How important is it for a company to be able to see all of its data all the time? As they adopt more cloud computing reservoirs than they can count on both hands, and the General Data Protection Regulation is imposing painful fines for compliance slips, it’s becoming pretty darned crucial. And those are just a couple of reasons why visibility should be a huge concern for customers choosing data backup and protection, according to Scott Genereux (pictured), executive vice president of worldwide field operations at  Veritas Technologies LLC.

Companies don’t want to feel pinched when choosing the right clouds for a variety of workloads. Heck, maybe they need 24 of the things to hit the optimal price-to-performance ratio. But they don’t want to fiddle with different backup solutions, according to Genereux.

“They don’t want to have six or seven different ways of onboarding data and applications into the cloud, and they also do not want to have different ways of moving data or protecting data,” he said.

Genereux spoke with Dave Vellante (@dvellante), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the recent Veritas Vision Solution Day event in New York City. They discussed the new infrastructure, application and compliance realities demanding data visibility. (* Disclosure below.)

GDPR puts all eyes on data

Veritas’ software allows the company to move data and apps into any type of cloud in the exact same way. And it can see what that data is up to once inside those clouds. “Sometimes you don’t know that, maybe, one of the cloud providers moved your second copy of data into a data center that is a problem for you,” Genereux stated.

Being the one backup solution across all environments gives Veritas the 411 on customers’ data. “We have the metadata to be able to give customers that visual capability,” he said.

Having a gander at their data might raise interesting questions in users’ minds. “Probably roughly about 50 percent of their data — and I’m being kind when I say 50 — probably hasn’t been touched in three, five, 10-plus years,” Genereux said, adding that users can decide whether to keep it or can it, and perhaps save on the cost of storage.

GDPR compliance is another obvious reason why companies need data visibility more than ever. “I kind of narrow it down to [personally identifiable information],” Genereux explained. Spreading it among lots of clouds can be dicey and requires that companies keep and eye on it, he concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Veritas Vision Solution Day event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Veritas Vision Solution Day. Neither Veritas Technologies LLC, the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE