The enhancements to the new release of StorageCraft’s flagship data protection software are focused on filling in small gaps and connecting dots, to allow MSPs to use it as a single platform to cover all business continuity use cases.

At the ConnectWise IT Explore partner conference, StorageCraft has announced the 4.0 version of their flagship ShadowXafe data and system backup and recovery software. While this is not just an MSP product, StorageCraft is emphasizing that the feature enhancements in this version are particularly well-suited for MSPs. They flesh out some missing gaps and position the platform as one that MSPs can use as a single platform for all their customers’ business continuity needs.

“We are pretty excited about this, primarily because it is an extension of ShadowXafe and gives the MSPs a good platform to standardize on going forward,” said Shridar Subramanian, StorageCraft’s CMO. “It can be a nightmare to manage all these different business continuity solutions. Particularly now, when MSPs are trying to reduce expenses because of COVID and manage work from home, they are looking for operational excellence. That includes standardizing on the same platform for business continuity. With this 4.0 release, we have created this platform where MSPs can standardize entirely on ShadowXafe and broaden its use cases.”

ShadowXafe 4.0 now has a unified workflow and management system that lets it mix and match software and hardware environments so that it works with StorageCraft’s OneXafe Solo plug-and-protect backup and recovery appliance. Solo is ideal for MSPs with smaller customers because it installs itself once the customer plugs it in, eliminating costly truck rolls.

“ShadowXafe is now supported through the public cloud as well,” Subramanian said.

Virtualization support has also been fleshed out, so that MSPs can deploy and manage ShadowXafe for virtual machines all from same cloud-based management system.

“With this release we are expanding that capability and bringing it to use cases where customers may need Hyper-V protection as well,” Subramanian said. “Before we had agent- based and agentless support for VMware, and Agent-based support for Hyper-V. Now we have agentless support for Hyper-V as well.

Unsurprisingly, given that the announcement is being made at a ConnectWise event, where StorageCraft is a sponsor, StorageCraft has expanded its integration with its long-time partner.

“Prior to this, our ConnectWise integration was on ShadowProtect, our original product,” Subramanian said. “Now our ConnectWise integration has been expanded to ShadowXafe as well. This allows for consolidated automated licensing and billing on ConnectWise Manage and Automate PSA and RMM platforms.

“We want to emphasize that as MSPs are looking to improve their operating expenses, standardizing on a platform, and one that is very flexible, is a good way to do that,” Subramanian said. “We are the only company that provides this kind of platform that covers a broad range of use cases.”

StorageCraft ShadowXafe 4.0 is available now.