Data backup and archiving is a necessary component of any robust cloud computing setup. Historically, this data archive only served as a backup repository, but the latest 4.0 release from Rubrik Inc. allows companies to extract additional value from the backup instance but automatically creating a DevTest environment, according to Chris Wahl, chief technologist at Rubrik.

“There’s like 30 some odd integration points with various storage vendors, archive vendors, public cloud vendors, etc., and the Alta release … extends that because now not only can you provide backups, archive and recovery, which is kind of our bread and butter, but you can archive those to public clouds and then start running those workloads, so what we called ‘Cloud-On,’” Wahl said.

Wahl spoke to host Stu Miniman (@stu) and guest host John Troyer (@jtroyer) of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, at this year’s VMworld in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Putting data backups to work

Once companies wrap their heads around the concept of putting data backups to work, the possibilities for generating additional value are endless. This new paradigm is starting to catch on among Rubrik’s customers, according to Wahl.

“It’s really, ‘What can I do with the data once I have this deduplicated and compressed pool that I can start drawing from, and that’s where people’s mind gets blown a bit. … It’s really just where you are on this journey to start taking advantage of this data, and that’s where people start to get really excited,” Wahl said.

The most common use case Wahl is finding for making use of the computing power tied to the backup instances is DevTest. Historically, it had been very inefficient to spin up dedicated resources to just modify live applications, he stated. “I can’t do anything with that [application] because it’s in production, it’s making me money, but I’d really like to see what could be done with that. Or, potentially, can I just eliminate it completely and just turn it into a service?” Wahl asked. 

Without changing the underlying backup data, developers can refactor and re-tool live applications with these new backup computing resources, which used to be impossible, according to Wahl. “What if I start using a native service in the cloud or potentially just discard that workload completely and start turning it into a service or refactor it and re-platform it. They’re not having to provision; usually they’re having to buy infrastructure to do that … they can literally just start taking advantage of this cloud resource,” Wahl concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of VMworld 2017. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for VMworld 2017. Neither VMware Inc. nor Rubrik Inc. have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE