For many years, Veeam Software Corp. was known for punching above its weight class in the data backup market. Now, with 375,000 customers, $1 billion in annual sales and a valuation more than $5 billion, a case could be made that it has grown right into its weight class.

The most recent IDC Semi-Annual Software Tracker for Data Replication & Protection found that Veeam had the fastest revenue growth in the second half of 2019 among the top five providers in the data backup space. It’s now moving aggressively into the cloud data-management market as well.

“We’ll still work on always punching above our weight,” said Bill Largent (pictured, left), chief executive officer of Veeam. “One of our core values, in addition to innovate and iterate, is to make it simple and keep it that way. You put us in any situation in the lab, we’re going to work the first time.”

Largent spoke with Dave Vellante, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during the VeeamOn virtual event this week. He was joined by Jim Kruger (right), chief marketing officer of Veeam, and they discussed building a business in cloud data management, findings from Veeam’s most recent data trends survey and new security tools in the company’s latest release. (* Disclosure below.)

Customers move to cloud

Veeam’s move into the cloud data-management market was motivated by a customer base that has been rapidly building hybrid clouds. As clients acquired more data, they were also making plans to transfer a lot more of it to a variety of cloud platforms.

Veeam’s “2020 Data Protection Trends” report, which gathered input from 1,500 global information-technology professionals, showed that customers were heading for the cloud.

“About 49% of customers are backing up to the cloud today,” Kruger said. “That jumps to 76% in two years. The difference between critical data and normal data is really blending together so they are looking to drive efficiencies from that perspective.”

Customers are looking to drive security of their data as well. Veeam’s report found 42% of respondents lacked staff to implement new data protection initiatives while they forecast a 28% increase in cloud data protection use by 2022.

The release of Veeam’s Availability Suite 10 in February included enhanced S3 object storage integration and immutable backups to protect against ransomware and insider threats.

“From our most recent release — version 10 — we’ve built in new capabilities around ransomware protection and cybersecurity,” Kruger noted. “Customers want to be able to do scans prior to putting things into production, and that’s some of the new capabilities that we’ve provided in our latest version.”

Data availability on any platform

In addition to security and governance, Veeam executives focused on resource management and digital transformation in their keynote remarks. It did not go unnoticed that these were all critical factors during the current COVID-19 global pandemic.

“Our primary concern goes back to protecting data and making it accessible,” Largent said. “It’s data availability on any platform. With COVID-19, it’s showing that cloud-based activities are going to be more critical, in addition to on-premises.”

As Veeam heads toward the second half of 2020, the company’s executive ranks have a new look. The firm has new chief technology and chief information security officers, along with several new board members. Largent assumed his leadership role in the early part of 2020 following Veeam’s acquisition by Insight Partners.

For Largent, protect, manage and transform will be Veeam’s key themes over the months ahead.

“Our focus has always been on the protect side, while manage and transform are key pieces we’ve added over the time period,” Largent said. “Our growth continues to evolve.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of VeeamOn. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for VeeamOn. Neither Veeam, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE