Covering Your SaaS: Announcing The Backupify Developer Program and API

For four years now, Backupify has lead the cloud backup space forward with one simple belief: that as the world moves to the cloud, every piece of the on-premise technology stack must move with it. We are in the midst of a massive transition where your hardware moves from your own server to Google, Amazon, or Rackspace; your operating system is the Web itself, not Microsoft Windows or OS X; your file system moves from a local drive to Box or Dropbox or Google Drive; and your applications are no longer packaged software downloads but instead are SaaS.

As participants in and observers of this massive transition, the question we have tried to continually answer is: In a post-transition world where every piece of the technology stack has moved to the cloud, what does backup look like? We believe it looks like Backupify.

It wasn’t obvious to everyone when we started, but by now you may realize that what we are building is not just cloud backup but the data control layer for this new technology stack. Our mission is to let you own and control your data because data is a critical business asset. If you lose that data it imposes incredibly negative consequences on your business. Backing up your data is the first use case in any competent business continuity plan, even in the cloud. Backup is also a great way to get a secure second copy of your data out of your SaaS provider and under your control.

The challenge we have faced is that inventing this cloud data control stack using the available technology has been hard, so adding new services has been slow. Over the past three years we’ve had dozens of independent software vendors reach out to us and ask if Backupify will support their application, and every time we have had to say “no” because we didn’t have the engineering bandwidth to support so many apps. But today that all changes.

Today we take a huge major step towards delivering that data control layer for the cloud, by announcing that the Backupify API and Developer Program is now in private beta.

Details of the Program

Over the past three years we have spent a lot of time thinking about how to build an API that works for all the different types of applications, data structures and use cases that are required to make cross-platform centralized SaaS backup work. In 2012 we finally stopped talking about it and started building some different prototypes, talking with many of our friends in the SaaS world, and surveying our customers to understand their needs and how they view the future of SaaS data protection. The result is today’s private beta launch of our technology and developer program.

As part of this launch, we are excited to announce our first five partners: Apptivo, Mavenlink, Nimble, Freshdesk, and Pipeline Deals. These innovative and forward-thinking ISVs were incredibly helpful as we finalized the requirements of a good API and a developer program that worked for their needs. Our joint customers will be testing the first integrations of these applications in coming months, and we believe that together we are pushing the SaaS ecosystem forward in a way that benefits our collective customer base.

For Business Customers

What does this mean for the businesses who are current and future Backupify customers? What does this mean for companies adopting SaaS applications? It means you won’t have to buy Salesforce backup from one vendor, Google Apps backup from another vendor, and Box backup from a third vendor, etc. It means that every SaaS application that you use will be backed up and managed in a central location so that administration policies, data retention policies, and other functionality can be applied across your SaaS portfolio.

For ISVs

For ISVs who provide cloud applications, this means you can now provide your customers with granular backup and restore capabilities through a very easy integration with Backupify. Data backup is important, and it isn’t the business you are in, but it is the business we are in. Partnering with Backupify provides a way to easily give your customers the peace of mind that their data is backed up in a secure second location that is under their direct control. It also gives them the ability to easily restore data on their own, should they lose something accidentally. We have heard time and time again that one of the sales blockers for SaaS companies is the issue of data ownership and control. By integrating with us, you can get around that issue and offer your customers the peace of mind a that only second copy of their important data can bring.

In conclusion, this is an exciting day for us as it is the culmination of many years of work and a big step towards our broader vision of a data protection layer for the cloud. In the coming days and weeks we will have more blog posts detailing various components of our technology and developer program associated with this launch.