I am an active user of SOS (coming up on my 1st year in April 2013). I'm backing up about 50 computers with a total of almost 5TB of data.

First things first. I'm truely disappointed in their channel program. While they claim to be at your side 100% for MSP, they really aren't. My "channel manager" was/has never been there for me. It would take 3-4 phone calls or 3-5 emails to get his attention. Maybe I was a low on the list for asking for some help for a small 50GB client. Nevertheless, 10GB or 1TB, they should be there for me when I need some help. Their "360 marketing" is nothing but pre-defined PDF files...canned stuff that you can just slap your logo on.

Let's talk about their software:
- NO native Exchange of SQL backup. They give you a license for the Storage Craft Shadow Protect software and you must do full bare metal backup. That's how you backup exchange with SOS. A full bare-metal backup.

You must configure the software manually - one by one. Their management console does not provide any such way to create backup sets and apply them across the board to computers. You have to touch each and every computer you want to backup. And installing is no joke. They don't have any GPO you can apply to install through AD. They offer no URL you can email to clients to download/install. You just get an exe or msi and you're on your own.

Their software does not run as a server, but rather just a scheduled task and you must provide user credentials if you want to backup and the user isn't logged in. I had huge problems w/this setup because half the time, the software wasn't accepting credentials and the backup would fail. My fix was to set the credentials by editing the scheduled task. Even their support didn't know this. Software is buggy too. I ran into many different issues. All well documented in my countless emails with support. The interface on the client software is very poor. It's featureless basically. It's easy to use, but it's just ugly and lack key features you'd want in a solid client application.

Their support. Very poor. They might be fast, but they are not all that knowledgeable. They love to tell you to go read some KB article instead of helping and solving problems. In less than a year with SOS, I have well over 200 emails back and forth with support. Some issues, I just gave up chasing for a solution. I've even had conversations with the CEO and after promises and promises from him - failed to deliver.

Backing your data. Imagine this: You have a 15GB PST file and another 5GB of random files you want to back up. Ok, 20GB takes a while on your first backup. That's expected. But how about your 50th or 75th backup and it's still doing full backups nightly? Whoa! Where is the delta checking? Where are my incrementals? Ohh...they don't exist! I get full backups night. No wait..I take that back. Let's say there are 5000 files I'm backing up. Well, it taking about 8-9 hours....but wait. My report says it only backed up 100 files. Wow...did we really need to check all 5000 files during backup? Can't figure out how to delta checking better? Archive bit? Who knows. My point is their backups take a long time, regardless of the # of the files. And forget about restore, unless you want to loose your sanity. Summary of restore: You must know the file name or extension. You must know the date of the backup you want to browse through. This is strange. Many other backups apps I've used give you searching along with an Windows Explore type look and feel. SOS just provides you with a search box. Makes it all the more difficult to find something you want to restore.

When I signed up with SOS, I though it would be a wonderful partnership. After about a month, I've felt nothing but the cold shoulder from them and truely let down as a partner. Their 12-month commitment is steep too. Their per GB prices are fair (lower than industry average), but hey...you get what you pay for. And I got nothing but a headache from them.

I can't wait to leave them when my contract expires.