Backup Anytime

Ben Puzzuoli is the chief operating officer of ROBOBAK. The name ROBOBAK comes from Remote Office / Branch Office Backup. We got in touch with Ben after interviewing Brian R.Bondy of VisionWorks. We told Brian we were very interested in the  VisionWorks open file management system not simply as a component but as part of an overall functioning system used by a successful ISV. (Independent Software Vendor)

Brian didn’t have to think for long before making his nomination.

Bens’ company is that example. ROBOBAK goes beyond backup and provides datadedupe services to corporates and MSPs. Deduplication has taken off to put it mildly and Ben is predictably very busy these days. He has however very obligingly accepted our interview offer (I am sure the introduction helped) and over the course of the past few weeks it has come to fruition. So, enough from me, lets get on with the interview.

 

MH: Name

BP: Ben Puzzuoli 

 

MH: Company.

BP: ROBODRS LLC dba ROBOBAK 

 

MH: Position.

BP: Chief Operating Officer, COO 

 

MH: Marital status, family members.

BP: I got engaged on 7/7/7 and will get married to my fiancee Lauren on Sept 26, 2009.  We also have 3 lovelykids, Baya, Mini and China… they’re dogs :) 

 

MH: Education

BP: My entire pre-university career was done in French schools, so I am bilingual.  I then graduated with honors from the University of Windsor in Business Administration.  I am currently pursuing my master in business. 

 

MH: Past times / Hobbies

BP: I love hanging out with my dogs, my friends and I like knee boarding. I also love to read, go out to fancy dinners and spend time with my family. 

 

MH: What type of car do you drive?

BP: 2008 BMW 323I or a 2003 GM Alero…. the wife usually drives the BMW though :) 

 

MH: How long are you in the online backup business?

BP: We’ve been in the backup business since 2002 with a SMB product until we started developing ROBOBAK, an enterprise class backup system designed for Remote Office, Branch Offices (ROBOs) backups in 2004.  ROBODRS LLC, dba ROBOBAK was officially incorporated in 2006. 

 

MH: What are the distinguishing features of your company over the competition?

BP: The fact that we care.  All of our clients would tell you that we define world class support by providing it, no matter it be Saturday, Sunday or a holiday we’re there to help our clients!  Another big distinguishing factor will be that we actually listen.  Most of our new enhancements or features have come directly from our clients suggestions which are directly on the front lines, reselling our product.  It shows that we care about their feedback. 

 

MH: What are the achievements of which you are most proud?

BP: The achievement that i’m most proud was our ability to really make the ROBOBAK name known in our industry in such a short period of time.  ROBOBAK is the leader in remote office, branch office, agentless backup. 

 

MH: Where do you see the industry going?

BP: The offsite backup market is SIZZLING HOT! I see the market growing tremendously over the next 5 years. 

 

MH: What advice would you give to business people who have data backup concerns?

BP: I would suggest to the user, that they first fully understand their business backup needs before approaching ANY vendor.  At ROBOBAK we don’t just sell software but rather a solution.  We have staff in-house that have years of real world Disaster Recovery (DR) planning and implementation that are willing to customize a plan to fit your exact needs.  ROBOBAK is a true solution. 

 

MH: What advice would you give to I.T. companies considering offering online backup to their clients?

BP: I would say go for it one way or another.  If it’s by offering your own hosted solution or by simply reselling a service by an existing ROBOBAK MSP, there is definitely money to be made!  One important thing to note here, is that ROBOBAK offers MSPs a great way to build their own brand in the marketplace and that is with our intuitive Customization/Branding kit.  This kit allows the MSP to brand and customize the executive client as many times as they wish with their own logos, images and features allowing them to sell their own brand of offsite backup service.  To learn more about the customization kit or anything else, simply contact ROBOBAK at www.robobak.com.

 

MH: From where do you get your inspiration?

BP: I get my inspiration from my family.  My parents always provided me with everything I ever needed, so I want to accomplish the same for my family! 

 

MH: Where do you see yourself in five years time?

BP: Exactly the same place! 

Ed. - Thanks again Ben and thanks also to Brian R. Bondy for the introduction.

Any queries regarding the people interviewed and companies they represent should be made as per the contact details of those companies provided on their official website. Backupanytime is not a point of contact for interviewees.

Visitors, want to see more who’s who in data? Then watch next weeks who’s who in data.

Who’s who in the data industry?

Interviews are arranged by invitation only. Please do no contact us canvasing or requesting an interview. We do not respond to such requests regardless of the request origin. If you are very keen to be interviewed and genuinely believe you have a story of significance which is specific to the data industry, your only possible option to add yourself to the interview list is to go through someone who has already been interviewed. Requests from previous interviewees to include an associate will be reviewed.

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10. Interview with Dr. Mickey Zandi of SunGard Availability Services. (Published 23 October 2008)

Dr. Zandi is Practice Area Managing Partner with SunGard Availability Services. Backupanytime in house opinion is that this is the best interview we have run yet. This says much given the high quality of interviewee we have become accustomed to. While Dr. Zandi is undoubtedly an excellent ambassador for SunGard Availability Services, his determination to answer all questions using his expertise in a manner which makes his answers informative and impressive rather than just the latter demonstrates the positive ethos of SunGard.

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9. Interview with Top Layer Security, Ken Pappas Vice President of Marketing and company secutity strategist.(Published 16th October 2008)

Harvard University’s data is sorted according to protocol family using a cluster of Top Layer 4508 IDS Balancers. Ken is Marketing VP of Top Layer and this high level interview has been facilitated by Matt Flanagan of Fama PR.

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8. Interview with Adam Famularo, SVP & GM Recovery Management and Data Modeling business, CA. (Published 9 October 2008)

CA (still commonly known as Computer Associates) is one of the largest management software providers in the world. Adam represents the largest company we have had on the Who’s who (I don’t think anyone will dispute this!) and we appreciate his participation and eagerly await this interview.

Many thanks to Michael Kornspan, Sr. Principal, Communications for C.A. for his help without which this would not have been possible.

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7. Interview with Struan Robertson of Pinsent Masons and out-law.com (Published 3rd October 2008)

Struan Robertson is a lawyer focusing on technology law with Pinsent Masons. He is also the very well known Editor of excellent technology law website out-law.com which is likely the most respected accessible public technology law website in the U.K.

We are very excited about this interview as we are frequent visitors to out-law.com and consider it an excellent resource regarding the legal position on current and emerging technologies.

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6. Interview with David Whitelegg of itsecurityexpert.co.uk (Published 26th September 2008)

David is an I.T. security expert from (appropriately) itsecurityexpert.co.uk and despite his intended attendance at the PCI SSC (payment card security) conference in Orlando for most of next week he will participate in our “Who’s who in data”. It will obviously be a very busy week for him. Many thanks in advance David. We look forward to our first data security specific interview and are proud to have managed an appointment with an inside industry expert.

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5. Interview with Ben Puzzuoli of Robobak.com (Published 19th September 2008)

All of our interviewees have a connection. That connection is storage. The specifics range from software through to actual storage. There are however other connections. This weeks interviewee, Ben Puzzuoli of ROBOBAK was introduced to us by a previous interviewee, Brian R.Bondy of VisionWorks. Want to know more about Ben and Robobak? Click the link above and hear it from the man himself.

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4 Interview with Marcus Mac Innes of Pix.ie (Published 13th September 2008)

Our regular blog readers will know that Marcus is the CEO of Pix.ie and that his company has featured as part of the Tuesday Push some weeks back. We were so impressed we asked Marcus to join our “Who’s who in data?” interviewee list and he kindly obliged. I have had a sneak preview. Our first Irish interviewee has not let the side down (:  Do not miss this one.

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3 Interview with Brian R. Bondy of Visionworks. (Published 4th September 2008)

Brian’s company VisionWorks has opened an important niche in the online backup industry and specifically with open file management facilities for software providers. A riveting read.

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2 Interview with Sekar Vembu of Vembu Technologies. (Published 28 August 2008)

Sekar speaks candidly about his company and his vision. VEMBU has very quickly become a major player in the data backup industry. Sekar has a strong record in the I.T. business and VEMBU Technologies is so close to his heart he gave it his name.

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1 Interview with Rob Cosgrove of Remote Backup Systems. (Published 21 August 2008)

Many thanks to Rob for being the first interviewee. His involvement has made it easier for us to get the attention of other highly important people in the data backup industry. For his input we are most thankful.

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Want to ask you own question? Would like to avail of the combined knowledge base of an international poo of data experts? No problem. Just ask the data experts!

Pipeline list (Agreed in person, with representative or through media contact. Date not set)

Interview with Eugene Kaspersky of kaspersky Lab (Antivirus expert. Pipeline : Agreed, date not set)

Interview with Bruce Schneier of schneier.com (Data security expert, Author: Agreed, date not set)

interview with Mr. Virendra Mane of Qualex Systems (Man and company behind the AVANASstorage excellence NAS sofware : Agreed, date not set)