoft 365 is available via CT4’s website and in the Microsoft Azure and Ingram Micro marketplaces.
Mr Pearson said marketplaces offered additional accessibility, flexibility and reach.
“Being able to transact in each marketplace has enabled continual international expansion and allowed us to create special deals for resellers and enterprises.”
Mr Pearson said CT4 wasn’t done creating and that Cirrus was designed to be adaptive.
“We recognise that technologies are continually evolving, along with the ever-changing needs of our clients, so we’re developing new Veeam-powered offerings like Cirrus for Cloud Protect Azure, Cirrus for Cloud Protect AWS and Cirrus for Salesforce.
“Our vision is for Cirrus to be considered the only data protection solution for SaaS products globally. This is the cornerstone of our business and go-to market strategy, and Veeam is supporting us every step of the way.
“With Veeam, it’s all about the partnership. They’ve helped us deliver a simple, reliable and cost-effective SaaS product on a global scale,’’ Mr Pearson said.
This notice applies across all websites that we own and operate and all services we provide, including our online services products, and any other apps or services we may offer (for example, events or training). For the purpose of this notice, we’ll just call them our ‘services’.
When we say ‘personal data’ we mean identifiable information about you, like your name, email, address, telephone number, bank account details, payment information, credit card details, support queries, and so on. If you can’t be identified (for example, when personal data has been aggregated and anonymised) then this notice doesn’t apply.
We may need to update this notice from time to time. Where a change is significant, we’ll make sure we let you know – usually by sending you an email.
When we refer to ‘we’ (or ‘our’ or ‘us’), that means CT4 Pty Limited and all its wholly owned subsidiaries. Our headquarters are in Australia but we operate and have offices all over the world. Address details for all CT4 offices are available on our contacts us page.
For European Union data protection purposes, when we act as a controller in relation to your personal data, CT4 Europe Limited (Company No: 09357367) is our representative in the European Union.
Our approach to data protection is built around four key principles. They’re at the heart of everything we do relating to personal data.
Transparency: We take a human approach to how we process personal data by being open, honest and transparent.
Enablement: We enable connections and efficient use of personal data to empower productivity and growth.
Security: We champion industry leading approaches to securing the personal data entrusted to us.
Stewardship: We accept the responsibility that comes with processing personal data.
When you visit our websites or use our services, we collect personal data. The ways we collect it can be broadly categorised into the following:
Information you provide to us directly: When you visit or use some parts of our websites and/or services we might ask you to provide personal data to us. For example, when you sign up for a subscription, join us on social media, take part in training and events, contact us with questions or request support. If you don’t want to provide us with personal data, you don’t have to, but it might mean you can’t use some parts of our websites or services.
Information we collect automatically: We collect some information about you automatically when you visit our websites or use our services, like your IP address and device type. We also collect information when you navigate through our websites and services, including what pages you looked at and what links you clicked on. This information is useful for us as it helps us get a better understanding of how you’re using our websites and services so that we can continue to provide the best experience possible (e.g., by personalising the content you see).
Some of this information is collected using cookies and similar tracking technologies..
Information we get from third parties: The majority of information we collect, we collect directly from you. Sometimes we might collect personal data about you from other sources, such as publicly available materials or trusted third parties like our marketing and research partners. We use this information to supplement the personal data we already hold about you, in order to better inform, personalise and improve our services, and to validate the personal data you provide.
Where we collect personal data, we’ll only process it:
If we don’t collect your personal data, we may be unable to provide you with all our services, and some functionsand features on our websites may not be available to you.
If you’re someone who doesn’t have a relationship with us, but believe that a Cirrus subscriber has entered your personal data into our websites or services, you’ll need to contact that Cirrus subscriber for any questions you have about your personal data (including where you want to access, correct, amend, or request that the user delete, your personal data).
First and foremost, we use your personal data to operate our websites and provide you with any services you’ve requested, and to manage our relationship with you. We also use your personal data for other purposes, which may include the following:
To communicate with you: This may include:
To support you: This may include assisting with the resolution of technical support issues or other issues relating to the websites or services, whether by email, or otherwise.
To enhance our websites and services and develop new ones: For example, by tracking and monitoring your use of websites and services so we can keep improving, or by carrying out technical analysis of our websites and services so that we can optimise your user experience and provide you with more efficient tools.
To protect: So that we can detect and prevent any fraudulent or malicious activity, and make sure that everyone is using our websites and services fairly and in accordance with our terms (www.cirrusbackup.com/terms).
To analyse, aggregate and report: We may use the personal data we collect about you and other users of our websites and services (whether obtained directly or from third parties) to produce aggregated and anonymised analytics and reports, which we may share publicly or with third parties.
There will be times when we need to share your personal data with third parties. We will only disclose your personal data to:
If we share data, and that would only ever be subscriber data, it will never be transferred to, and processed in, countries other than the country where you signed up to.
Security is a priority for us when it comes to your personal data. We’re committed to protecting your personal data and have appropriate technical and organisational measures in place to make sure that happens.
The length of time we keep your personal data depends on what it is and whether we have an ongoing business need to retain it (for example, to provide you with a service you’ve requested or to comply with applicable legal, tax or accounting requirements).
We’ll retain your personal data for as long as we have a relationship with you and for a period of time afterwards where we have an ongoing business need to retain it, in accordance with our data retention policies and practices. Following that period, we’ll make sure it’s deleted or anonymised.
It’s your personal data and you have certain rights relating to it. When it comes to marketing communications, you can ask us not to send you these at any time – just follow the unsubscribe instructions contained in the marketing communication.
You also have rights to:
You can exercise these rights at any time by making a support request at servicedesk@ct4.com.
If you’re not happy with how we are processing your personal data, please let us know by getting in touch from the support page. We will review and investigate your complaint, and try to get back to you within a reasonable time frame. You can also complain to your local data protection authority. They will be able to advise you how to submit a complaint.
We’re always keen to hear from you. If you’re curious about what personal data we hold about you or you have a question or feedback for us on this notice, our websites or services, please get in touch.
As a technology company, we prefer to communicate with you by email – this ensures that you’re put in contact with the right person, in the right location, and in accordance with any regulatory time frames.
Contact us from www.ct4.com/#contact