23 World-class companies from across the region
Redstor: Providing peace of mind, securing its own future
This is the latest article in a series looking at leading-edge companies that we have identified in association with business advisers BDO. John Burbedge reports
Redstor has its business head in the ‘cloud’ but delivers solidly grounded and comforting peace of mind for its end-user customers.
Which makes this Reading-based data backup and cloud-based storage specialist very popular with its customer-facing commercial partners – 130 at the last count.
Which in turn, makes Redstor’s MD and co- founder Paul Evans smile broadly at the future prospects of his leading edge company, already posting some impressive performance figures. With its £7 million-plus turnover, Redstor is on track to deliver cloud-billing growth of more than 50% this year.
Last year Redstor restructured to focus its future firmly on the ‘cloud’ – securing both its customers’ data through online off-site storage and backup, and its own commercial sustainability. Not that Redstor is a newcomer to the market.
“We’ve been in backup, storage and recovery since 1998, and doing cloud business since 2005 – only then we called it ‘Data on Tap’ and online,” says Evans. “Our longevity is one of our marketing positives.”
As is Redstor’s ability to spot a market trend and be nimble, confident and competent enough to exploit it.
Redstor was founded by childhood friends Paul Evans and Tony Ruane. Both had worked internationally and gained leading edge IT and data storage knowledge, but saw the future as delivering holistic consultancy-style storage solutions rather than simply providing ‘the kit’.
They began at the top talking to large corporates about information protection. “We put in one of the first UK storage area networks for Astra Zeneca when we were a five-man band.”
Evans and Ruane’s previous experience with OEMs, resellers and distributors gave them valuable knowledge and industry contacts, and Redstor quickly began to build a substantial end-user base.
“In 2001, we had this vision that one day people would access data like electricity, plugging it in when required. And, that customers would progressively out-task their IT storage requirements.”
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – MAY 2012
Then the dot-com bubble burst. Business confidence and trust in IT slumped. It was a telling moment. Redstor had been growing fast, but had to lay off staff.
Evans and Ruane decided a sustainable Redstor required the change to a recurring income business model. “We always believed in our vision, but bespoke solutions can’t be scaled up, can’t gain economies of scale, and don’t have recurring contractual relationships with customers.”
This year, 92% of Redstor’s gross profit will be from recurring business. “Customer churn is very, very low.”
Redstor also knows its place in the IT market. “Our focus was always to be really good at backup, recovery and archiving. You can’t be all things to all customers in IT. You are either niche or big; the middle market usually gets squeezed.”
Redstor has stayed niche, growing its UK-wide business by operating as a specialist wholesaler and harnessing the power of market-channel partner relationships.
“We’ve moved over the years from being a reseller-integrator to a distributor-wholesaler. We are the backup platform behind lots of partners.
“Our partners can dip their toes into the cloud without having the systems investment, and can get to market quickly with competitively priced cloud services.”
Paul Evans, Redstor’s MD and co-founder
Fast-developing technology has also played its part. Software advances moved data storage and backup from tape to discs and onwards towards online and multi-tenanted platforms with ‘cloud’. Redstor pioneered new technology and made sure it stayed well placed to ride the IT breaking wave.
And good fortune has favoured Redstor. When Warwickshire LEA wanted to offer a backup service to its primary schools, Redstor got the job. Today, through good channel marketing, Redstor’s RBUSS cloud service is used by half the primary schools in England and Wales.
The secure, green and efficient attributes of Redstor’s cloud services are already being closely examined by budget conscious academy schools, healthcare practices, councils, utilities, public and private sector companies, says Evans.
Among Redstor’s portfolio E-Safety is helping schools stay safe in a digital world. CentraStage is making headlines with businesses seeking to cloud-manage every device on their IT network. Cloud archiving is becoming popular, and Evans predicts SME uptake of its cloud backup will grow by 150% next year.
Automated 24/7 encrypted services and billing flexibility are leading edge aspects within Redstor’s cloud storage and backup offering, but its potential scope is perhaps its major attribute.
What makes Redstor leading edge?
– the view of BDO lead partner Julian Frost The market awareness of Redstor, and its commitment to its corporate vision of a better way of
providing secure data backup services, is impressive.
Although open to change, Redstor was brave when it radically altered its business model to become a wholesaler of backup services. Again, last year, Redstor strategically restructured its resources to follow its commercial belief in ‘the cloud,’ a belief nurtured by customer awareness.
They are definitely technology pioneers, market innovators, early adopters, but they are astute too. They saw the ‘cloud’ early, but realized the market was not ready. They had patience, changed to become partner-aligned, maintained their focus on backup, and now, having restructured, seem set to reap the benefits.
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www.businessmag.co.uk Leading Edge
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