Intronis is the latest backup service provider to ditch the traditional cost per GB backed up pricing model, introducing a flat pricing plan for partners to offer any and all of its cloud and on-premise backup and recovery services and products.

The vendor has “expanded past its file and folder roots,” said CMO Aaron Dun, with recent launches including on-premise options for backup of virtual machines as well as physical images, and with bare metal backup and restore slated to launch by the end of the summer. But rather than continuing to offer a variety of products with a variety of pricing models, the company is choosing to bring all of its backup and recovery options together under one flag, launching the Echoplatform brand for its backup and recovery offerings, and introducing the option for solution providers to pay a flat rate per customer to offer any combination of those offerings.

“We want to make it easier for VARs to think of it as one platform for everything we do. That will give them the flexibility to do what’s best for their small business customers,” Dun said.

The company currently boasts a customer base of some 2,000 solution providers, primarily in North America, and covering approximately 35,000 customers with their wares.

Dun said the switch in pricing model was needed because the old cost-per-GB model wasn’t holding up as the costs of storage continue to dramatically decline. Along with that, Dun said the model put solution providers into the uncomfortable position of having to decide which assets to cover for a customer to maximize the cost effectiveness of the service. With the flat pricing model, solution providers can simply pitch protecting everything, regardless of where it sits or how it would best be backed up.

“It helps them to have a much more strategic decision around data protection strategy,” Dun said.

The focus is on the unlimited “back up everything” package, but the company is also offering a version that’s capped at 100 GB of total backup for smaller businesses. While price points for the new offerings were not publicly disclosed, Dun said it would financially advantageous for most customers to move to the new unlimited model. And as was common in the cost-per-GB model, partners get discounts on the flat rate as they add more customers to the Intronis platform.

Both new and existing partners will be given the choice of the traditional or new pricing models, and Dun said he expects the unlimited model to quickly be the fit for about 80 per cent of the company’s channel customers.

At an event in Boston later this week, the company says it will announce an array of new marketing and enablement options for solution providers, including an updated knowledge base, and revamps to its partner toolkit of marketing materials and its Intronis University training options.

Intronis joins rivals including Acronis and Asigra in moving away from the traditional cost-per-GB backed up model. Acronis has set to redefine backup, while last year, Asigra announced a move to price based primarily on how much data is restored, not how much is backed up.