When Commvault Systems Inc. launched its new Metallic software-as-a-service venture this week, it also announced that backup capabilities would be hosted on Microsoft Azure cloud. The news added another chapter to a longtime partnership between the two companies, with a relationship that goes back nearly two decades.

While the new venture is expected to enhance Commvault’s position in the market, it could also benefit Microsoft Corp. as well.

“It opens up a new market to Commvault,” said Ben Di Qual (pictured), principal program manager, Azure Storage, at Microsoft. “They are so strong in the enterprise, but they don’t do much in the smaller businesses because, with a full featured product, it also has inherent complexity. By doing Metallic as a ‘click, click, next, done’ thing, they’re really opening new markets to them and also to us as a partner.”

Di Qual spoke with Stu Miniman (@stu) and Lisa Martin (@LisaMartinTV), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Commvault GO event in Aurora, Colorado. They discussed the reality of customer choice when it comes to cloud and how Commvault has begun to release code in production (see the full interview with transcript here). (* Disclosure below.)

Azure as first place to go

In his role with Azure storage, Di Qual has learned to appreciate the needs of enterprise customers when it comes to making cloud choices. While Azure was prominently featured in this week’s Metallic release, Commvault customers will have other cloud options.

“They chose us as the first place to go, but some customers may want to take it to another cloud,” Di Qual said. “That’s fine; it’s reasonable. We totally understand it’s going to be a multicloud world, and that’s a reality for any large company.”

It took Commvault approximately six months to bring Metallic to market, a noticeable increase in tempo for the company’s new product releases.

“They are really embracing the approach of releasing code in production,” Di Qual noted. “It’s taking that DevOps approach of ‘let’s get it out there; let’s get it launched’ and doing these small batches of changes based on customer need. This initial product that we see today is just going to keep evolving and improving as they get more data.”

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

Photo: SiliconANGLE