Customized online backup provider Intronis Technologies has formally launched a channel program with a goal of doubling its channel partner numbers.

Intronis CEO Sam Gutmann said while the channel program offerings have been available to partners since 2003 when the company's eSureIT online backup product was launched, up until now marketing, support and training were not standardized, and were based on custom program offerings designed to suit the partner's business model.

"I don't want to say we were reactionary, but partners just came to us and said, 'This is how we are doing things with your product,' and they picked how they wanted to play," Gutmann said.

Intronis' eSureIT online backup technology is geared for small and midsize businesses that don't have the budget or the resources to handle data backups themselves, and thus typically don't back up their data at all. Gutmann said eSureIT offers partners a simple, affordable way to help their SMB customers back up their data securely online and store it at two co-located, secure mirrored Intronis storage facilities.

Intronis has two basic partner types, Referral and Reseller, both which receive monthly recurring revenue. Referral partners receive a monthly commission on each paying customer they refer to Intronis services. Intronis takes care of all customer service and billing functions for the partner, Gutmann said.

Reseller partners sign up customers for the online backup service and are responsible for customer service and billing functions, and also set their own end-user prices, Gutmann said. Reseller partners can rebrand the eSureIT online backup service under their own company names.

Gutmann said most partners start out as Referral partners and switch to the Reseller partner program once they've built up a large customer base. Gutmann added that partners can switch between the programs at will, depending on which model works better for them and for their end users.

In conjunction with the formalization of its partner program, Intronis will offer more marketing materials and white papers through its online partner portal and will host a series of Web seminars to help partners with sales and technical training.

Gutmann said his company currently works with almost 1,000 partners. In 2007, he said, 70 percent of the company's revenue was driven through the channel, and that percentage had grown from about 60 percent in 2006. He added that the company has doubled revenue, number of staff and number of channel partners each year for the past three years, and that by 2009 Intronis hopes to "more than double our numbers again."