VMware Gets 'Powerful Integrated Offering' with Datrium Acquisition

VMware is expanding its disaster recovery services for customers by acquiring data backup and recovery vendor Datrium.

The acquisition will help VMware broaden its VMware Site Recovery Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) offerings. Datrium provides cloud-native disaster recovery services.

The companies didn’t reveal terms of the deal, which they announced after the stock market closed on Wednesday.

VMware says the acquisition adds more affordable services for customers who don’t need the company’s premium disaster recovery options.

“Datrium is already a VMware partner offering DRaaS with VMware Cloud on AWS,” wrote Alex Wong, VMware’s VP of strategy and corporate development, in a blog. “The Datrium DRaaS solution offers an innovative, cost-optimized approach with incremental backups that are encrypted, deduped and stored efficiently in AWS S3.”

VMware said it expects VMware partners, including MSPs, will sell Datrium DRaaS services using existing processes. More details will be announced after the deal closes.

The DRaaS Advantage

Lee Caswell, VP of marketing for VMware’s cloud platform, said Datrium’s services will bring DRaaS to many more customers.

VMware’s Lee Caswell

“We are helping customers build a common platform, the VMware Cloud Foundation, across the hybrid cloud,” Caswell told Channel Futures. “One thing they need to do is bridge on-premises data centers to public cloud, for example. And one thing they need to do that is DRaaS.”

With DRaaS, customers can avoid investing lots of money on dedicated disaster recovery infrastructure that they use sporadically, he said.

“We were impressed with Datrium’s innovative technology around a cloud-first approach for this new DRaaS model for customers,” said Caswell.

VMware already has its performance-optimized DRaaS service, VMWare Site Recovery, but not all customers need that premium product.

“What we found with Datrium was that this is a fantastic entry point for other customers,” said Caswell. “There’s an expanding market with customers who want to do this with a more affordable approach.”

Datrium’s services don’t require capacity provisioning in advance, so customers need only pay for capacity they need, said Caswell. The Datrium offering also leverages the Amazon S3 cloud platform.

“That’s complimentary to our products today,” he said. “They come at different price points.”

A Sensible Move

Dan Olds, principal analyst with Gabriel Consulting Group, said the Datrium data backup and recovery acquisition is smart for VMware.

Gabriel Consulting’s Dan Olds

“This gives VMware a more powerful integrated offering that includes virtualization, cloud integration, and cloud backup and DR,” said Olds. “For channel partners, it will be easier to sell and implement a wider ranging solution once the integration is complete.”

Datrium’s Automatrix technology is also beneficial for partners selling integrated service packages, said Olds.

“With Datrium becoming a VMware company, this will become stronger as Datrium’s products and technology are folded into VMware’s offerings,” he said.

Another analyst, Rob Enderle of Enderle Group, said Datrium’s approach to data backup will help VMware.

Enderle Group’s Rob Enderle

“One of the significant historical problems with backup solutions was the focus on backup and not recovery,” said Enderle. “It turns out that it is recovery that’s most important — and Datrium appears as focused as a laser on that. That focus hits IT managers where they live and should make offerings with this feature desirable to the channel.”

In February, Datrium broadened its global partner network to EMEA, Australia and New Zealand. The company also added a new channel program level to expand its services to partners who offer Datrium DRaaS.

The new DRaaS Select partner program level added advanced training and certification on DRaaS with VMware Cloud on AWS. That helps partners assist customers as they incorporate or expand DR services into their IT operations.