Today we introduced Actifio One to the world, and I thought I’d share some background on the solution, and our strategy in creating it.
What It Is
First the basics, from today’s press release:
Actifio One is a cloud-based service built on Actifio’s copy data virtualization technology that provides businesses of all sizes with the fastest and easiest way to make their applications available when and where they need them. Built on Actifio’s revolutionary Virtual Data Pipeline™ (VDP) technology, Actifio One replaces a hodgepodge of data protection and management tools with a single, cloud-based service you can set and forget to protect applications and databases running on physical servers, VMware, Windows, Hyper-v, Linux, Oracle, and Microsoft SQL Server.
What we are delivering is an unprecedented capability for an IT organization to dynamically extend their data center into the cloud, enabling applications to operate across a seamless continuum of private, hybrid, and public cloud environments. Something went bump in the night in the data center? Instantly bring up your applications in the cloud. Running short of resources in the data center due to a burst? Migrate a few applications to the cloud for a while. Want to migrate a few or all your applications to the cloud? Done. Instantly. All this, while data is being protected and vaulted with the radical simplicity customers in 36 countries have come to expect from Actifio.
Today we have finally decoupled the “Data” from the “Datacenter,” and freed it to be located, accessed, and used anywhere, instantly.
This is BIG. This is the holy grail of IT.
For Actifio, this is an evolution in our journey to transform the data management and storage market and offer our solution as a cloud-based service. We leveraged the same large enterprise, battle-proven Virtual Data PipelineTM technology and delivered it as a service in the cloud. We’ve even integrated Resiliency Director to seamlessly move applications between the cloud and on-premises datacenter, and added a brand-new Actifio One portal to let customers manage the service themselves.
A Little Context: How Our Product Portfolio Has Evolved
We have always focused on user success and delivering the fastest time to value. At the outset of the company, we delivered an appliance because we heard from users that they hated being system integrators for traditional software vendors. They were spending months, sometimes years, setting up traditional enterprise software, configuring it and hoping it would one day deliver the promised value. We decided to package a solution that would install in a few hours and set the industry benchmark for simplicity of deployment, use and time to value. This was the “Actifio CDS” solution.
The need to address smaller environments like departmental IT or remote-offices led us to deliver “Actifio Sky ROBO” – a software-only, virtual appliance. Sky ROBO was the same incredible Copy Data Virtualization solution, now delivered as a virtual appliance to manage data in remote and back offices. It enabled users to bring all their enterprise data under one management model and for our service provider partners to reach out to smaller users and deliver unprecedented service levels at costs far below anything before.
Over the years we’ve seen the emergence of standardization and “cloud-ization” of infrastructure. OpenStack and IaaS platforms emerged enabling users to commoditize infrastructure and streamline operations. More and more of our users wanted Actifio to be delivered on these emerging infrastructure platforms. Two developments came out of this shift.
First, we released “Actifio Sky”, the full-fledged software version of our enterprise solution that can be deployed in any infrastructure environment. We continue to work on reference designs and best practices for deploying in different platforms: VMware, Hyper-V, AWS, OpenStack and even a dedicated reference hardware platform.
Now we’ve delivered Copy Data Virtualization as a service with “Actifio One,” making our Radically Simple solution simpler and more radical than ever.
The message is clear; we’ve built the next generation platform for managing data and storage. Today, we demonstrated that we are able to deliver this revolutionary platform as an appliance, as software for various configurations and platforms, and as a service. We are delivering on our mission to transform the industry across all the market segments.
And we are just getting started.
Actifio One shows just how fungible and flexible our core technology really is. It’s not another backup-to-the cloud or a gateway to the cloud tool or another point tool to add to the pile of what you already have. It’s a single, integrated, hybrid cloud solution that combines a small but powerful software download with all of the cloud-based resources required to not just store application data but to restore the capability of applications themselves in the cloud, on demand, for either business resiliency, cloud burst or cloud migration management.
What It Means For Our Service Provider Partners
Hundreds of customers around the world already use Actifio in the cloud, of course, through the many Cloud Service Providers that now represent the bulk of our business. So does this represent a shift in our strategy?
Absolutely not.
Actifio One is an entry-level, cloud-based service targeted at smaller enterprises and mid-market customers. We have actively engaged with our service provider partners to not only deliver a synergistic solution, but also one they can leverage to extend their portfolio to reach a new market segment. Many are taking advantage of the service themselves to offer a basic business resiliency service quickly and easily without consuming their own precious capital. Others are bundling Actifio Sky with their own infrastructure and SLA’s, to offer an enterprise-class service with premium features and premium pricing. Either way, they’re happy. And that makes us happy.
What It Means For Channel Partners
Actifio One enables us to bring the same Copy Data Virtualization capabilities that have transformed the largest global enterprises to a much higher volume of smaller enterprise and mid-market users. We’re bringing the power of enterprise-class business resiliency down to a segment of the market that could never have afforded it, until now.
Our Channel partners are critical to delivery of this service to the targeted audience. We are actively briefing each one of our Channel partners on the go-to-market model that enables them to deliver a industry-leading business resiliency service and be the trusted partner they are to the users. We have made significant investments to simplify the registration, trial, sale and post-sales process that will enable our channel partners to deliver the next-generation business resiliency service and be the value-added trusted partner they are, to our users.
What It Means For Us
Actifio One increases the size of our total addressable market, which will help us grow faster longer. Our focus on largest enterprises and service provider partners supporting these enterprises served us well over the years. We demonstrated tangible financial, operational and transformative value to our users, creating a new market category, Copy Data Virtualization, in the process. Now it was time to bring those capabilities to a broader segment of the market and create a sustained growth path and competitive leadership for a long time to come.
What Customers Say
As always, the customer gets the last word:
“Protecting our critical ERP databases before was too costly and complex. When we looked at existing options like Veeam and Commvault, none could deliver what we really needed, which was a fast and complete restoration of the application functionality, not just the data. Then we found Actifio One,” said Guillaume Meillat, ElectroCraft’s senior global network and system administrator. “Actifio One was the obvious answer, especially when we saw how simple the licensing model was, and were able to set it up in just 30 minutes.”
Thank you, Guillaume. That’s what we set out to build. And while I’m sure we’ll refine the details as we listen intently to what customers actually want, today I’m confident we delivered.
Finally I’d like to thank everyone at Actifio who helped pull together this remarkable offering in record time. I know it wasn’t easy given all the other demands on our time. But in the end we made it happen. And I couldn’t be more proud of what we delivered today.
