Rubrik extends its data management platform natively into the cloud

Rubrik previously had the ability to archive in the cloud, but now has extended their cloud capability to allow their software to run natively on the major public cloud providers.

Mark Smith, Rubrik’s Executive Vice President of Global Sales and Business Development

Palo Alto-based Rubrik has announced that its scale-out software fabric has been extended into the cloud, to deliver data protection for cloud-native applications running in AWS and Microsoft Azure.

Rubrik, which first brought its product to market in 2015, makes a data management solution that simplifies backup and data protection while allowing enterprises to manage their data in the hybrid cloud.

“We previously had the ability to archive in the cloud – what we term an onramp to the cloud,” said Mark Smith, Rubrik’s Executive Vice President of Global Sales and Business Development. “We also have had the ability to search in the cloud and to pull data out at a file level. This is of enormous value to customers, because it’s so expensive to get data out of the cloud, and this means they only need to take out the files they need. However, what we are announcing now, this new ability to run the software in AWS and Azure, is a brand new capability.”

Smith said that extending Rubrik’s software fabric to run on public cloud providers provides multiple benefits, that address what customers want today from the cloud.

“The beautiful thing about this is that it addresses customer demand to no longer to be locked in to any cloud solution – they want open APIs,” he said. “This lets them avoid cloud vendor lock-in, the same way that they can avoid being locked into proprietary on-prem solutions.”

Deploying Rubrik as a software instance on AWS and Azure lets the customer deliver inter- and intra-cloud replication – Azure to AWS, across AWS regions, and across Azure regions. It also facilitates bi-directional replication between cloud and on-prem and cloud data archiving.

The new capability is part of the core software product, and comes at no additional cost.

“Rubrik has an approach that says that as we add different capabilities, that we don’t charge customers additional fees,” Smith said.

Smith said the new capability will make Rubrik more attractive to more customers.

“This should significantly expand our market,” he said. “Rubrik is a data management company. This allows us to fully manage all the data no matter where it is located.”

The additional cloud capability will also be an asset for Rubrik’s channel.

“The cloud is tricky for the channel, because they need to be able to add value in the cloud,” Smith said. “Just being able to get the customer in the cloud doesn’t give them that. The customer knows they don’t need the partner to get them into AWS. With this capability, the partner can now recommend which cloud and which type of application will fit best with the customer’s needs. Customers don’t have this same knowledge as the channel partner about which clouds are best for each application.”

Rubrik has opened an Early Access Program for customers looking to protect cloud-native applications running on AWS and Azure.

“The Early Access program will last one to two months, and General Availability will likely be 60 days or less after that,” Smith said.