Data backup and recovery enterprise company Commvault Systems Inc. continues to expand its focus on Metallic, its new software-as-a-service platform that enables protection for on-premises, cloud-based and hybrid file data.

About a year after presenting its platform to the market, Commvault announced an expansion of its Metallic’s portfolio today with Metallic Cloud Storage Service. The service brings together technology from both Commvault and Microsoft Azure.

“That is a new service available for Commvault customers that are looking to get a fully managed, secure, cloud-based SaaS target for protecting all of the data as an air gap copy, and this is more relevant than ever,” said Manoj Nair (pictured, left), general manager of Metallic.

Nair and Ranga Rajagopalan (pictured, right), vice president of products at Commvault, spoke with Stu Miniman, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, for a digital CUBE Conversation. They discussed Metallic’s new offering, how it is designed to make customers’ lives easier, and the prospects for the new service. (* Disclosure below.)

Partnership integrates Metallic with Azure

What is unique about this announcement is that it brings cloud even closer to customers and allows them to get the benefits of cloud storage more easily, according to Rajagopalan.

“What we are doing today is integrating Metallic Cloud Storage Service as a cloud storage target into our Commvault software, as well as our HyperScale X plans, and that lets our customers to seamlessly use Cloud Storage for their data protection, backup and archival use cases without needing to understand a lot about the cloud,” he said.

The partnership with Microsoft Corp. is an extension of the agreement that was already in place with the intention of integrating Metallic with Azure.

“If you are not a Commvault customer today and you’re looking at ‘What’s my best 365 data protection option,’ if you go to microsoft.com, you’ll actually find Metallic in there as the recommended offer,” Nair explained. “And they might start the journey there. Or if you’re an existing Commvault customer … Metallic is the default option.”

The Metallic Cloud Storage Service promises to reduce complexity for companies moving to the cloud. The first complexity that businesses face is understanding which cloud provider to use and what type of cloud profile to adopt, according to Rajagopalan.

“So that’s really the first dimension of simplicity that this Metallic Cloud Storage offers. Our customers can procure their cloud storage along with any other Commvault software and hardware,” he explained.

The second difficulty for organizations is to bring that into business data management life cycle. For this, MCSS is fully integrated with Commvault software and, through the command center, customers can click on the cloud storage target and start backing up, moving copies, archiving and adopting all data management use cases.

The third complexity that Metallic aims to solve is predictability.

“Cloud is beautiful, it brings a lot of flexibility, but it also brings in a lot of new terms,” Rajagopalan said. “So, all of that complexity is taken away; we handle all of that in the back end.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage. (* Disclosure: This segment was sponsored by Commvault Systems Inc. Neither Commvault nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE