Scott Mayers, Director of Data Center and Cloud Technologies, discusses why he switched to Rubrik to power rediCloud’s backup-as-a-service offering.
What’s the story behind ATSG and rediCloud?
rediCloud, a division of ATSG, is a suite of cloud solutions that bring ultimate flexibility and simplicity to the traditional cloud model. We provide turnkey VM and infrastructure services, virtual desktops, disaster recovery, backup, object storage, and hosted voice. These services can be consumed in piecemeal or in conjunction and can be hosted in our datacenters or placed as a pod on-premises.rediCloud’s mission is to democratize access to leading-edge technologies that can be easily deployed on- or off-prem at prices affordable for organizations with 100 to 4,000+ users across all verticals (HIPAA and PCI compliant).
rediCloud’s mission is to democratize access to leading-edge technologies that can be easily deployed on- or off-prem at prices affordable for organizations with 100 to 4,000+ users across all verticals (HIPAA and PCI compliant).
What led you to Rubrik?
rediBackup is our Backup-as-a-Service offering in the making. We had selected a backup software vendor, one which is fairly common in the managed service provider space and which our engineering team was fairly acquainted with already. However, we recognized challenges with managing this environment day-to-day, scalability for future growth, as well as its integration with cloud technologies such as object storage.
Meanwhile, we closely monitored Rubrik from its coming-out-of-stealth announcement to its product GA. We were intrigued by Rubrik’s fresh approach to backup and the inherent simplicity in the product. Taking a closer look, we saw Rubrik’s roadmap as very much in-line with where rediCloud is going – software-defined data centers, separation of control plane from data plane, and scale-out architecture.
How are you using Rubrik?
We’re using Rubrik in a few ways. First off, VMs hosted in a rediCloud data center can leverage Rubrik for backups and instant restores. As part of our on-premises offering, Rubrik is included in our rediCloud Pod which provides on-site backup and recovery capabilities.
Customers requiring long-term retention can leverage our rediStore object storage as a seamless extension of their backup infrastructure. Even customers running Rubrik today with no ties to rediCloud can use us for archiving purposes.
Rubrik’s 2.0 release helps diversify our offerings since replication allows rediCloud to serve as a replica target. We’re in the process of building a DR solution leveraging the Rubrik appliances. It solves multiple business problems of backup and DR, gives customers an alternate to building their own DR locations, and comes with the same simplicity Rubrik customers expect.
What’s your favorite feature?
I remember the first time that I saw the “slider bar” for data archival in the demo. You just slide the bar to choose how long data is kept on the appliance before archiving to the cloud. It was a “wow” moment for us, and was just that simple. I can literally determine on-site vs. off-site retention with just a slider. Then, knowing that this functionality was all API driven and we could automate against it really added value for us. The “live mount” capability has also been well received by customers and provides a nice differentiator to competitors.
How has Rubrik enhanced the rediCloud solution?
Operational simplicity is critical for a service provider like us. Rubrik’s simplicity delivers immediate value since the level of engineers and engineering talent needed to manage Rubrik vs. any other backup software and backup storage solution is night-and-day. You’re comparing 15-minute installations to implementations at least a weeklong with pages of provisioning instruction. By using Rubrik, we’re able to reap savings on our backend management and pass those savings on to customers.
What does rediCloud plan to do with Rubrik down the line?
In a short period of time, we’ve been able to place Rubrik in our backup and DR solutions. We recognize Rubrik is new and taking backup by storm, but the flexibility of the product makes us believe the product and use cases will only expand as time goes on. rediCloud is excited about the future of Rubrik and we’re looking forward to seeing the two companies grow and succeed together.
Interested in rediCloud? Check out their website or follow them on Twitter.