On the heels of the latest release of Version 11 of their BackupAssist Classic offering, BackupAssist announces a new integration with Wasabi with their flagship BackupAssist Classic, which complements an existing integration with BackupAssist ER.

BackupAssist, which makes Windows-based automated server backup and recovery software for SMBs, has launched a new partnership with low-cost cloud provider Wasabi. It provides an integration with Wasabi’s flagship BackupAssist Classic, joining an existing one with BackupAssist ER, their disk to disk to cloud backup solution that was introduced last summer fully integrated with Wasabi and available in the Wasabi cloud. The new  announcement continues BackupAssist’s momentum from their recent announcement of BackupAssist Classic Version 11, which featured enhancements to their CryptoSafeGuard ransomware solution, password protection, and S3 compatible destinations, and the introduction of their Cyber Black Box, which assists post-attack cleanups by providing investigators with forensic information.

BackupAssist, whose main office is in Australia with a U.S. office in Boston, has been in business since 2001, and sells into over 165 countries today. They have always focused on smaller businesses, with their sweet spot being organizations of less than 150 people, although they have acquired some larger logos as well. Their typical customers tend to be schools, non-profits and local organizations like dental practices and other small businesses.

This market tends to be a price sensitive one, and the Wasabi partnership addresses their needs explicitly. Wasabi was already available as an option on BackupAssist ER, BackupAssist’s first solution that allows recovery in the cloud, as it was a natural fit for that product aimed at providing a low-cost alternative to DRaaS. The new integration opens up Wasabi to BackupAssist’s much larger base that has been focused on local backups.

“Clients have been asking for our recommended alternatives to the large first-generation public cloud providers, commonly inquiring about Wasabi specifically,” said Linus Chang, BackupAssist’s Founder and CEO. “In response, we began our standard stringent review process, with Wasabi quickly emerging as a top viable solution. In August 2020, we added Wasabi support for our BackupAssist ER, and with this announcement we add support for our BackupAssist Classic solution as well.”

Wasabi claim to fame is their ability to provide cloud storage at 1/5th the cost of Amazon S3 with no fees for egress or API requests. When combined with Wasabi’s cloud, BackupAssist provides a flexible and cost-effective storage solution that offers backups for both full system and granular recoveries, with Wasabi’s 11 nines of object durability and data immutability.

BackupAssist with provide a North American webinar on Wasabi and the partnership on January 27.

The new partnership follows up the recent launch of BackupAssist Classic v11 to General Availability. Its highlight is likely Cyber Black Box, a new capability which collects and stores logs and data that can serve as additional evidence in digital forensic investigations.

“If you’re unfortunate enough to be hacked, a potentially costly, arduous and stressful future awaits,” Chang said. “A thorough and effective clean-up relies on having the right forensic information available. The Cyber Black Box assists in this process by providing investigators with valuable forensic information, useful in identifying and remediating the root vulnerabilities. Better evidence means faster and more accurate investigations – which means lower recovery costs, and better prevention against repeat incidents.” The Cyber Black Box can also assist a business in submitting a cyber insurance claim, and recouping expenses resulting from customer notification, data restoration, and IT repairs, as well as associated legal fees.

The CryptoSafeGuard anti-ransomware capability has been enhanced in this release, expanding shielding of protected files from ransomware to include BackupAssist configuration and Cyber Black Box forensic logs. This provides extra mitigations against ransomware from corrupting backup configuration files or attempts to sabotage the backups.

In addition, the Password Protection and Administration Console now lets the administrator set additional administration console access passwords, to provide further mitigation against malicious actors from sabotaging backup configuration to effectively delete backup data.

Finally, Version 11 adds an additional option for where users can store backups in the cloud, with support for S3 Compatible Cloud Storage for Offsite Backups.

Existing BackupAssist clients can upgrade to v11 free of charge, as part of their current BackupCare subscription.