VMblog.com, 5/29/19
The future of storage involves both the cloud and the edge as enterprises move away from on-premises hardware and software toward an "as-a-service" model.
Data storage and related technologies are once again becoming a hot commodity. Since the summer, venture capitalists have poured money into three companies that serve the growing demand for data storage and backup. In January, Rubrik raised $261 million, followed the next day by Veeam's $500 million round of funding. Last August, Actifio raised $106 million.
Interestingly, though, none of these companies identifies itself as a backup or storage provider. Instead they're some flavor of cloud, services or data management: Veeam calls itself an "intelligent data management" company; Rubrik uses the term "cloud data management;" and Actifio identifies itself as "enterprise data as a service."
The two key takeaways? Such strong interest from investors and customers alike reflect the tremendous need for advancements in data storage and backup. And the way in which these providers are defining themselves indicates data storage is rapidly moving away from on-premises hardware and software to an "as-a-service" model that leverages hybrid cloud.