Commvault Adds NetApp Scale-Out Data Protection for Customers

Commvault and NetApp are deepening their partnership by offering NetApp scale-out data protection atop Commvault’s data backup and recovery services.

The deal, which continues a 12-year relationship between the companies, aims to extend rapid data recovery support for customers. The NetApp Scale-out Data Protection (SDP), along with Commvault Complete Backup & Recovery, is designed for hybrid cloud environments. The joint offering expands rapid recovery support for critical data across NetApp hybrid-enabled storage systems. The Commvault software provides snapshot management, and backup and disaster recovery functions for customers, under the partnership.

Nigel Tozer, Commvault’s EMEA solutions marketing director, told Channel Futures that partners are asking for this service combination.

Commvault’s Nigel Tozer

“Rapid recovery and disaster recovery are huge issues” for customers, said Tozer. “Ransomware, corruption, human error and a host of other downtime risks can hit any business in the pocketbook. Access to data is paramount.”

Using the Commvault NetApp offering, customers can protect their data and get back to work if there are disruptions, he said.

“Normally you have to choose between fast and deep. But using Commvault to manage snapshots, rapid recovery from the NetApp HCI flash primary recovery tier and long-term retention in the StorageGRID cloud tier means you get fast, deep easy scalability in one package.”

As customers demand more HCI and scale-out, they want similar ease of use and scalability for backup and recovery, said Tozer.

“Scale-up backup appliances don’t meet modern recovery needs, and because there is a well-documented skills shortage in storage and cloud architects, a simpler, scale-out approach is very much in demand for recovery systems,” he said.

For partners, NetApp Scale-out Data Protection provides great reasons for customers to ask for help, he said.

“With the COVID-19 pandemic being faced around the world, a simpler way to protect and consolidate key systems is welcome. NetApp and Commvault are in strong position to help customers migrate to or adopt cloud technologies such as VDI, too.”

Longtime Partnership

The companies have been working together for a long time and each bring their strengths to help customers, said Tozer.

“Commvault provides data protection for the whole of NetApp’s data fabric — on premises and in the cloud. And it doesn’t stop there. The same is true from a data governance perspective, too. It doesn’t matter whether your concern is in the midmarket or with enterprise systems from SAP, Oracle or Microsoft. Commvault provides the most comprehensive data protection, data management and data governance suite available for NetApp customers.”

Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, said that as hybrid cloud deployments grow, data backup and recovery becomes more critical.

“However, solutions that are both effective and simple to use are thinner on the ground than one might imagine,” he said.

“That’s a challenge that NetApp and Commvault are attempting to address with the new Scale-out Data Protection solution,” King added.

By integrating their platforms, customers can deploy and benefit from on-premises and cloud-based data protection, backup and recovery, he said.

Another analyst, Rob Enderle of Enderle Group, said NetApp Scale-out Data Protection addresses a rarely discussed problem.

“How do you properly secure a system that has components that aren’t only geographically-separate but controlled by different entities? You need centralized control and monitoring, and the solution has to span the distributed ecosystem,” said Enderle. “That looks like what Commvault has created, and while it appears tied to NetApp, it should get CIOs, who are incredibly risk-averse at the moment, to begin questioning whether their more decentralized solutions will result in avoidable breaches, hopefully before those breaches occur.”