Rubrik continues their quest to protect the enterprise

Data protection is all the rage right now. With data moving beyond the corporate data center to multiple locations including cloud, the complexity has increased significantly. What is Data Protection? It generally covers a combination of backup, restore, disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity (BC). While not new, most enterprises have struggled for decades to effectively backup their systems in a way that ensures that a) the data is protected, b) can be restored if needed and c) can be restored in a timely fashion when needed. Put a different way: BC/DR is still one of most poorly managed parts of an IT operation. Add cloud to this and one can see where the wheels start to fall off.

The irony is that, while not new, enterprises struggle to effectively balance the needs of DR/BC in a meaningful way. The reasons for this are longer than this blog will permit. This is an industry screaming for disruption. Enter Rubrik.

RUBRIK BRINGS A FRESH PERSPECTIVE TO AN OLD PROBLEM

A couple of weeks back, I caught up with the Rubrik team at Tech Field Day’s Cloud Field Day 3. Rubrik came into the market a few years back and has continued their drive to solve this old, but growing problem.

Unlike traditional solutions, Rubrik takes a modern approach to their architecture. Everything that Rubrik does calls an API. By using this API-centric architecture, Rubrik provides modularity and flexibility to their approach. API-centric architectures are a must in a cloud-based world.

At Cloud Field Day, the Rubrik team went through their new SaaS-based solution called Polaris. Knowing that enterprise data is increasingly being spread across multiple data centers and cloud providers, they need a cohesive way to visually manage their data. Polaris is a SaaS-based solution that does just that. Polaris becomes the overarching management platform in which to effectively manage the growing complexity.

COMPLEXITY DRIVES THE NEED FOR A NEW APPRAOCH

There are two dynamics that are driving these changes: 1) the explosion in data growth and 2) the need to effective management data. As applications and their data move to a myriad of different solutions, so does the need to effectively manage the underlying data.

An increase in compliance and regulatory requirements are just adding further complexity to data management. As the complexity grows, so does the need for systemic automation. No longer are we able to simply throw more resources at the problem. It is time to turn the problem on its head and leverage new approaches.

DATA PROTECTION IS NOT IMPORTANT…UNTIL IT IS

During the discussion, Rubrik’s Chief Technologist Chris Wahl made a very key observation that everyone in IT painfully understands: Data protection is not important…until it is. To many enterprises, the concept of data protection is seen as an insurance policy that you hopefully will not need. However, in today’s world of increasingly regulated and highly complicated architectures with data spreading out at scale, the risks are simply too great to ignore.

While data protection may have been less important in the past, today it is critical.

GOING BEYOND SIMPLY BACKUP AND RECOVERY

If the story about Rubrik were to stop with just backup and recovery, it would still be impressive. However, Rubrik is venturing into the complexity that comes with integration into other systems and processes. One of the first areas is their integration with ServiceNow. Rubrik integrates with ServiceNow by ingesting CMDB data into the system. By doing so, it provides a cohesive look at the underlying components that Rubrik has visibility into.

Looking into the crystal ball, one can start to see how Rubrik is fully understanding that backup and recovery is just the start. The real opportunity comes from full integration into business processes. However, in order to do that, integrations like ServiceNow are needed. Expect to see more as Rubrik continues their quest to provide a solid foundation to the enterprise when they need it most.