The world of data protection -- once considered a static and back-office service -- is changing considerably. There's been a lot of momentum in this marketplace over the past few years, especially with new approaches and models that serve enterprise requirements. Multiple business imperatives have affected this industry, including business leaders who expect I&O pros to help firms recover from a ransomware attack and I&O pros who want to consolidate experiences that impact their purchase decisions. Vendors such as Cohesity and Rubrik have addressed that market with an integrated, well-functioning appliance-based offering. Commvault made a similar attempt with an appliance-based solution launched nearly two years ago[1]. This offering garnered some traction, but it required some fundamental capabilities, such as having a scale-out storage foundation.
The gap needed plugging. Yesterday, Commvault announced its plan to acquire Hedvig[2] in a $225 million deal. Commvault's stake in the ground in the appliances market is rooted in Hedvig's native capability -- software-defined scale-out storage. Forrester expects Commvault to integrate Hedvig's business and offering by:
- Integrating the Hedvig SDS as the underlying platform for its appliance offering. Commvault's solution will integrate with Hedvig's to deliver underlying foundational scale-out software-defined storage capability. That brings Commvault one step closer to delivering a true appliance experience.
- Focusing on increasing topline. Commvault's new-age competitors have a significant portion of bookings coming from their hardware. Hardware bookings and revenue can be three to seven times their software revenue. It can also drive repeat revenue from clients as