Quebec MSP Finds Très Bien Solution to Backup Blues

As the name implies (at least, as the name implies to anyone with a working knowledge of the French language), Clicpomme is all about Apple. (For those without a working knowledge of the French language, “pomme” is their word for both apple the fruit and Apple the operating system). And “Le meilleur de la pomme sans les pépins” is what they offer to clients—“The best of Apple without the seeds.”

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Focusing on small businesses throughout the greater Montreal area as well as the province of Quebec, Clicpomme is a managed service provider (MSP) with a laser-like focus on Apple devices. As members of the Apple Consultants Network since 2009, they are part of a network of independent technology service providers that specialize in Apple solutions for small and medium-sized businesses. Assisting in the management and deployment of Macs, Clicpomme offers a turnkey solution for everything from network maintenance and file servers to security and consulting. In the words of Founder Richard Charbonneau, “We take care of everything. So that’s it.”

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The firm, which consists of five consultants, was founded by Charbonneau after a lengthy IT career. While their roughly 200 clients vary in size and scope from legal and public relations firms to schools and hospitals, the tools remain the same for each. And one tool Clicpomme requires for all of their clients’ devices (mostly Mac laptops) is a trustworthy backup. “Some clients would say they didn’t need it, but for us it’s not an option to go without a backup solution,” said Charbonneau.

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La Mauvaise Solution / The Wrong Solution

After going through several different backup solutions, the firm began deploying CrashPlan for its clients. Their reasoning behind the decision was simple enough—at the time, CrashPlan was the only solution that offered a centralized dashboard to manage all of Clicpomme’s clients, as well as unlimited backups, at a price point which worked for their budget.

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Eventually, however, problems emerged. First, CrashPlan’s parent company Code42 ended support for off-site server backups, forcing Clicpomme to use the online dashboard to manage cloud-based storage servers rather than simply use their own servers. This was a nagging problem as it gave Clicpomme less direct control over backed up data, but the real troubles would come with the launch of MacOS Catalina.

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With CrashPlan running on Java, Clicpomme began to see numerous issues spring up, between kernel RAM crashes, software reboots, and false alarms stating that backups had not been completed. These false alarms were particularly worrisome. “With our previous backup provider, we received a lot of false positive errors saying that a backup had not been completed when it actually had,” said Charbonneau. “I didn’t feel comfortable seeing those errors for my clients.” Determined to protect his clients’ data, Charbonneau sought a more reliable backup provider—one that didn’t introduce so many “seeds” into their environment.

La Bonne Solution / The Right Solution

Before he could migrate Clicpomme’s clients away from CrashPlan, Charbonneau needed to find a solution that worked. For that, he turned to Slack, where the wide world of the MacAdmin community and the Webex admin community shares knowledge and information. After a few different exchanges in which Backblaze’s name continued to come up, Charbonneau felt it was worth a closer look.

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Right away, the signs were positive. “The software was built for macOS, so it's a native macOS application… That got me,” he said. With a client base that was 99% Mac users, and an existing solution that had already proven to have issues with the latest OS update, the native integration was key, as was a mass deployment solution. His clients were using everything from MDM to SimpleMDM and Munki, and Backblaze Business Backup worked seamlessly with each, making for a smooth transition.

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Particularly when moving over hundreds of clients in a mass deployment, the best thing an MSP can be is invisible. Operating during the summer, typically a slower time for both Clicpomme and their clients, Clicpomme was able to change over to Backblaze Business Backup without a hitch. “All our clients are managed by MDM or Munki, so it was really easy for us just to push the uninstaller for CrashPlan and package the new installer for Backblaze for every client,” said Charbonneau. “To be honest, it was the smoothest deployment we’ve had. We should have moved to Backblaze a long time ago.”

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During the changeover, Clicpomme’s clients didn’t miss a beat.

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Un Coup de Main / A Helping Hand

While the solution itself made the transition simple and painless for Clicpomme, Charbonneau found great value in the service he received from Backblaze. At every step of the deployment, Backblaze engineers were on hand, helping to manage implementation.

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Working with Backblaze engineers, Charbonneau was able to create the software package and deploy it across the entire client base quickly and easily. “Backblaze was there from A to B and C and Z. They really helped make the migration painless,” he said.

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And once the migration was completed, Clicpomme began to find that not only did Backblaze cause far fewer problems, it integrated better with many of Clicpomme’s existing solutions. One example is Watchman Monitoring, which they use to keep tabs on clients using both Macs and PCs. Backblaze interfaced perfectly with Watchman, automating backup error notifications and sending them directly to Zendesk.

Ça Marche Juste / It Just Works

Under their previous solution, Clicpomme would find themselves dealing with an average of 10 different help tickets a day, largely false positives. After so many false positives, the effort to chase each one down became an exercise in futility, but one that Charbonneau never felt comfortable ignoring.

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Using Backblaze Business Backup, that number dropped to zero. The Backblaze app just operates silently and reliably in the background of clients’ machines. For Clicpomme, this meant not having to waste hours per week verifying false positives—time they didn’t have to begin with. And since Backblaze Business Backup was better suited for the latest operating system update, their clients were able to enjoy lag-free backups of their critical data without crashes or errors.

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“I log into my Backblaze admin portal, and I can see that everything's fine. It's just working for us, and that gives us peace of mind,” said Charbonneau.

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In addition to that peace of mind, moving to Backblaze has also allowed the firm to expand their business. One client reached out following the Backblaze Business Backup deployment to hire Clicpomme just for backup, without any MSP services or Apple support. Thanks to a reliable, stress-free backup solution from Backblaze, Clicpomme is courting new clients while ensuring they are delivering on their promise to their existing clients—the best of Apple, with no seeds.