Dell Technologies Inc. is stepping up its cloud data backup capabilities with the launch of a new data protection service designed to safeguard software-as-a-service applications and other cloud workloads.

In a blog post today, Laura Dubois, vice president of product management at Dell’s Data Protection product management organization, said enterprises are rapidly embracing SaaS applications and other cloud workloads in order to simplify their data center management operations. But this switch to SaaS applications creates new problems around data protection that must also be addressed, she said.

“SaaS applications like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce and others are an attractive way to relieve the demands placed on data center professionals,” Dubois wrote. “But there’s a common misconception that these apps provide native data protection services. However, they do not, which exposes companies to catastrophic data and financial loss.”

Indeed, with this shift to the cloud and SaaS applications, customers are asking for a better solution, Rob Emsley, director of product marketing at Dell, told Dave Vellante, host of SiliconANGLE Media’s video studio theCUBE, in an exclusive interview (below).

“All of these environments are creating data that is so critical to these customers to protect,” he said.

Dell EMC PowerProtect Backup Service is a subscription-based service that’s designed to address the lack of native data protection by backing up SaaS apps without increasing complexity, Dubois said. The service can be deployed in just minutes, providing access to unlimited on-demand scaling that helps to ensure growing data volumes will always be backed up and protected.

It’s accessible via a web-based portal that helps to provide centralized visibility and management of SaaS apps, endpoints and hybrid workloads. Furthermore, the service comes with eDiscovery tools, data security and compliance capabilities thrown in too, helping to reduce risk and ensure that whatever information is backed up meets an organization’s data governance requirements.

“Organizations can also use PowerProtect Backup Service to protect data residing on endpoint devices like desktop and laptops, enabling organizations to leverage the flexibility and economies-of-scale of cloud-based backup and long-term retention to protect critical data at the edge,” Dubois said. That is “especially important in remote work scenarios,” she added.

The service was launched today as Dell said Google Cloud is joining the wider Dell EMC PowerProtect Data Manager cloud ecosystem, giving customers more choice over where their data and workloads is protected. It also announced some new capabilities with its PowerProtect Cloud Snapshot Manager tool for Amazon Web Services users.

“For customers who already have workloads in AWS, Dell EMC PowerProtect Cloud Snapshot Manager with Dell EMC PowerProtect DD Virtual Edition now delivers the ability to copy snapshots to object storage to reduce overall long-term retention costs,” Dubois explained.

Image: Dell