Senior executives from backup specialist Commvault have outlined plans to build a unified platform with seamless integration between data management and storage capabilities.
The ambition to build what Commvault identifies as a 'unified data brain' follows its $225 million purchase of the software-defined storage startup Hedvig in September, the first major acquisition in its history.
Outlining these at Commvault's annual GO conference this week, the firm's CEO Sanjay Mirchandani suggested the ambitions tie directly into the company's vision for detangling data from infrastructure in an increasingly multi-cloud landscape.
"It refreshes, in some ways, how you and I think about primary and secondary storage, in the more traditional sense," Mirchandani told customers and partners in his keynote address. "It needs a rethink - this whole thing needs a rethink.
"Internally, I've been calling this, somewhat playfully, so pardon me the playfulness of this, the data brain. And what the data brain is, if I'm to oversimplify it conceptually, is the plane upon which data and storage run in a unified way; run together. The brain encapsulates these two sets of functionality."
In terms of distribution, for now, Hedvig's tools will be marketed and sold to customers under its existing, standalone identity, with integration to follow in the coming months. Hedvig's channel programme and the process of reselling its technology will also remain largely unchanged in the short-term future.
As the technologies are combined, however, Commvault says it will figure out who the right channel partners and distribution partners might be, with conversations with various companies over what makes sense and what doesn't. Many of Hedvig's current partners may also seek to make a change now the firm is a Commvault entity.
Meanwhile, when it comes to the technical process, Commvault's vice president for storage solutions Don Forster suggested there will be progress by December, with several further targets set for the early months of 2020, and up to the start of the next fiscal year.
"One of the mandates is let's do the integration but in a way that we don't break their business," he told Channel Pro.
"Let's not break their business as we do the integration. So part of that, of course, is making sure customers are clear, and not confused, about what's what at this point."
He also revealed how a handful of Hedvig's customers use backup technology provided by Commvault competitors, such as Veeam, and are also part of rival alliance programmes.
The company has no plans to annul these relationships, Foster said in a press roundtable, with Mirchandani adding: "I'm going to do what's right for customers. If customers want to use Hedvig with a competing product, and it works, we will support it. Industry competition is short-sighted."
