Now Staples Offers Back-Up

As I mentioned earlier this month, everyone is offering data backup. Are you? Now Staples is offering backup services and IT services.

National retail chain Stapes on Wednesday launched a cadre of managed IT services, offering SMBs everything from online data back up to anti-spam. Under its Thrive umbrella, Staples is targeting small and mid-sized companies and offering solutions that help them make the right IT decisions while lightening the load on SMB's already limited IT staffs. "Staples is dipping its toe into the water in the IT services space," said Candy Murphy, vice president of Staples' Contract Technology Solutions. [CRN]

I don't mean to harp, but margins on DSL are small. As Elliot Noss said at the ISPCON keynote, the Googles are eating your lunch. You need to be High Touch and solve problems (not sell commodities). Backup is peace of mind. It is insurance. Today, backup is saving all the digital media - music, home videos, the photo album. Backup is saving the CD collection and the family albums.