Sky Data Vault works with Agents and MSPs to deliver in-demand cloud-services for their customers

No matter what business you are in, real time access to company data has become mission critical. What happens when your data is ambushed with cyber threats, when a pandemic hits and your workforce must work from home, or any number of other scenarios that increase risk to your business? We are finding it is more crucial than ever that companies have a simple, fast, and cost-effective way to recover from any data loss.

Companies can breathe a sigh of relief, as we found a solution for this- Sky Data Vault. Founded in 2013, Sky Data Vault realized that most organizations were in a very fragile position. Some were using tape backups. Some were using hardware-bound cloud-based services that still needed complex system maintenance. Some had no backups at all! When failures occurred, recovery didn’t always happen.

Sky Data Vault has simplified a big chunk of the problem by offering a fully managed, cloud-based service portfolio. Here is our conversation with the Co-Founder and President of the company, Dave McPeak, to get a better understanding of his company.

Q. Why did you start this business?

After exiting my last business back in 2013, I spent some time looking for markets that I felt were under served. I found that while there were a multitude of software and storage options available, they were all geared toward businesses that wanted to build their own cloud solutions and run them themselves. There really wasn’t any single provider that offered a fully managed service.

With my background in running Managed Services and Hosting companies, I felt there was a real opportunity to offer something new. In addition, I found that while large Fortune 1000 companies had large IT staff and resources available, the SMB and Mid-Market businesses seemed eager to off load the care and feeding of their services to focus on the core mission as an organization.

Q. With COVID-19 requiring businesses to switch to remote work overnight, how have you been helping companies accomplish this?

When companies were forced into a remote work environment, we definitely saw a scramble as organizations tried to set up temporary solutions. Sky Data Vault customers that had our Managed Disaster Recovery as a Service (MDRaaS) were in a unique position. One call to Sky Data Vault support and the supported environment was turned on in our secure Sky Data Vault Cloud. From there, a simple VPN connection was all that was required and customer was able to seamlessly work from whatever remote location that they used.

One of the things we are most proud of is that when COVID-19 hit and customers were scrambling for solutions, we were able to react quickly and build out a COVID-19 Response Program. This Program allowed any customer, new or existing, to add any of our services free of charge throughout April, May, and June, when most organizations were hit the hardest.

Q. How does Backup as a Service – High Volume help in recovering lost data?

When we designed this service, we knew that many businesses with large data sets, 20-30, 100plus TB of data were looking at limited options. Most were big name public clouds that offered incredibly low rates per TB to upload and store data, but accessing the data, images, and files was a time consuming and costly event. Putting pressure on already tight resources and budgets. What we decided to do was to offer a set price per data tier and unlimited access, with the data always available to the business. So while more expensive per TB than public cloud offerings, there are no unbudgeted costs, no hidden fees, no delays in access or retrieval of the data, and Sky Data Vault is always available to support the recovery with no additional charges.

Q. How satisfied are customers with your services?

We look at client satisfaction in three ways. First, and the metric that provides the most direct feedback, is ticket resolution. We have been able to maintain a 100% “Awesome” rating on all tickets closed through 2020. Second, we track renewal rate and are proud of the fact we retain over 95% of all customers year over year. Third, is our current customers are always willing to speak to potential new customers to give first-hand account of what their experience is with our service and support.

Q. How is MDRaaS helpful?

As illustrated with the COVID-19 remote work requirement, having a managed solution meant that our Customers are able to focus on their workforce and their core mission as an organization. The monitoring, managing, and maintaining of the service is handled by Sky Data Vault. Furthermore, with risk being ever present and ever changing, when a recovery is actually required, Sky Data Vault is there to support.

Q. Why is Business in the Cloud(BitC) effective?

Our Business in the Cloud(BitC) service really is a managed IaaS and Hybrid Cloud offering. Customers can safely and securely move their compute and storage resources into the secure Sky Data Vault Cloud and offload the monitoring, managing, and maintaining of the infrastructure requirements. Some customers come to us with immediate requirements because of capacity issues for individual file servers, adding terminal server capacity, or any number of other resource requirements on an as needed basis. In other cases, we are dealing more complex requirements like helping collapse a multisite network into a single cloud presence with our BitC service. Either way, the flexibility, scalability, and speed that BitC offers fits the customer need to refocus on core competencies as a business. As a result, BitC has become the fastest growing service in our portfolio.

Q. What are the principles you follow for your services?

It was really important to me that we focused on three key principles when building out our service portfolio and designed how we address servicing our customers:

Managed – All services offered will be built to take the burden of managing the service off of the customer. Allowing Sky Data Vault to leverage our scale, experience, and depth of knowledge for the service provided and giving the customer the chance to focus on their workforce and their core mission.

Transparent – All service offered will be true “as a Service” pricing. We will offer clear and transparent billing options that allow customer to accurately budget for the services and not be surprised with additional charges when the service is actually used or support is required.

White Glove – Sky Data Vault will offer the best possible Customer experience from the point of first introduction in the Sales Process, through Implementation, and for the life of the relationships with Customer Support.

Meet the man behind the success of Sky Data Vault

As an accomplished entrepreneur, Dave has spent more than 20 years in the IT industry building companies focused on IT and IT services. Prior to Sky Data Vault, Dave was a Founder in other successful ventures spanning the IT landscape, from MSP Services, Hosted Applications, and Technology Consulting. He enjoys simplifying complex business technologies into usable tools for organizations to run more efficiently and focus on their core mission.

Dave is a former Sergeant in the Marine Corps and brings a great passion and drive to the success of the SDV Partner and Customer Community. When not managing the day to day operations of the Engineering and Support teams, Dave enjoys spending time with his 3 children in Clarksburg, MD. Hobbies that keep him busy outside of SDV include international travel, online gaming, and catching the latest movie premiere with his girls.