Backup and disaster recovery vendor StorageCraft Technology Corp., of Draper, Utah, has added subscription-based licensing options for its ShadowProtect SPX solution.
Effective today, resellers can buy that system via one-year and two-year renewable annual subscriptions in addition to the perpetual licenses StorageCraft has always offered.
“[It] allows you greater flexibility,” says ShadowProtect SPX product manager Cody Carpenter. It also helps channel pros lower their upfront spending and turn BDR license fees from a capital outlay into an operating expense, he adds.
Managed service providers had access to subscription-based pricing for ShadowProtect SPX previously. Today’s announcement extends that option to VARs as well for the first time.
“That’s just kind of where the software industry as a whole is going,” Carpenter says. “There’s a lot of movement to the subscription model and we definitely saw the opportunity and the need there.” Indeed, StorageCraft’s move comes scarcely a week after Sophos Ltd. introduced a new MSP partner program that includes the†security vendor’s first subscription-based purchasing option.†
As with StorageCraft’s perpetual licenses, buyers can pay for the new subscriptions on either a per-system basis when protecting physical machines or via the per-socket pricing the company rolled out in March when protecting virtual machines. Both the one-year and two-year plans come with support and maintenance at no additional cost as well. Perpetual ShadowProtect SPX licenses typically come with a free first year of maintenance, after which resellers pay a renewable yearly fee.
Carpenter declined to discuss exact pricing for the new subscriptions, but confirmed that buying the two-year plan gets you a price break.
“We’ve done a lot of research around the industry and made sure our model falls in line with other companies that have similar offerings,” he says.
