 Overnight, COVID completely exposed those companies that were really not ready for the digital age. There was a mad rush to the cloud in an effort to reshape the very notion of business resiliency and enable employees to remain productive so that they continue serve customers. Data protection was at the heart of this shift and cloud data protection has become a fundamental staple of organizations operating models. Hello everyone, this is Dave Vellante and welcome to this CUBE Conversation. I'm joined by two longtime friends of the CUBE, Rob Emsley is the director of product marketing at Dell Technologies and Stephen Manley is the chief technology officer at Droover. Guys, great to have you on the program. Thanks for being here. Yeah, great to be here, Dave. This is the high point of my day, Dave. All right, I'm glad to hear it, Stephen. It's been a while since we were missing you guys to tell you face-to-face. It's maybe it'll happen before 22. We haven't aged a bit, Dave. Listen, we've been talking for years about the shift to the cloud, but in the past 12 months, boy, we've seen the pace of workloads that have moved to the cloud really accelerate. So Rob, maybe you could start it off. How do you see the market and perhaps what are some of the blind spots maybe that people need to think about when they're moving workloads so fast to the cloud? Yeah, good question, Dave. I mean, we've spoken a number of times around how our focus has significantly shifted over the last couple of years. I mean, only a couple of years ago, our focus was very much on on-premise data protection, but over the last couple of years, more workloads have shifted to the cloud. Customers have started adopting SaaS applications and all of these environments are creating data that is so critical to these customers to protect. So, you know, we've definitely found the more and more of our conversations have been centered around what can you do for me when it comes to protecting workloads in the cloud environment? Yeah, now, of course, Steven, this is kind of your wheelhouse. How are you thinking about these market shifts? Yeah, you know, it's interesting in the data protection market, heck, the data market in general, you see these sort of cycles happen. And for a long time, we had a cycle where applications and environments were consolidating a lot. It was all VMs and Oracle and SQL. And we seem to be exploding out the other way to this massive sprawl of different types of applications in different places. Like Rob said, you've got Microsoft 365 and you've got Salesforce and you've got workloads running in the cloud. The world looks different. And you add on top of that, the new security threats as people moving to the cloud. And a number of years ago, we talked about how ransomware was an emerging threat. We're way past emerging into, there's a ransomware attack every six seconds and everybody wakes up terrified about it. And so we really see the market has shifted, I think in terms of what the apps are and also in terms of what the threats and the focus has come into play. Right, well, thanks for that. There's some hard news which we're going to get to. But before we do, Rob Stephen was mentioning these SaaS apps and we've been sort of watching that space for a while. But a lot of people will ask, why do I need a separate data protection layer? Doesn't my SaaS provider protect my data? Don't they replicate it? They're cloud vendors. Why do I need to buy yet another backup product? Yeah, there's a fairly common misconception, Dave, that both SaaS application vendors and cloud vendors inherently are providing all of the data protection that you need. The reality is that they're not. I think when you think about a lot of the data within those environments, certainly they're focused on providing availability. And availability is absolutely one thing that you can for the most part, rely on the cloud vendors to deliver to you. But when it comes to actually protecting yourself from accidental deletion, protecting yourself from cyber threats and cyber crime that may infect your data through malicious acts, that's really where you need to supplement the environment that the cloud providers provide you with best-in-class data protection solutions. And this is really where we're really looking to introduce new innovations into the market to really help customers with their cloud-based data protection. Yeah, now you got some news here. Let's kind of dig in if we could to the innovations behind that. Maybe Rob, you could kick it off and then Stephen will bring you in. Yeah, so first piece of news that we're really happy to announce is the introduction of a new Dell EMC PowerProtect backup service, which is a new cloud data protection solution powered by Druva. Hence the reason that Stephen and I are here today. It's designed to deliver additional protection without increasing IT complexity. So what, powered by Druva, what does that mean? Can you add some color to that? Absolutely. So, you know, when we really started looking at the expansion of our PowerProtect portfolio, you know, we already have the ability to deliver both on-premises protection and to deliver that same software within the public cloud from a PowerProtect software delivery model. But what we really didn't have within the portfolio is a cloud data protection platform. And we really looked at, you know, what was available in the market. We looked at our ability to develop that, you know, ourselves and we decided that the best path for our customers to bring capabilities to them as soon as we possibly could was to partner with Druva. You know, when we really looked at the capabilities that Druva has been delivering for many years, you know, the capabilities that they have across many dimensions of cloud-based workloads and we're really engaged with them probably about six months ago. You know, first introduced Druva as an option to be resold by our sales force and partners and then we're pleased to introduce a Dell EMC branded service, PowerProtect backup service. Okay, so we're just one more point of clarification than Steven, I want to bring you in. So we're talking about, this includes SaaS apps as well. I'm talking 365, the Google apps, which we use extensively, you know, CRM, Salesforce for example. What platforms are you actually, you know, connecting to and providing protection for? Yeah, so the real priority for us was to expand our PowerProtect portfolio to support a variety of SaaS applications. You mentioned, you know, real major ones with respect to Microsoft 365, Google workplace, as well as Salesforce. But the other thing that we also get with PowerProtect backup service is the ability to provide a cloud-based data protection service that supports endpoints such as laptops and desktops, but also the ability to support hybrid workloads. So for some customers, the ability to use PowerProtect backup service to give them support for virtual machine backups, both VMware and Hyper-V, but also application environments like Oracle and SQL. And lastly, but not least, you know, one of the things that backup service also provides when it comes to virtual machines is not only virtual machines on-premises, but also virtual machines within the public cloud, specifically VMware cloud on AWS. So Stephen, I mean, I remember I was talking to Jaspreet several years ago, I've always liked sort of the Druva model, but it felt at the time, you feel like a little ahead of your time, but boy, the market has really come to you. Maybe you could just tell us a little bit more about the just generally cloud-based data protection and the sort of lowdown on your platform. Yeah, and again, I think you're right. The market has absolutely swept in this direction, like we were talking about with applications in so many places and endpoints in so many places and data centers and remote offices with data sprawled everywhere. We find customers are looking for a solution that can connect to everything. I don't want seven different backup solutions, one for each of those things. I want one centralized solution. And so kind of a data protection as a service becomes really appealing because instead of setting all of these things up on your own, well, it's just built in for you. And then the fact that it's as a service helps with things like the ransomware protection because it's off-site in another location under another account. And so we really see customers saying, this is appealing because it helps keep my costs down, it helps keep my complexity down, there's fewer moving parts. And one of the nicest things is as I moved to the cloud, I get that one fixed cost, right? I'm not dealing with the, oh, wow, this bill is not what I was expecting. It just comes in with what I was carrying. And so it really comes down to as you go to the cloud, you want a platform that's got everything built in, something that, and let's face it, Dell EMC, this has always been the case. That storage of last resort, that backup that you can trust, right? You want something with a history. Like you said, you've been talking to Jespreet for a while. Drew was a company that's got a proven track record that your data is going to be safe and it's going to be a recoverable. And you're going to want someone that can innovate quickly, right? So that as more new cloud applications arise, we're there to help you protect them as they emerge. So talk a little bit more about the timing. I mean, we talked earlier about, okay, COVID really forced the shift to the cloud. And you guys clearly have skated to the puck. And you also, you referenced sort of new workloads. And I'm just wondering how you see that from a timing standpoint. And at this moment in time, why this is such a, you know, the right fit. Yeah, we've seen a lot of customers over the last, again, 12 months or so, one, really accelerate their shift to things like SaaS applications, Microsoft 365. And we're not just talking exchange online and OneDrive, but SharePoint Online, Microsoft Teams, really going all in because they're finding that as I'm distributed, as I have a remote workforce, my endpoints became more important again, but also the ability to have collaboration became important. And the more I depend on those tools to collaborate, the more I'm depending on them to replace what used to be in-person meetings where we could have a whiteboard and discuss things. And it's done through collaboration online tools. Well, I need to protect that, not just because the data is important, but because that's not how my business is running. And so that entire environment is important. And so it's really accelerated people coming and looking for solutions because they've realized how important these environments in this data is. So Steven, you mentioned, you guys, I mean, obviously have a track record, but you got some vision too. And I want to sort of poke at that a little bit. I mean, essentially what you're building is an abstraction layer that is essentially my data protection cloud. Is that how we should think about this? And you've got your reference pricing. I've seen your pricing, it's clean. It looks to me anyway, like a true cloud pricing. Going to dial it up, dial it down, pay as you go, consume it as you wish. Maybe talk about that a little bit. Yeah, I mean, I think if you think about the future of consumption is that if so many customers are looking for different choices than what many vendors have provided them in the past, I think that the days of going through a long procurement cycle and working through purchasing in order to get a big capital expense approved is just not the way that many of our customers are looking to operate now. So I think that one of the things that we're looking at across the portfolio, whether or not it be on-premises solutions or cloud-based services is to provide all of that capability as a service. I think that that will be a real future point of arrival for us as we really rotate to offer that across all of our capabilities, Dave. Whether or not it be in the domain of storage or in the domain of data protection, the concept of everything as a service is really something which is going to become more of the norm versus the exception. So what does a customer have to do to be up and running? What's that experience like? Is this going to log on and everything sort of there to them? What do they see? What's the experience like? Yeah, well, that's one of the great things about PowerPotect Backup Service is that once the customer has worked through their Dell technologies, their sales team or their Dell technologies partner, they effectively get an activation code to sign up and set up their credentials with PowerPotect Backup Service. And once they actually do that, one of the things that they don't have to worry about is the deployment of the infrastructure. The infrastructure is always on ready to go. So what they do is they simply point PowerPotect Backup Service at the data sources that they wish to protect. And that's one of the great advantages around a SaaS-based data protection platform. And it's one of the things that makes it very easy to get customers up and running with PowerPotect Backup Service. So I'm guessing you have a roadmap. You may be holding out on us and some of the other things that you're doing in this space, but what can you tell us about other things you might be doing or that might be coming? What can we expect? Well, I mean, you know, Dave, that one of the things that we always talk about is the power of the portfolio. So with the addition of PowerPotect Backup Service, it's not the only news that we're making with respect to client data protection. I mentioned earlier that we have the ability to deploy our on-premises solutions in the public cloud with PowerPotect Data Manager and our PowerPotect virtual appliances. You know, and with this announcement that brings backup service into the portfolio, we're also pleased to expand our support of the public cloud with full support of Google Cloud Platform, making PowerPotect Data Manager available in the Google marketplace. And then lastly, but not least, you know, our other cloud snapshot manager offering, you know, is now also fully integrated with our PowerPotect virtual appliances to allow customers to store AWS snapshots in a de-duplicated fashion within AWS S3. So that's an excellent capability that we've introduced to reduce the cost of storing AWS infrastructure backups for longer periods of time. So really, you know, we've really continued to double down in bringing new cloud data protection capabilities to our customers wherever they may be. And nice. I'm Steve and you guys must be stoked. I have a partner like Dell, this massive distribution channel. I wonder if you could give us any final thoughts, you know, thoughts on the relationship, how you see the future unfolding. I mean, and obviously I've got, you know, history with Dell and EMC and Rob. And one of the things, you know, I think Dell has always been fabulous at is giving customers the flexibility to protect their data when they want, how they want, where they want, with the investment protection that if it shifts over time, they'll be there for them, right? Going all the way back to the data protection suite and all those fantastic things we've done historically. And so it's really, it's great to align with somebody that's got the same kind of values we do, which is at Druva, it's that same model, right? Wherever you want to protect your data, wherever it is, we're going to be there for you. And so it was great that I think Dell and Druva both saw this demand from our customers. And we said, you know, this is the right match, right? This is how we're going to help people keep their data safe as they start, you know, and continue and extend their journeys to the cloud. And so, you know, Dell proposes the PowerProtect backup service powered by Druva and everybody wins. The Dell's customers are safer. Dell completes its offering and let's face it, it does help Druva accelerate our momentum. So this is, this is, this is, and it's a lot of fun just hanging out with the people I used to work with, especially Rob. It's good seeing him again. Well, you guys both have kind of alluded to the portfolio and the optionality that Dell brings to its customers. But Rob, you know, I'll give you the final word. A lot of times optionality brings complexity, but this seems to be a really strong step in the direction of simplifying the world for your customers. But Rob, I'll give you the last word. Yeah, for sure. I mean, we've always said that it's not a one size fits all world. You know, I think that, you know, one of the things that this evolution of our PowerProtect portfolio brings, you know, is an excellent added option for our customers. You know, many of the customers, if not almost all of the customers that we currently sell to, you know, have a requirement for SaaS application protection. You know, many of them now, especially after the last year, haven't added sensitivity to endpoint protection. You know, so those two things alone, you know, I think are two things that all Dell technology customers can really take advantage of with the introduction of PowerProtect backup service. You know, this is just a continued evolution of our capabilities to bring innovative data protection for multi-client workloads. That last point is a great point about the endpoints because you got remote workers so exposed. Guys, thanks so much for sharing the announcement details and the relationship and really good luck with the offering. We'll be watching. Thanks, Dave. Thanks, Dave. And thank you for watching this CUBE Conversation. This is Dave Vellante for theCUBE. We'll see you next time.