Unitrends, a leader in enterprise-level cloud continuity, and CloudCheckr, a key provider of Amazon Web Services (AWS) monitoring and services management solutions, today announced a joint partnership to help managed service providers (MSPs) build, manage and grow their AWS-hosted businesses.

In a recent survey conducted by Kaseya, more than 400 MSPs revealed that the greatest areas of MSP services revenue growth in 2015 were backup and recovery, remote monitoring, and cloud services, including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS). Respondents expect these service pricing plans to rise again substantially in 2016. Leveraging the powerful combination of CloudCheckr and Unitrends Boomerang, a virtual appliance enabling users to simply and affordably move virtual machines (VMs) from VMware to AWS, MSPs can take full advantage of these offerings without increasing overhead expenses.

"The alliance between Unitrends and CloudCheckr is invaluable for MSPs building their AWS business," said Mark Campbell, Unitrends' chief technology officer (CTO). "CloudCheckr provides a low-cost delivery model that optimizes AWS operating and maintenance costs, while Unitrends Boomerang provides simple, powerful and affordable software for Disaster Recovery as a Service, migration and cloudbursting with VMware."

CloudCheckr is an online service that provides comprehensive AWS monitoring, evaluating up to 350 best practices in cloud workload configurations, costing, billing and security alignments. The service alerts users to exposures or vulnerabilities, and provides actionable intelligence on response strategies. CloudCheckr gathers data from AWS services such as CloudWatch, CloudTrail and API, which MSPs can analyze to optimize costs, manage cost allocation and provide accurate reporting for AWS Cloud. CloudCheckr also provides in-depth security features, including alerts, audit trails and continuous infrastructure monitoring while cloud applications are in active use.

Unitrends Boomerang is a simple, intuitive and cost-effective virtual appliance for replicating VMware VMs to AWS for low-cost backup and disaster recovery. With Boomerang, AWS MSPs can provide differentiation and maintain margins with Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), migration, cloudbursting and billing for AWS infrastructures.

"Backup and disaster recovery in the cloud are top imperatives for enterprises today," said Aaron Newman, CloudCheckr's co-founder and CTO. "Our partnership with Unitrends will enable MSPs to deliver unique cloud-based backup and recovery services that address the needs of their IT clients while increasing their service margins and AWS revenue."

On Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016, Unitrends and CloudCheckr will host an interactive online discussion focused on how MSPs can expand their business with AWS and effectively support customer demand for business continuity, managed compute capacity and related services in the cloud. To register, please click here.

For more information on Unitrends Boomerang, go to: http://vmboomerang.com/.