Dave Russell, Vice President, Enterprise Strategy, Veeam sits down with Stu Miniman at IBM Think 2019 in San Francisco, CA. #Think2019 #Veeam #theCUBE https://siliconangle.com/2019/03/01/protection-management-veeam-focuses-data-visibility-access-control-think2019/ From protection to management: Veeam focuses on data visibility, access and control There is a saying in the sports world about athletes that the best ability is availability, always being able to play. The same case can be made in today’s multicloud world about data and its availability for the enterprise. Recent surveys of chief information officers and other enterprise information technology executives underscore this point. Deloitte’s “2018 Global CIO Survey” found that the two most significant challenges encountered when implementing a cloud solution were data migration and security requirements. The RightScale “2019 State of the Cloud Report” noted governance as the top cloud challenge. Visibility, access and control — this has become the “holy trinity” of data management in the cloud. Data availability has evolved as one of the key factors in multicloud deployment, and companies with a specialty in data management have emerged as important players. One of these is Veeam Software Inc., the backup and disaster recovery specialist, which recently closed an eye-catching $500 million round of investment funding. “We got what we believe is the largest software investment in history of $500 million,” said Dave Russell (pictured), vice president of enterprise strategy at Veeam. “We’re looking at additional workloads to protect and cloud capabilities to expand upon, new ways to take what has always been a data protection company and make it a data management company.” Russell spoke with Stu Miniman (@stu), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the IBM Think event in San Francisco. They discussed the need for comprehensive planning around a multicloud strategy, Veeam’s cloud service provider network, dealing with security risks, the company’s latest product release, and it’s continued partnership with IBM. (* Disclosure below.) This week, theCUBE features Dave Russell as its Guest of the Week. Pitfalls for CIOs Veeam’s transformation from data protection to data management mirrors the experience of many CIOs as well. It’s one thing to back up the data and safeguard it. It’s quite another to keep track of it across multiple clouds and workloads. The move to a multicloud model is neither a short-term endeavor nor a simple one. Industry experts have documented the potential pitfalls for CIOs, including failing to get the design/operational strategy right and allowing the new infrastructure to get out of hand, a form of “cloud sprawl.” “We believe that all organizations are really multicloud today, whether they realize it or not, and they’re going to be more multicloud in the future,” Russell said. “Have a design; have a plan. Don’t fall into this haphazard.” To help CIOs make the multicloud transition successfully, Veeam is making a concerted effort to bring services into its fold that will help the cause. A little over a year ago, the company acquired N2W Software Inc., a provider of cloud-native backup and disaster recovery services for the Amazon Web Services Inc. customer base. In Veeam’s February financial results, the company reported that N2WS grew revenue by 83 percent year-over-year. Veeam has also built a network of Cloud Service Providers that partner with the company on achieving “always-on” data availability. “We have 21,000 different Veeam Cloud Service Providers today, some of which manage over 1 million different machine instances,” Russell noted. Concerns over cloud security One of the concerns among CIOs in the move to multicloud is security. Data spread among multiple clouds means the attack surface is greater and risks can expand quickly. Cloud-related security incidents are on the rise. According to McAfee’s “Cloud Adoption and Risk Report,” released in October, 92 percent of companies have their cloud credentials for sale on the Dark Web and the number of unauthorized third-party attempts to gain access to corporate data per month have doubled in the past two years. “Unfortunately, things are going to happen, and we know this because things are already happening to a number of organizations,” Russell said. “When that happens, you need some first-level step of remediation.” ... Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the IBM Think event. (* Disclosure: Veeam Software Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Veeam nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)