Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) provider Databarracks has become the latest cloud firm to offer its services on a ‘try-before-you-buy’ basis.
The move was prompted by the company becoming an official VMware vCloud Powered provider of public cloud services.
Peter Groucutt, managing director at Databarracks, said vCloud Powered offerings were preferable for enterprises because of their security credentials.
He also claimed that, as many enterprises have already built a virtualised on-premise environment using VMware's technology, vCloud is an appealing proposition because it does not force them to modify existing applications in order to make them cloud-ready.
“The first and most simple cloud service businesses tend to adopt is disaster recovery. Our aim is to show IT departments how easy it is to integrate these time and cost-saving tools with your existing systems, without compromising on service or security,” said Groucutt.
“That is why we are offering free test drives of both our disaster recovery and Infrastructure-as-a-Service platforms. The 30-day trial allows you to host up to 5 VMs with 100GB of SSD storage, as well as up to 200GB standard storage. Hosted from ultra-secure, ex-military nuclear bunkers, your data remains safe and you remain in control,” he concluded.
Databarracks is just the latest in a number of cloud service providers to offer their wares on a try-before-you-buy basis.
In September 2012, IBM announced it was offering a limited time try-before-you-buy option on both its IaaS and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) options.
Specialist virtualisation firm Flexsys announced one year earlier that it would be offering a 30-day free trial of its services as well.
The increasing trend towards try-before-you-buy is perhaps reflective of customer demand. In September 2012, trade body The Cloud Industry Forum published research that showed while more and more businesses were heading to the cloud, they were increasingly demanding a trial of services before signing on the dotted line for a subscription.
“Fifty-nine per cent of users claimed to have conducted a pilot/trial before contracting formally for the service,” said Andy Burton, chair of CIF and former CEO of Fasthosts, at the time.
“Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) should therefore ensure that such capabilities are made available within their go-to-market strategy in order to demonstrate transparency of practice and capability,” he concluded.
