The backup market is getting a little more crowded with the entry of AVG Technologies and its new Online Backup, an add-on service offering to its CloudCare security service and complements its Managed Workplace managed services platform.

Luke Walling, vice president of sales and operations at AVG, tells Channelnomics Online Backup is an easy-to-deploy extension that allows solution providers to extend value beyond endpoint security with protection against lost and corrupted data.

From a service delivery perspective, CloudCare with Online Backup enables solution providers to deliver managed security and data protection services through a consolidated management console. In theory, such a system should simplify operations and reduce operating costs, which leads to greater profitability.

“With this in mind we have fully integrated online backup into AVG CloudCare so that small businesses can trust their IT providers to manage their data protection needs through the same single pane of glass,” said Mike Foreman, AVG’s general manager of SMB.

AVG’s entry into backup services follows a growing trend among managed services vendors adding data protection to their portfolio. Earlier this month, GFI MAX announced the availability of backup capabilities in its managed services portfolio. Continuum has long had backup as part of its portfolio through its former relationship with Zenith Infotech and, now, through partners.

Other managed services vendors, such N-able Technologies (owned by SolarWinds) and LabTech Software integrate with multiple backup providers to allow solution providers to develop agnostic capabilities.

Backup vendors, most notably Intronis Inc., Axcient Inc. and StorageCraft Technology Corp., see backup up as an essential element of any every managed service offering and are plying the MSP segment for partners. Nearly 70 percent of solution providers offer some form of on-premises or cloud-based backup service, according to The 2112 Group, and most are approaching backup adoption agnostically.

The larger question: Will the end-to-end strategy offered by AVG and GFI MAX gain greater favor than the agnostic model? With more than 2,000 solution providers using AVG’s CloudCare platform, a test of the end-to-end model’s viability will be come in early 2014. Moreover, the true test will come if more managed services companies look to offer dedicated backup rather than open platforms.