Commvault Systems Inc. today announced plans to acquire Clumio Inc., a startup that helps companies back up the data they keep in the public cloud. 

Financial terms were not disclosed. Commvault stated that the acquisition price is “not material” and will be financed with cash on hand. 

Santa Clara, California-based Clumio received more than $260 million in funding prior to the acquisition. It raised about a third of that sum, $75 million, through a Series D round announced this past February. The company disclosed at the time that its annualized recurring revenue was “well into double figures in millions of dollars.”

Both Commvault and Clumio compete in the data protection market. The former company sells software that helps enterprises protect records in their cloud deployments, on-premises servers and other systems. Clumio has a narrower focus: It provides a backup platform geared mainly toward Amazon Web Services environments.

The larger the dataset, the more time is needed to restore it after an outage. Clumio’s platform provides a capability called S3 Direct Access to speed up the process for AWS customers. The feature allows applications to use a read-only backup copy of a dataset while the main version is being recovered, which helps reduce downtime.

Another feature enables companies to restore only specific files rather than an entire storage repository. That makes it simpler to address small-scale data loss incidents, such as situations where a worker accidentally deletes a few documents. 

Companies can use Clumio’s platform to protect data in AWS’ object and block storage services. The software also supports several of the cloud giant’s managed databases along with SQL databases that customers deploy in Amazon EC2 instances.

Another set of features in Clumio’s platform is geared toward protecting Microsoft 365 environments. The software creates immutable, or undeletable, backups that can’t be modified by hackers. Additionally, Clumio provides a testing tool for checking the reliability of companies’ Microsoft 365 data recovery workflows. 

The acquisition will enhance Commvault’s data protection portfolio, which already includes features for AWS and Microsoft 365 environments. The deal marks the second time this year that the company has bought a startup to bolster its cloud data protection capabilities. Commvault previously acquired Boston-based Appranix, which operates a platform in which companies can keep backup copies of their off-premises data. 

“Combining Commvault’s industry-leading cyber resilience capabilities with Clumio’s exceptional talent, technology and AWS expertise advances our recovery offerings, strengthens our platform, and reinforces our position as a leading SaaS provider for cyber resilience,” said Commvault Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Mirchandani (pictured).

Commvault expects to complete the acquisition early next month. The company estimates that the deal will be immediately accretive to its revenue and will start boosting its free cash flow within three quarters.

Photo: Commvault