“Effective Data Management Can Simplify the Unavoidable Technology Mix”, Says Balaji Rao

In the fast-moving world, the priorities of clients change and so does the ecosystem of data management systems. Data management teams do their best to integrate the components to meet the requirements of the moment, i.e, development and experimentation cycles while not losing focus on the bigger picture, bringing out a viable product into the market. Businesses start by gathering volumes of data and in the end, find it difficult to optimize it to the toolsets available. Commvault is a data management and data security platform that helps mid and enterprise-level companies to better utilize the data and aggregate it into useful insights. Analytics Insight has engaged in an exclusive interview with Balaji Rao, Area Vice President, India & SAARC, Commvault.

1.Kindly brief us about the company, its specialization and the services that your company offers.      

As the hybrid work era bolstered the exponential rise in data generation, the need for data mobility, interoperability, and data integrity has become business critical. Thus, it is vital to reinforce effective management to unlock data's true value.

Commvault has been a trusted data protection partner for leading enterprises for the past 26 years, with one of the broadest portfolios in the industry, and has constantly reinvented itself to unlock the true potential of data and maximize business value. We have a multi-layered security approach and Zero Trust Principles that safeguard data and reduce cybersecurity risk through a secure backup framework. The end-to-end data protection framework ensures business continuity across your on-prem and cloud environments using a single extensible platform.

With an Intelligent Data Services Platform, we empower our customers to simplify and intelligently manage data and deliver a flexible, future-proof architecture that provides unprecedented customer choice and is available via SaaS with Metallic, integrated appliance with HyperScale X, enterprise software, or managed services with our partners.

Metallic is also redefining the game in ransomware protection through our new security service: Metallic ThreatWise. ThreatWise enables businesses to uncover latent and silent threats traversing environments, contain and limit windows of exposure, and even flag ransomware activity before data leakage, exfiltration, theft, or damage. Now, organizations of all sizes get robust early warning capabilities to spot and intercept threats before they reach your crown jewels – your data – alongside proven recoverability for worst-case scenarios.

We are ready to capitalize when opportunities arise and our 26-year-old legacy helps us to identify, and anticipate enterprise needs to offer flexibility and choice.

2.With what mission and objectives, the company was set up? In short, tell us about your journey since the inception of the company.

Commvault kickstarted as a spin-off of AT&T Bell Labs, offering data backup services in 1996.  With the vision of delivering the best technology for our customer's data needs, the company expanded its product portfolio through the launch of several solutions including next-gen data and storage (Commvault Galaxy), Simpana 7.0 software suite, and Commvault Go, among others. We continued to increase our presence, building a loyal customer base, started gaining industry recognition, and had our IPO in 2006. We have been awarded several accolades from prestigious bodies like Gartner and Great Place to Work, to name a few.

In 2018, Commvault marked its presence in India with the establishment of a new office in Hyderabad. Commvault continued to expand in India through the establishment of a Centre of Excellence (COE). With the vision of building a microcosm of its global operations and business in India, COE was launched to provide world-class research and development, customer support, services, and operations through collaboration with peers across North America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe.

2019 witnessed the onboarding of our transformative leader, Sanjay Mirchandani. He has propelled Commvault forward by further innovating its industry-recognized portfolio and moving towards SaaS, strengthening the channel partner ecosystem, and completing the Company's first major acquisition of Hedvig, a leader in software-defined storage. Under his stellar leadership, Commvault launched its award-winning SaaS offering, Metallic which provides simple, flexible, and integrated data protection for cloud and hybrid cloud workloads

We are committed to solving the very hard and complex data problems for our customers as we continuously drive innovation and create elegant solutions to these problems – with world-class solutions. At Commvault, we are laser-focused as we simplify, scale, and bring benefits to our customers who want choice and flexibility – all of which we offer – allowing them to meet new business needs with less burden. 

3.What are your growth plans for the next 12 months?

 One of the critical drivers anchoring our growth is our ability to solve very hard and complex data problems for our customers. Data has become the most valuable asset across all organizational operations in today's world. The demand for data protection and management solutions is at an all-time high and our comprehensive portfolio echoes with customers and partners alike. Commvault has been in this business for 26 years – providing peace of mind that their data is secure and available. 

Our growth is predicated on our drive for innovation as we create elegant and world-class solutions for our customers. One vendor, one platform that's what we do best, our forgiving architecture and single-frame-of-glass removes the rigidity and complexity in our customers' systems. Innovation is the key to success, and we continue to deliver. We are witnessing a strong demand for flexibility and agility as customers want a choice between on-premises, cloud, or a managed DMaaS deployment model. Additionally, the rapid popularity and adoption of SaaS across India and international markets coupled with our differentiated portfolio will reinforce our presence and help us expand across the IT industry over the next year.

Our company growth this past fiscal year was primarily driven by large deals and the continued traction of our SaaS offerings – including Metallic, our backup-as-a-service platform. In fact, our Metallic offerings further bolstered our ARR ($50 mn), and revenue growth, ($202.4 mn) resulting in the best fiscal year in Commvault's history.  Today, Metallic is our advantage – offering customers the power of  SaaS, and allowing them to embrace our software and SaaS at will. 

4.What is your leadership mantra?

 The pandemic period has been one of the most challenging planning cycles for me. This has taught me to build a culture where business is resilient, and the teams are supported.

While this transition period has paved new ways to work and inspire, one of my main priorities has been to bring transformation through innovation and disruption. I believe innovation remains a constant in the company's evolution and its people. Exchanging ideas, continuous learning, and openness to new ideas have always driven my life and I try to pass them on to my team as well.

Flexibility is the mantra for maintaining workforce well-being. Our message to our staff in 2022 was primarily to think about themselves, their well-being, and their family, and to drive business toward sustainable growth in 2022.

5.How can businesses efficiently extract the value from data, without increasing cost and complexity

 As organizations evolve over time, so do their technology requirements. Today, data has become the new currency, and companies see it as an asset, not a liability. From 2020 to 2025, IDC forecasts new data creation to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23%, resulting in approximately 175ZB of data creation by 2025.

With this rapid data growth, the data landscape is becoming increasingly complex to manage. More technologies are added to meet the new needs and demands of organisations. This has fragmented the storage and now data is located across multiple environments, including hybrid, cloud, and multi-cloud environments.

While this mix of technology is unavoidable as IT evolves, it can be tackled by effective data management. Data must be carefully managed to keep storage costs under control and to implement a successful information life cycle management strategy.

Commvault provides organizations with cost reduction through valuable data insights and remediation actions through a managed DMaaS deployment model. The benefits of the SaaS model help in delivering improved storage efficiencies, streamlined cloud migrations and data protection without bearing hefty IT infrastructure costs.

6.What are the skill sets that you specifically look for while hiring them at an initial stage?

 While there are some specific skills that are necessary, hiring individuals demands more than academic excellence. We look for individuals who are confident, adaptable and have the will to learn anything they don't know. Individuals with well-honed problem-solving, lateral thinking and critical analysis capabilities are always an asset to an organisation. They tend to adapt quickly to new training, strengthen their skills, and are versatile for your company. In addition to this, aptitude and attitude will always stand one in good stead.

We are a customer-centric organization and how we help our customers address and resolve data concerns keeps us in the fast lane. We definitely look for individuals who share our passion and vision for enabling customers to succeed and rev up the innovation engine to provide the best products, service, and support that we possibly can.