Why choose Assured Data Protection as your Rubrik managed service provider?

When prospective customers are asked what they want from your business, what do they say? It’s a safe bet that a tailored, hands-on and high-quality standard of customer service is high up on their list. No-one wants to feel they’re receiving an off-the-shelf solution. Assured Data Protection knows that no two businesses are the same, so why would their data protection solutions be?

At Assured Data Protection, delivering a first-class user experience is central. Not only is it about Rubrik being the best data protection solution on the market, it’s about how Rubrik helps your team pass on great service to your customers. Assured Data Protection’s experts love working with Rubrik – and in this article, one of them will explain why – but it goes further than that. Customers could buy Rubrik from a range of providers, so what makes them choose Assured Data Protection?

In this guide, Assured Data Protection’s Technical Operations Director talks about how they deliver Rubrik as a Service and customers discuss why they chose to work with the Assured DP team and what is unique about their offering.

Chapter 1: What makes Rubrik as a Service from Assured Data Protection unique?

Chapter 2: Carpmaels & Ransford achieved simplicity and made time savings with Rubrik as a Service

Chapter 3: William Davis Homes updated their backup solution whilst making significant cost savings with Assured Data Protection

Chapter 1: What makes Rubrik as a Service from Assured Data Protection unique?

Assured Data Protection has been with Rubrik almost since the very beginning when they launched in 2014. Their deep, inside knowledge of the platform is something that makes sense for a lot of customers to invest in. The confidence the team has in the Rubrik products intrinsically provides customers with the peace of mind they need when it comes to protecting their data.

Stew Parkin, Technical Operations Director at Assured Data Protection says the combined experience of the senior leaders and the technical team means there isn’t a Rubrik query they can’t answer:

‘Most of the team have actually been using Rubrik longer than 90% of the Rubrik staff themselves. Our expertise, knowledge of the code base and the software itself is second to none, and I'd certainly challenge anybody globally to have more proficiency in the product than us.’

How Assured Data Protection pioneered Rubrik as a Service

At the very beginning of their relationship, Stew says it was the forward-thinking vision of Assured Data Protection that convinced Rubrik their product could be offered ‘as a Service’. When the Assured senior team approached Rubrik and explained how they believed the product could be even better put to use this model, the directors at Rubrik were convinced and Rubrik as a Service was born:

‘We pioneered Rubrik as a Service offering a managed service, right from the get go. So, just after Rubrik came out of stealth mode, Assured Data Protection became the first and only ‘Rubrik as a Service’ provider.’ 

This forward-thinking attitude is preferable for many customers when compared to older companies who are less likely to adapt and innovate for the modern world. While some names in the market might seem more familiar, it could be that these companies aren’t able to fulfill the needs of a growing company that needs a scalable data protection solution.

Practical expertise providing valuable insight

Opting to use a managed service provider removes a lot of the worry for IT departments. Assured Data Protection is able to provide foresight and diagnose issues quickly. Stew explains how this works in practical terms:

‘The proactive managed service that we provide will inform our customers that they've got a problem before they know it. Things like that are often the early warning signs for much larger issues. We're able to pick up on those and inform customers  quickly.’

Whether it’s a straightforward backup failure, or something more sinister – because Assured Data Protection is always monitoring systems – the solution doesn’t leave issues to be uncovered when it is needed most. The speed at which they can find and resolve these issues is one of the most appealing aspects of their managed service solution.

Working exclusively with Rubrik

The backup market space is crowded. Plenty of companies offer other products as a service – but none offer Rubrik as a Service. Assured Data Protection is the only provider to exclusively offer Rubrik, meaning they don’t dilute their knowledge by offering multiple solutions. Stew explains the advantages of this approach for customers:

‘Because we only offer Rubrik, it means all of our time is dedicated to understanding and working with Rubrik. We're not chopping and changing between other vendors, providers or services so our customers know they can rely on our dedication and expertise.’

This also brings about advantages in speed. Other, larger MSP’s might work with multiple vendors, which can lead to delays. At Assured Data Protection, because everyone is a Rubrik expert, it keeps service moving quickly, and enables businesses to pass those time-saving benefits onto their customers.

Freeing up valuable time for IT teams

One of the most appealing aspects of using an MSP is reduced workload, freeing up your IT team for more complex tasks that can’t be automated. Stew says the Assured Data Protection team effectively becomes an extension of their customers’ IT team:

‘We can become the backup admin for customers. Then they can concentrate on things like production environments and business applications that actually make the business money. This is like an insurance policy – we give them back their time.’

What company couldn’t benefit from more time? Especially with the demands put on IT departments across most businesses. What could your IT team achieve if backup was automated and took only minutes to manage each day?

A comprehensive ongoing service

Another great feature of the Assured Data Protection managed service solution is that customers are given a dedicated account manager. This is a point of contact who customers can reach out to, who understands their account and needs, and can answer questions, no matter how big or small:

‘Customers can expect proactive monitoring from us. Each customer will get a dedicated account manager who will become an extension of their team.’ 

More than a ‘pleasant extra’ service, the account manager offers support in the way a new employee at your business would. There is flexibility, too – if you’re an email, phone or face-to-face person, Assured Data Protection will adapt to the style of communication you prefer.

‘95% of our support is provided remotely, although we’re happy to adapt to whatever the customer needs. Some of our larger customers have onsite support monthly, quarterly or weekly. It depends on what works for them.’

For many businesses, backup, recovery and retention policies are compliance driven, so need to be tailored to their individual industry. This is often where they have felt let down by previous service providers.

Training and support for Rubrik

Rubrik’s physical training courses are still in the early stages of development. There are training materials, such as YouTube videos available to help new users self-train so it’s even more vital that your Rubrik MSP is able to supply that training.

With Rubrik, IT teams can learn on the job, but Assured Data Protection doesn’t just hand over the reins and expect customers to get on with it themselves.

‘There’ll be practical learning and we expect our customers to ask questions, or raise support tickets. But there's a complete range of needs: Some people will query things once, while other people will ask questions every day. We’re happy to provide the level of support that’s required for each individual customer.’

Customers can be as involved with the service as they choose – the experience is custom-built around the needs of each company.

Supporting businesses in a long-term partnership 

Data protection technologies that many companies currently use are around 15-20 years old and many of those businesses will have been doing things the same way for most of that time. But by deploying a more modern and reliable solution, businesses can forge relationships with their provider that last far into the future. Stew explains how Assured Data Protection works:

‘We're not looking to make a fast buck. We're looking to keep customers and forge long-term partnerships. If we can save the customer money by doing something differently, then we will. It’s about being flexible and working with our customers to provide a solution that really works for them.’

Because of the high level of service Assured Data Protection offers, it has enabled them to become Rubrik’s leading global managed service provider, helping businesses all over the world to protect their data.

Chapter 2: Carpmaels & Ransford achieved simplicity and made time savings with Rubrik as a Service

Carpmaels & Ransford is an intellectual property firm in London. As a patent attorney law firm, they look after the patents pharmaceutical companies, tech companies and beyond. Minesh Patel is the Infrastructure Manager and, in the last two years, they've created an entirely new data center and technology refresh. When Minesh moved to Carpmaels & Ransford, they had three different backup solutions running so he sought an opportunity to simplify.

Multiple platforms were a drain on time and resource

For Minesh, the ease of use and simplicity of one product doing everything was a huge draw. The ability to simplify the existing system at Carpmaels & Ransford was key for him:

‘We had three different backup products when I arrived. One was a cloud product, but we weren't happy with it. We wanted to consolidate to just one product so we didn’t have to look after three different things as this was very time-consuming.’

An impressive approach

From the start, Minesh appreciated the obligation-free and friendly exploratory period Assured Data Protection offered. He and his team didn’t feel any pressure to proceed if, at any point, they had decided the solution wasn’t for them:

‘We had a demonstration and normally I'm very skeptical and if it's too good to be true I will challenge it. But from that demo, I could see what Rubrik was capable of and straight away I knew it was the solution for I wanted.’

The Backup Administrator at Carpmaels & Ransford was reluctant to work with a new platform as often people like working with what is familiar, even if it’s cumbersome. But once he saw it in action, he was convinced, too.

Control over the solution

From the beginning, Minesh was offered the option to be as involved with the solution as he chose. If he wanted to step back and let Assured Data Protection initiate everything, he could, but if he had questions and wanted to ‘hands on’’ that was welcomed, too. He found Assured Data Protection to be an MSP who tailored the Rubrik solution, based on their business needs:

‘The great thing about Rubrik as a Service is that we have control; we can restore whatever we want and we don't need to go to Assured Data Protection. 

As well as the Rubrik platform itself, one of the real benefits to us has been how Assured Data Protection handled the whole thing. They wrapped an entire offering around a backup & recovery solution that worked for us.’

Simplicity with a tailored solution

Working with an MSP should be time-saving. They should offer a quicker, easier, less risky way of doing backup and restores. Minesh pointed out that it isn’t just Rubrik’s remarkable platform that makes their processes straightforward.

‘We had one server that had a problem and literally, we got it back online in five minutes from the backup. Previously that would have taken a few hours'

A big part of the solution which would make recovery simpler, quicker and more cost-effective was Assured Data Protection’s Disaster Recovery as a Service offering.

‘Normally when we create a new data centre, we have to consider what will happen if that data centre has a problem, so we’d have to have a second one somewhere else. With Assured Data Protection’s DRaaS solution they gave us a managed data centre of our own which they look after and backup. Now in the event of a disaster, they can bring that back within just a few hours. As well as peace of mind, it has saved us significant costs by removing the need for us to have a secondary data centre.’

High level of customer service

Assured Data Protection offers a fair, reliable service for everyone. If a customer needs to reach out with a query, Assured Data Protection are dependable and will offer a fast response, no matter who you are. Minesh found this when he contacted them out of hours:

‘Assured Data Protection are so easy to reach. Even over a weekend, if I send an email I get a reply 10 or 20 minutes later. I know they have clients who are larger than us, but they never make you feel like you're less important than anyone else.’

Treating all accounts equally is one of the cornerstones of Assured Data Protection’s mission, but catering to personal needs is just as vital. Minesh has enjoyed working both remotely and in person with Assured Data Protection and believes varying the way they communicate helps develop a meaningful relationship between MSP and customer:

‘Stewart and the team came to our office and we installed everything together; everything since then has been done remotely. In the early days, they also spent time with our Backup Administrator which helped build confidence in using the platform. Even now we’re all up and running, if they're ever in London they always come in and see us.’

Assured Data Protection has a good relationship with Rubrik, with direct access to their service team, so issues get resolved very quickly. If the Assured Data Protection team isn’t able to find a solution, Rubrik is only a quick email or phone call away for them – and therefore, for customers:

‘What's great is that all the team knows their stuff. Our account manager also provides technical support, so the team is very well rounded and can talk in-depth about Rubrik – it makes life a lot easier.’

No matter who you work with at Assured Data Protection, you’ll find their expert knowledge helpful in easing your day-to-day workload. Their expertise also helps customers meet compliance – in Minesh’s case this offered them an additional benefit:

‘We've become ISO 27001accredited and one of the portions of gaining that accreditation is how your backup and recovery is covered – that's all answered easily with Assured Data Prtoection and gives us peace of mind.’

Being upfront with costs

Minesh found there was plenty of openness and honesty about costs ahead of Carpmaels & Ransford signing up to work with Assured Data Protection:

‘With previous providers, we’d found payment systems to be complicated and unclear, often paying a different amount each month for the exact same service. Assured Data Protection’s pricing is clear and honest with fixed costs.’

Assured Data Protection's pricing is structured on a per-terabyte basis. It’s simple to understand and budget for, and its transparency helps customers plan for the future as their data increases. They want to help customers scale up as they grow, without worrying about hugely inflated costs.

A collaborative approach

Feedback from customers is actively encouraged at Assured Data Protection. If customers want something specific, they will listen and adapt their way of working to what the customer needs:

‘Every step of the way, we were involved, not just in building requirements, but validating everything that Assured Data Protection was doing. Everything was tailored. Going forward, we continue to give input and have regular meetings with our account manager. The communication is superb.’

The communication between Assured Data Protection and their customers encourages this sense of a two-way partnership, and whenever customers have feedback to pass on about the product, Assured Data Protection is able to inform Rubrik directly about customer requests. The only way a product evolves and improves is through feedback, and both Assured Data Protection and Rubrik take suggestions seriously:

‘We always give feedback when we see where the platform could do other things and Assured Data Protection always feed these points back to Rubrik. Hopefully, our input will continually improve their offering. 

With other companies, you find communication is brilliant at the beginning: they’re attentive, and then all of a sudden you don't hear from them. It’s not like that with Assured Data Protection.’

Backup is key

The daily reporting tool offers IT teams the security to trust in Rubrik and to get on with their other responsibilities. For most businesses, backup is understandably the most important thing:

'If you have a ransomware attack and you haven't got a reliable backup, your entire business could come to a halt. You're going to end up losing data and possibly face fines for breaching data protection laws. Any way you look at it, it will cost you a lot. With Rubrik as a Service I have complete peace of mind.’

Assured Data Protection also supplies a tailored backup report to Carpmaels IT team every morning. That way if there are any issues they work with them to remediate any problems immediately.

Chapter 3: William Davis Homes updated their backup solution, whilst making significant cost savings with Assured Data Protection

William David Homes is a housing developer based in the midlands who build new homes with a focus on attention to detail. The new-home construction industry involves lots of sensitive data from customers – they need to know their data is being managed and looked after securely, leaving them free to focus on strategic business decisions.

Paul Pearce has worked as the William Davis Homes IT Manager for over 20 years. He was tired of running out of storage capacity and wanted one, comprehensive backup solution which didn’t leave him paying extra costs at the end of each month.

Inadequate legacy solution

One of the things that made Paul decide it was time to search for an alternative was the inflexibility of their existing solution. He and his team were tied into long contracts which they found difficult to get out of:

‘We had been using our previous solution for a long time. The contract we were on wasn’t very good because we were constantly on the brink of running out of storage.’

These more traditional, fixed contracts mean it’s easy to overspend. A lack of innovation means it’s expensive to have more storage, and even then, there’s no guarantee of how long the new capacity will be fit for purpose for your growing business:

‘Previously, if we wanted to increase storage, it was a very laborious process and it was getting very expensive. It was an old product that clearly wasn’t being developed.’

Backup and recovery in one package

In his research, Paul found that most MSP’s tended to offer either backup or recovery, so a comprehensive package that offered both required a much bigger investment.

‘What we wanted was pretty standard: backup where the system backs up to local storage and also to cloud storage in the data centre, so that if we lost any files we could recover them quickly. 

But we also wanted disaster recovery and business continuity, so that in the event of a problem we could quickly and easily recover the system.’

To find that both of these solutions were offered as standard with Assured Data Protection was a pleasant surprise for Paul. At the very least customers can expect these services, then anything else can be tailored according to their requirements.

Better value for a superior solution

Many companies stick with what they know when it comes to backup often paying more for an inferior solution that no longer meets the demands of modern business. By exploring new solutions companies not only find that they can save money but also free up their IT teams for innovation to help the business grow.

For Paul, it was an easy decision to make once he heard what Assured Data Protection could offer:

‘With Rubrik as a Service you get the power of the full product and it's very competitively priced. The price of the solution was less than we were paying previously and with more storage. It was a lot more flexible.’

The Rubrik as a Service model gives businesses the flexibility to grow. Whether you need that extra storage right away or are planning for the future, Assured Data Protection can create a bespoke solution to make the most of your budget.

‘The data quota from Assured Data Protection was nearly double what alternative providers were offering for the same price. I'm only using about half the amount of data quota at the moment so we know we have room to grow which is just what we needed.’

Most businesses want a quota that adapts to their usage, instead of the dreaded monthly balance or being chased for extra payments to cover your excess use. Assured Data Protection removes this worry for IT departments – checking your quota becomes a thing of the past. For Paul, this is in stark contrast to his previous provider:

‘I now no longer have to look at our quota. Previously, I’d look every day at how much I'd got left. If I was slightly over the quota at the end of the month, I was getting billed for over usage, which was more expensive than the actual storage itself.’

Simple fast deployment

Paul didn't want to be in a situation where he'd be left without backup, so with their Backup as a Service option, Assured Data Protection installed Rubrik on-prem, providing the necessary hardware free of charge.

The process looked like this:

Step 1: Assured Data Protection deployed Rubrik with the local storage into the William Davis Homes offices.

Step 2: Once installed it ran parallel with the previous system.

Step 3: Once backups had moved onto Rubrik, the old system was deactivated.

‘It was a seamless handover and worked really well.’

Improved service for customers

If there’s one thing IT teams – and wider teams across the business – don’t want, it’s delays. In today’s world, customer satisfaction is built around the speed with which you can be trusted to offer great service. If your business should experience a data breach, natural disaster or any other major threat, how fast could you recover? For Paul, this was a serious consideration when deciding to change provider:

‘The way Rubrik works in the event of a disaster is completely different to other systems. It's so much slicker and a lot quicker to recover to a working system with the ability to restore files and servers within minutes with minimal disruption to services.’

Another advantage of Rubrik as a Service is having ongoing support. Paul says this was essential for any contract he was looking to sign. He didn’t want to feel solely responsible, should things go wrong and wanted support to turn to:

‘Support is very important. I wouldn't like to feel that in the event of a problem I would be on my own. It was critical – having support as part of the contract and Assured Data Protection provided that.’

Disaster recovery and business continuity

The option to use virtual desktops was included in the contract designed for William Davis Homes, adding an additional layer of reassurance for Paul and his team:

‘In a disaster recovery scenario, Assured Data Protection use the backups to get systems up and running virtually, within the data centre, very quickly. At which point, we would then be connected using virtual desktops with access to the data and the systems within the data centre so we could carry on working seamlessly.’

Customer-facing team members often need to be able to locate important data with ease, which Paul can now help with more efficiently:

‘If someone has a file that they deleted a week ago or so, I would be able to locate it quickly – far more quickly than our previous product could. The search capabilities are a lot more powerful within Rubrik.’

Consistent, honest communication

No-one likes to feel sold to. Gone are the days when the hard sell was the expected method and now a softer, more educational approach is appreciated by customers. It was the ‘non-salesy’ style of Stew and Rob at Assured Data Protection that helped Paul feel comfortable to take his time and decide if this was the right option for William Davis Homes:

‘Stewart and Rob came to visit me before we signed up, but I didn’t feel they were typical salespeople – they weren’t pushy. When I asked a question they answered it honestly and didn’t brush over any negatives.’

Since meeting Stew and Rob, who offered a demo of the product, Paul has enjoyed working consistently with one account manager for all his queries:

‘Sandeep's been my main point of call for technical support and any issues we might be having. The service is very good. When I email Sandeep or just the support address, I get a response very quickly.’

When the disaster recovery test was run, it went smoothly and Paul found the communication was excellent throughout. Assured Data Protection aims to be responsive to all queries.

Flexibility with payment options

Assured Data Protection knows that most businesses don’t want to be dictated to when it comes to payment terms. Businesses manage their budgets in different ways, so finding the right-fit payment plan is a big consideration.

Losing money had been a previous concern for Paul, but his new contract with Assured Data Protection removed all this fear:

‘Assured Data Protection offered Capex and Opex models, plus annual, monthly or quarterly payment options so there was flexibility which really appealed to us.

For many businesses, being able to outsource the riskiest and most vulnerable aspects of data protection is a huge advantage – not just from a business efficiency perspective, but from a peace of mind one, too. For IT teams who are already stretched beyond capacity, being able to offload some of the more labor-intensive and repetitive parts of their jobs, safe in the knowledge that backup or recovery is reliably taken care of, means they are able to work smarter.

If you’re considering Rubrik, our free cheat sheet can help you decide on an MSP to work with. It contains 12 key questions any Rubrik MSP should be able to answer. Download the free resource here: