The new cloud service is designed to give Commvault customers an easy-button option to establish a cloud backup on Azure.
Manoj Nair, General Manager Commvault Metallic
Today Commvault is announcing a measure designed to make it easier for the Commvault enterprise install base to use the SaaS services of their Commvault Metallic subsidiary. The Metallic Cloud Storage Service provides a cloud storage target on Azure for Commvault Backup and Recovery software and HyperScale X appliances, with it all managed through the Commvault Command Center.
Commvault launched Metallic a year ago as a sub-brand and separate SaaS division within the company, with the idea that it would operate like a startup. Its target market was intended to be the upper SMB and midmarket. However, Metallic has received a lot of enterprise interest – with Commvault’s install base being a key part of that.
“To our pleasant surprise in the last six months, Commvault customers have been very interested in this SaaS option,” said Manoj Nair, General Manager Commvault Metallic. “The Metallic Cloud Storage Service is intended to bridge the two walls between Commvault and Metallic. The principle of tight integration and loose coupling will make 1+1= 3.”
The idea is to give Commvault customers a simple backup option to the cloud.
“There have been lots of cloud migrations in the last six months, but from a security angle, the risk is high,” Nair said. “It’s clear to us those customers are using cloud as an airgapped copy and are better off in terms of recovery, but the cloud storage market is still underpenetrated. Our goal here was to have an easy button for cloud storage for those customers. It’s a fully managed cloud target and solves the easy button issue.”
Metallic already has built in storage, but the new offering isn’t aimed at Metallic customers, but at Commvault ones.
“This is built on the same expertise as Metallic’s built in storage, but with the Metallic Cloud Storage Service, it is now available for Commvault Software customers,” Nair said. The market is those who are not using Metallic in the cloud, but who want a hard copy in the cloud.”
Commvault extended their relationship with Microsoft to cover support for the Metallic portfolio on Azure in July, and this new offering leverages that support.
“This was an example of our joint engineering with Microsoft, and we add additional monitoring with our management,” Nair said. “In addition, customers are concerned about egress costs in the cloud. With the Metallic Cloud Storage Service, the egress costs are on us. This improves the predictability of the cost model.”
“With this deep integration, we have several layers built on top of Azure,” said Rangaraaj Ragagopalan, Commvault’s VP of Products. “It lets customers use it like a tape target or a disk target, but they now get all the benefits of cloud through the Commvault UI Center. It gets cloud closer to customers who want to use it, but haven’t started taking that leap. It also significantly improves the flexibility of choice in our portfolio, by enabling customers to chose whatever mechanism they are most comfortable with.
“It has a very simple and quick three-step install process, that provides all the benefits of a secure air gapped storage,” Ragagopalan added.
Metallic was designed to be sold entirely through channel partners, and Nair said that this will appeal to Commvault partners in many cases, even though they likely have established relationships with storage vendors.
“For a Commvault partner this is an easy add-on,” he said. “It’s the same buyer, the same buying model. It’s easier to go back to the same customer and offer that feature given the way that we have set it up. It’s just another feature of Commvault.”
Metallic Cloud Storage Service is now available across North America, EMEA and APAC.
