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Rubrik, the rather impertinent startup that merely wants to replace in one fell swoop all conventional data backup-and-recovery point products that have taken 30-plus years for other companies to develop, has added more new functionality to its new-gen data-management system.
The Palo Alto, Calf.-based company on April 26 unveiled what it described as the IT industry’s first security enhanced, converged data-management appliance. By converged, Rubrik means that if someone broke out all the functionality in the new Rubrik r528’s 2U-size box as separate software components, it would need a 20U-footprint to contain it all. In the past, single-purpose servers were standard; not so anymore.
The r528 provides users with complete on-site data backup and protection, data encryption at rest and in-flight, and rich data services at a global scale, to go with a lot of other functionality. It can be configured to work with cloud systems.
Security is a Priority
But the most important function Rubrik brings to data backup is security. This the r528 has in spades.
“With the amount of digital data projected to grow to 1 trillion gigabytes by 2020, and a growing trend in data breaches, it is imperative that businesses apply the highest security standards to all their data,” CEO and co-founder CEO Bipul Sinha said. “We developed the r528 to ensure data is encrypted both in transit across a network and at rest to meet the security needs of our enterprise and public sector customers.”
Rubrik’s r528 appliance provides high-level encryption and security with the delivery of FIPS 140-2 Level 2 certified hardware. With self-encrypting HDDs and SSDs, flexible key management options, and physical tamper evidence, the r528 provides a high level of FIPS certification in the backup and recovery industry.
The r528 is a 2U appliance with two commodity x86 nodes that protects up to 300-plus terabytes of source data and comes pre-configured with Rubrik Converged Data Management.
What the New Appliance Brings to the Table
Key benefits of the Rubrik platform, according to Sinha, include unlimited replication; a policy-driven management engine; recovery with near-zero RTO and elastic RPO; and action-oriented reporting.
Ransomware is a rapidly growing criminal tactic that Rubrik mitigates with its system. In 2012, one of the largest regional banks in the United States “lost” its backups containing the personal account information for more than 260,000 customers. Thus, it is crucial for companies to take the necessary steps to protect data from end-to-end, not just where they think attacks may happen.
“Ransomware is a highly profitable crime, and there aren’t many reliable security-only based options to avoid this and mitigate risk,” Adam Goldberg, a member of Rubrik’s product management team, told eWEEK. “So we think that businesses can really change the game here and use secure on-site backups to eliminate the hostage situation that’s present with ransomware.
“If you look at the recent Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital case (in which the hospital paid $17,000 to get its data restored), that’s just one example. Huge sums of money are being paid all over. IT needs to eliminate the divide between data protection and security, so they can always ensure access to their business-critical data. The r528 is our first step in that direction.”
Top-Flight Builders of the Product
Rubrik is built by key engineers behind Google, Facebook, VMware, and Data Domain.
The company has raised more than $51 million from Greylock Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and enterprise IT luminaries, including John W. Thompson (Microsoft Chairman, Symantec Former CEO), Frank Slootman (ServiceNow CEO, Data Domain Former CEO), Dheeraj Pandey (Founder and CEO, Nutanix) and Mark Leslie (Leslie Ventures, Veritas Founding CEO).
Rubrik appliances are globally available through the company’s solution partners. For more information, go here.