Table of Contents
- Summary
- Market Categories and Deployment Types
- Key Criteria Comparison
- GigaOm Radar
- Vendor Insights
- Analyst’s Take
- Methodology
- About GigaOm
- Copyright
1. Summary
Data is among the most important assets of any enterprise today, and keeping that data safe is paramount. This is especially the case with the transition to the cloud, which is radically changing where data is created and consumed, and this transformation, combined with evolving business and regulatory needs, makes data protection services vital for the enterprise.
In the enterprise, moving data to the cloud using SaaS applications and re-platforming, re-factoring and rehosting on-premises applications to hybrid cloud platforms is difficult enough. Making sure the data generated stays protected is even more challenging.
With the disruption in the data protection industry brought on by innovative startups, and the well-established vendors rethinking their strategy to bridge the gap between legacy and modern solutions, hybrid cloud infrastructures have become the go-to environment, and the data protection market is moving fast to cover that area.
The enterprise market is trending toward additional services built on top of data protection, and these services are becoming instrumental in collecting and consolidating data across the entire organization (no matter where it is created or stored), with the goal of reusing it for other purposes. In most cases, the enhancements are still about improving and expanding data protection processes, as is the case of protection against ransomware. Still, areas like security, compliance, data governance, and management are getting a lot of attention as well.
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, most of the workforce ended up working from home, and organizations needed to restructure to protect data created by users in disparate locations. For data protection suppliers, this means endpoints need to be included in the portfolio as well. This is also the case for the growing edge market, where data collected by sensors and devices at the edge also needs protection.
Today, the modern workplace generally involves a combination of SaaS applications and virtual desktops, whether on-premises or in the cloud, with increasing demand for NAS (file) protection in both environments. Along with this scenario, enterprises are building hybrid cloud infrastructures and need solutions that can support their data-driven initiatives adequately. Furthermore, a growing number of enterprises are taking advantage of Kubernetes to redo their business applications, and protecting these assets is becoming crucial. This is why the market is so active, with both startups and incumbents looking at ways to disrupt traditional backup models, as well as increase the value of the protected data by adding data management and data reuse capabilities to their solutions.
How to Read this Report
This GigaOm report is one of a series of documents that helps IT organizations assess competing solutions in the context of well-defined features and criteria. For a fuller understanding consider reviewing the following reports:
Key Criteria report: A detailed market sector analysis that assesses the impact that key product features and criteria have on top-line solution characteristics—such as scalability, performance, and TCO—that drive purchase decisions.
GigaOm Radar report: A forward-looking analysis that plots the relative value and progression of vendor solutions along multiple axes based on strategy and execution. The Radar report includes a breakdown of each vendor’s offering in the sector.
Solution Profile: An in-depth vendor analysis that builds on the framework developed in the Key Criteria and Radar reports to assess a company’s engagement within a technology sector. This analysis includes forward-looking guidance around both strategy and product.