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Axcient is lifting the lid on its new backup and business continuity offering, providing SMBs with cloud-based service that guarantees near-instant access to data and solution providers with another annuity-based offering.

Cloud Continuity, a product Axcient has spent more than a year developing, becomes available this month. It’s cloud-based backup that replicates all data on servers and endpoint devices used by SMBs. With no upfront investment in software and equipment, SMBs can setup the service and start sending backup data to Axcient servers within minutes.

Backup software and servers are commonly used by SMBs. What Axcient is addressing isn’t backup so much as accessibility and business continuity, says CEO Justin Moore.

“The majority of vendors that are focused on the data protection market have built partial solutions that require an SMB to work with multiple vendors, and most of those solutions only protect the data. With Cloud Continuity, we can ensure that businesses continuously have access to both their data and their applications no matter what happens. We’re going to make downtime a thing of the past for SMBs,” Moore says.

The service – which starts at $24 per month per server – is built on Hewlett-Packard hardware and Axcient’s proprietary software. Resellers and customers aren’t required to make long-term or large upfront commitments to service and storage capacity. The model is expressly designed to be a pass-as-you-grow investment for both the Axcient partner and the reseller.

Cloud Continuity isn’t a collaboration or a file-sharing platform, although it does have characteristics of those systems. Moore tells Channelnomics that file sharing and device synchronization features will be added in future versions.

Moore believes Cloud Continuity is a disruptive service offering, since it’s easy to use, relatively simple to implement and low cost. These are key factors given that most of the service’s users will come from customers switching from more expensive competitors.

Cloud-based backup and storage isn’t new or revolutionary. Axcient is counting on the low and flexible pricing of the service and the ability of solution providers to share in the revenue stream. The combination of technology and channel model, Moore believes, will propel Cloud Continuity.

“We see the industry absolutely exploding,” Moore says. “We’re at the right place at the right time with the right offering.”

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Lawrence M. Walsh is CEO and president of The 2112 Group, a technology business advisory service that specializes in optimizing indirect channels and partner relationships. He’s also the executive director of the Channel Vanguard Council. He is the former publisher of Channel Insider and editor of VARBusiness Magazine. You can reach him at lmwalsh@the2112group.com.

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Larry Walsh:@lmwalsh2112 | Channelnomics: @channelnomics