Veeam Software Inc. has built a billion-dollar business in the data protection space, and is setting sights on a red ocean of competition. Tackling the next big wave in multicloud data management, Veeam wants to be the best storage protection partner amongst hybrid cloud platforms. Following the keynote at last week’s VeeamON event in Miami Beach, Florida, analysts discuss Veeam’s potential in these hybrid computing environments, and how the company must evolve beyond backup and recovery to intelligent data management. 

“First off, I think the hybrid cloud is a reality,” said Simon Robinson (pictured), senior vice president of research at 451 Research LLC. “Our research tells us that 60% of organizations … characterize their strategy as being a hybrid cloud strategy. But they’re really struggling with actually enacting that and doing that in a processed, organized, deliberate way. We’ve got a lot going on in the multicloud world, but multicloud is often an accident rather than something deliberate.”

Robinson spoke with Dave Vellante (@dvellante), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, and guest host Justin Warren (@jpwarren) during the VeeamON event in Miami Beach, Florida. They discussed the evolution of Veeam, data management and data protection, and Veeam’s cloud data management strategy (see the full interview with transcript here). (* Disclosure below.)

[Editor’s note: The following answers have been condensed for clarity.]

Vellante: What have you learned here [at VeeamON] in the last couple of days? What are your impressions?

Robinson: We’ve covered Veeam from pretty much day one, and it’s always been clear to us that Veeam is a pretty special company, not just “you have to be in the right place at the right time with the right product,” but … you’ve got to do it in a way that actually engages and empathizes with what a customer is looking to achieve. I think they’ve got that at the grassroots level … a decade or more ago and really have doubled down on that. So it’s been awesome to see some of the examples of that at the conference these last couple of days.

I think Ratmir is talking around this being Act Two of Veeam’s journey and Veeam’s story. But, firstly, lets kind of pay tribute to what they did in Act One. I think for any company to build a billion-dollar revenue business software is a phenomenal achievement. But to do it in the data protection space? It’s even more so.

Vellante: So, everybody’s going after cloud, multicloud and hybrid. Do you feel as though Veeam can replicate success in what Ratmir’s calling “Act Two” and draft from “Act One”? What are the key factors, what’s the tailwind for them, and what are some of the headwinds? And what are some of the other things that you guys see in your research?

Robinson: I think the tailwind for a company like Veeam is that, obviously, there’s always going to be a need for backup. But I think that the conversation is evolving from one around data backup into one of data management, because you can only manage the data in your environment if you understand where it is, what its value is, and what the potential exposures are. And I think that’s why we see a big opportunity in managing data across this much more diverse and broader environment.

As we move to multicloud and we acknowledge that data and applications are going to be in a greater diversity of locations, we have to have a model that scales to managing across those environments. And it’s that kind of consistency of approach that I think the industry is lacking. But there’s definitely an awareness that we need to address though.

Warren: How do you see the market dynamics evolving as we go through what Veeam calls its “Act Two,” and people start moving to this hybrid cloud? What does that look like from your research?

Robinson: There [are] digital leaders, and there are definitely digital laggards that are really, really struggling with this. And I think that, to me, [it] means opportunity. I mean, there’s an opportunity for vendors to come here … and address it. You know, we’ve seen an absolute explosion, a huge number of companies coming together, coming to market with real innovation, which, ultimately, is going to be good for customers. I think there’s probably too many for the market to sustain at this point, because all these new entrants, none of the incumbents are going away.

Vellante: [Veeam] built a billion-dollar software business and is now saying, “OK, we’re going into the next wave.” How do you guys see that competitive market shaking out? Is the team big enough to support all these guys? What do they have to do to get a return for their investors?

Robinson: I think it’s incumbent on [Veeam] to listen to what customers are asking for. Customers are moving to the cloud, right? They’re going to do that with or without the legacy guys. So they have to get onboard with that and help manage that process for customers.

I think the challenge for Veeam is to evolve their own proposition from being pretty tactical … to kind of move up the value chain from there. And I think we are starting to see many examples of how that is coming into play with some of the announcements we’ve had at the show.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the VeeamON event. (* Disclosure: Veeam Software Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Veeam nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE