There's a lot going on in the data protection and cyber security markets - it can be hard to keep up with all the news. That's where The Competitive Corner's Newsletter comes in, to help curate and distill the most pertinent movers and shakers each month to make your job easier.
May was a busy month in the data protection market with a lot more announcements and news than I could capture in this newsletter (unless it was a news BOOK), so I had to do some serious curation for brevity. Key newsmakers include #Veritas, #VAST, #Superna, #Veeam, #Commvault, #Revyz, #Cohesity, and more. Below you'll find a breakdown of why these news items matter to you, links to the original articles, and related blogs for further research and insights.
May 2024 Competitive Headlines:
(click any headline to jump directly to the analysis)
Self-Defending Data Protection with Veritas
[Link to Original Article]
Why it Matters?
Veritas has added some AI into their cyber security toolkit with the introduction of what they are calling "self-defending" data protection solutions. Once you get through the jargon it looks like Veritas' AI copilot can monitor not just for anomalous data patterns in the backup, but also anomalous behaviour in admin/user activities within NetBackup and Alta Data Protection. Not only can it flag these potentially threatening behaviours, but it can automagically make adjustments to the security settings and access controls within their platform (MFA and 4-eyes) to lock down the solution and protect against potentially malicious activities.
VAST Data and Superna Boost Cyber Resilience with Intelligent Cyber Threat Protection and Instant Recovery for the AI Era
[Link to Original Article ]
Why it Matters?
Superna and VAST have jointly launched the "Superna Data Security Edition" for VAST. Superna provides unique real-time ransomware detection capabilities as their technology resides directly on the data layer itself (vs. post-backup or ad hoc analysis). This enables Superna to very quickly detect suspicious activities and alert administrators. This new integration with VAST will give joint customers a new tool for defending against threats to their large unstructured data sets. Most VAST customers have a LOT of data, so this sort of real-time insight will be very useful.
Commvault Announces Fiscal 2024 Fourth Quarter Financial Results
[Link to Original Article]
Why it Matters?
For the 4th quarter in a row, Commvault has "beat the street" with their latest FY24Q4 and FY24 Full Year results. Total ARR grew 15% to finish the year at $770M (up from $668M in FY23) with total revenues up 7% for a total of $839M for the year (up from $785M). Commvault is kind enough as well to separate out their SaaS (Metallic) revenues (to a degree) showing a 65% YoY gain compared to Q4 of last year finishing Q4 at $168M vs. $101M in FY23Q4.
Commvault continues to convert their existing customers to subscription and when coupled with new logos (defaulting to subscription) show a 26% growth in their subscription customers YoY with 9300. Commvault's linearity over the past several quarters is indicative of the overall growth and importance of the backup market as a whole.
The Q4'24 Earnings Presentation is available off their Investor Relations page here: ir.commvault.com
Revyz Raises the Bar with Cloud Security for Atlassian with Introduction of Malware Scanning
[Link to Original Article]
Why it Matters?
Revyz is a niche/boutique Atlassian data protection solution available via the App Marketplace. There are very few vendors out there that can project Jira and Confluence , but these data sets are critical to many businesses. Now add in the threats from malware and ransomware and you can see the risk. With this latest announcement, Revyz has added in (free of charge) the ability to scan files and attachments inside Jira/Confluence backups for potential malware and alert administrators to any possible threats.
As I said, few vendors (Revyz, Rubrik, HYCU, Rewind, GitProtect) are even providing backup of any kind for Atlassian, but only Revyz is offering this malware detection.
Wasabi Technologies Delivers Flexible Hybrid Cloud Storage Solutions for Data Protection
[Link to Original Article]
Why it Matters?
Wasabi continues to expand their integrations with other backup solutions to provide a deep, cheap tier of storage for longer term retention -- this time by adding key integration functionality with Dell PowerProtect Data Domain. Data Domain can now natively tier off backup data directly to Wasabi's cloud storage which lowers the cost for customers that want or need long retention times for their backup data. Rather than having to add more racks of DD, they can direct those backups to Wasabi and extend the lifespan of their existing frames.
Own Company Announces Appointment of Kevin Delane as Chief Operating Officer
[Link to Original Article]
Why it Matters?
Kevin Delane served as Pure's VP of Worldwide Sales until he joined Own just under a year ago to be their Chief Revenue Officer and I guess he has impressed the rest of the leadership team as has been named Own's new COO. Own is in the midst of its own transformation as they transition from the old brand of "Own Backup" to the broader "Own Company" portfolio with expanding SaaS capabilities. Kevin will be instrumental in shaping how Own evolves over the next several quarters.
Mohit Aron, Cohesity's founder, steps back as new CTO (Dr. Craig Martell) climbs aboard
[Link to Original Article]
Why it Matters?
Cohesity has officially come forward stating that founder, former-CEO, former CPO/CTO, Mohit Aron is now just a figurehead. Mohit will now be "founder emeritus" and his duties will be basically presenting to customers, providing strategic insight, and other speaking engagements. It's pretty clear that Mohit's active involvement in the direction of the company is at a close.
Prior to this appointment of Dr. Martell, Mohit served as both Chief Technology Officer and Chief Product Officer, but is today only listed as "founder" on the leadership page for Cohesity. Dr. Martell comes from a strong AI background with positions at DoD, Lyft, and Dropbox and it appears he is to help shape Cohesity's image as a thought leader in AI. I'd expect that Cohesity will continue to double down on their AI messaging and GTM, and this new CTO certainly aligns to that goal. They likely will aim to do with AI what Rubrik did a few years ago with security and go all in.
Zscaler Unveils AI Innovations to Power the Industry's Most Comprehensive Data Protection Platform
[Link to Original Article]
Why it Matters?
It is critical to understand that when Zscaler is referring to itself as a "Data Protection Platform", they don't mean backup - they are referring to their inline DSPM capabilities which can monitor and "protect" the data within the live environment by preventing potentially destructive activities. This includes DLP (download of sensitive data) and mass edit/delete activities. Recent integrations with both Cohesity and Rubrik enable Zscaler to ingest from either solution a list of files which
have been identified as having sensitive data (PII) and then flagging those files for protection from deletion and other changes. Zscaler can perform these classifications itself, but being able to take input from the backup vendor can provide it with additional insights.
The announcements this week from Zscaler showcase the inclusion of GenAI in the product to help identify risky behaviour, the extension of their DSPM capabilities to include classification and protection of data in AWS and Azure, and now real-time DLP for email platforms like Google Gmail and M365.
Veeam warns of critical Backup Enterprise Manager auth bypass vulnerabilities
[Link to Original Article]
Why it Matters?
On May 21st, Veeam disclosed the discovery of 4 new Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) in the “Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager” (VBEM) software and 1 new CVE in the “Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows”. Now, Veeam was quick to highlight that VBEM is a “supplementary application” that customers may or may not leverage as part of their core Veeam Backup & Replication solution – however, this optional software it is a key component for many customers who want to manage multiple Veeam instances within a single console.
These vulnerabilities apply to all versions of Veeam Backup & Replication software, but are fixed in Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager 12.1.2.172 which comes bundled with Veeam Backup & Replication 12.1.2 (build 12.1.2.172). Customers are advised to immediately upgrade, uninstall VBEM fully, or disable the associated services.
In addition to these 4 CVEs, in a separate announcement Veeam disclosed another CVE affecting all versions of Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows. So, while VBEM might not be used by everyone I bet that the Windows Backup Agent is. The vulnerability is fixed in Veeam Agent for Microsoft 6.1.2 (build 6.1.2.134) and customers are advised to patch immediately.
General Availability: Azure NetApp Files Backup
[Link to Original Article]
Why it Matters?
Microsoft has announced that Azure Backup support for protection of Azure NetApp Files is now generally available. Azure Backup can create snapshots of the NetApp Files data and move those into the Backup Vault for recovery. While they support incremental block backups of the snaps, the snaps themselves are "represented in full" within the Vault meaning they will be taking up a lot of storage (no compression or dedupe).
The cloud providers have been slowly expanding their own backup offerings with Microsoft even announcing a forthcoming native Backup as a Service for M365 data.
Written by Matt Tyrer. These posts reflect my own opinion and are not necessarily the opinion of my employer.
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