Commvault expands Flex with Hitachi Vantara & NetApp

Commvault has expanded its Commvault Flex partner ecosystem to include Hitachi Vantara and NetApp, widening the storage options available for its data protection and cyber recovery platform.

The additions build on existing Commvault Flex partnerships with Everpure, HPE and VAST Data. The platform, previously known as HyperScale Flex, is designed for organisations managing very large, fast-changing datasets and connects with external flash storage pools through a flexible architecture.

The expansion comes as businesses contend with growing data volumes tied to artificial intelligence workloads. Commvault pointed to forecasts that demand for AI-ready data centre capacity will grow by an average of 33 per cent a year as more organisations deploy AI in mission-critical applications.

That growth is increasing pressure on infrastructure teams to scale storage and recovery systems without linking every capacity increase to additional compute resources. Commvault Flex is intended to let customers scale performance and capacity independently, helping improve recovery of critical systems, avoid overprovisioning and support service-level targets.

Under the arrangement, Commvault Flex models are delivered as a software image that can be installed on validated server hardware and connected to storage hardware from partner vendors. The approach gives customers a broader choice of storage suppliers while keeping the Commvault software layer consistent.

Pranay Ahlawat, chief technology and AI officer at Commvault, said the changes reflect customer demand for systems that can protect larger AI-related datasets while maintaining recovery performance.

"Many organizations require solutions that provide uninterrupted access to data systems, address capacity requirements of large AI datasets, and meet performance requirements for resilience and recovery," said Pranay Ahlawat, Chief Technology and AI Officer, Commvault. "Commvault Flex, in tandem with Hitachi Vantara, NetApp, and other partners, enables customers to scale their flash storage solutions to meet demands for multiple petabyte throughput."

Partner push

For Hitachi Vantara, the tie-up adds its VSP One data platform to the list of storage systems that can be used in Commvault Flex environments. The partnership centres on the need to balance digital transformation with rising cyber risks.

"Organisations face unprecedented pressure to digitalize their business while protecting it from increasingly sophisticated cyber threats," said Dan McConnell, Senior Vice President, Product Management and Enablement, Hitachi Vantara. "Commvault and Hitachi Vantara help reduce enterprise risk by delivering trusted, intelligent and scalable infrastructure with exceptional performance, data availability, cyber resilience and efficiency. With Hitachi Vantara's VSP One data platform, customers can bring high-performance, enterprise-grade storage to Commvault Flex environments, helping them scale capacity and accelerate recovery across large, dynamic datasets."

NetApp is framing the agreement in similar terms, emphasising cyber resilience in data-heavy AI environments. Its addition gives the ecosystem another established storage supplier as vendors seek to tie backup, recovery and ransomware protection more closely to core storage systems.

"In today's AI-driven world, resilience at scale is foundational for compliance, operational continuity, and maintaining a competitive edge," said Gagan Gulati, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Data Services, NetApp. "By combining Commvault Flex's resilience, protection, and recovery capabilities with NetApp's enterprise-grade data platform with built-in intelligence and AI-driven ransomware detection, we're delivering a powerful, end‐to‐end cyber resilience solution."

Market demand

The announcement reflects how infrastructure providers are adapting product ecosystems to meet the changing needs of enterprises running larger datasets across hybrid environments. Backup and recovery systems, once treated as separate layers of IT, are increasingly being designed to work more closely with storage architecture as companies seek faster restoration after outages or cyber incidents.

For Commvault, expanding the list of supported storage vendors could make Flex more appealing to customers that want to maintain existing supplier relationships rather than commit to a narrower hardware stack. Pricing will depend on the server and storage options selected for each deployment.