US-based disaster recovery vendor Doyenz is shutting down its UK cloud service and has given customers until the end of the month to retrieve their data.
The company launched its SMB-focused rCloud service in the UK in November 2011. Doyenz claimed the offering could restore virtual environments in less than 15 minutes and worked by hosting virtualised snapshots of local servers in the cloud.
To coincide with the November launch of rCloud, Doyenz also announced that it had opened its own London datacentre.
Cloud is not a quick buck marketplace.
In a statement to IT Pro, Doyenz's UK distribution partner, Blue Solutions, confirmed that support for rCloud will cease in the UK this week.
"We have received emailed confirmation that Doyenz will no longer be providing or supporting the rCloud backup and recovery service in the UK [from] 10 August 2012," wrote Mark Charleton, a director at Blue Solutions.
Charleton said users will have until 31 August to get their data back from Doyenz, but they will need to email the vendor's support team first.
He described Doyenz decision to axe the service as disappointing, adding that Blue Solutions' reseller network are using rCloud to store more than 10TB of data.
"It is surprising and disappointing at a time when we are seeing growing interest from the SMB channel wishing to support clients with cloud based backup and data recovery services," he said.
"We believe, but this is unconfirmed, that Doyenz will offer UK resellers the option to back up data to its US cloud servers," he added.
IT Pro was awaiting a response from Doyenz at the time of writing.
According a report on tech site Geek Wire, the firm recently laid off an unspecified number of staff in the US.
Ian Moyse, sales director at cloud-based CRM provider Workbooks.com, told IT Pro it is not easy for US cloud companies to break into the UK market because of end user compliance concerns.
"It has long been proven in the cloud world that you have to be in it for the long haul as the up-front investment to develop, build, maintain and support your offering means it can be years before you turn a profit," said Moyse.
"Cloud is not a guaranteed cash cow and whilst a fast growth market everyone wants to be in, not all will be winners."
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