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Data protection has never been more important. As organisations across Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) face an evolving landscape of cyber threats and tightening regulations, many are turning to technology and strategic partnerships to safeguard their most valuable asset – data.

Martin Kriegen, Vice President for ANZ at CommVault, believes that technological innovation and a strong partner ecosystem are key in the fight against increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. "CommVault today has evolved as an enterprise data protection leader for global businesses," Kriegen said in a recent interview. "We're very happy about the fact that we're the first data protection vendor to introduce cyber deception."

CommVault's approach is rooted in providing a unified customer experience for enterprises, securing, defending, and recovering data wherever it resides – on-premises, at the edge, or in the cloud. "With CommVault, our customers get enterprise-grade data protection that delivers agility and cost, and it does that for them in a hybrid world," Kriegen explained. He noted that more than 90 percent of enterprise organisations now operate in some form of hybrid IT environment, making adaptable data protection and cyber resiliency essential.

Kriegen drew an analogy between data and oxygen, emphasising its fundamental importance for modern enterprises. "I coined a phrase that I like to use – data is the oxygen of the enterprise. Just like we as humans need oxygen to breathe and to exist, our customers need data to breathe and to exist," he said.

Threats are becoming more autonomous and pervasive, prompting Chief Information Officers (CIOs) to prioritise advanced data protection measures. "We're absolutely facing a multitude of threats," Kriegen said, "and our customers are looking for unparalleled cyber resiliency and know-how." He also highlighted the demand for solutions that harness artificial intelligence and are easy to implement, whether delivered as software-as-a-service (SaaS) or on-premise.

CommVault's response to these challenges is evident in its resources and strategy across ANZ. Headquartered for the region in Sydney, the company maintains teams in all major capital cities, supporting both direct customers and an extensive partner network. "Partners are not only significant but important to CommVault's go-to-market strategy," Kriegen said. "We are a partner-led organisation and we co-sell with channel partners. We operate in an extensive ecosystem where we aim for customer success by extending our partners' reach into the cloud."

He detailed the company's Partner Advantage programme, designed to support and reward partners that invest in CommVault's technology. "We have a very simplified approach, a unified platform and competitive incentives to help our partners drive business with CommVault," he added. A recent distribution agreement with Arrow Electronics will further enhance the company's outreach and support across Australia and New Zealand.

The security landscape in ANZ is rapidly changing. Kriegen observed that, "we're seeing many different profiles of cyber attacks happening to many different types of organisations. The protection of their data has never been more important." He credited recent regulatory changes like the Notifiable Data Breach scheme in Australia and the Privacy Act in New Zealand with compelling organisations to place a higher emphasis on data protection and privacy.

This regulatory momentum is, in turn, fuelling demand for advanced data protection solutions. "For enterprise organisations to comply with legislation, they are continuing to invest in data classification and discovery tools," Kriegen noted. He referenced CommVault's own metallic SaaS platform, which helps clients identify and classify sensitive data in order to protect it more effectively.

Cloud adoption is another distinct trend in the region, with Australia and New Zealand continuing to lead globally. But this added flexibility also brings new risks. "Cloud adoption has certainly raised concerns about data security in the cloud," Kriegen said. "We're seeing a growing market for cloud-based data protection services and solutions that help organisations on that journey to cloud."

Each year, CommVault commissions a State of Data Readiness Report with one of its local advisors, which this year found that 62 percent of respondents now operate a blended or hybrid infrastructure environment. "That just creates multiple avenues for the bad guys to attack, and this is why data protection and cyber resiliency are so important," Kriegen explained.

Looking to the future, CommVault has doubled down on innovation. "We're revolutionising how businesses tackle risks and safeguard their valuable data and drive better business outcomes," he said. In early June, CommVault unveiled new capabilities aimed at empowering businesses of all sizes to take a proactive approach to layered protection.

Kriegen was keen to underline the company's continued recognition by analysts. "We are a leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for 12 of the last 12 years, and we've been identified as a leader in six out of seven areas in Gartner's Critical Capabilities report for backup, recovery, data protection and cyber resiliency services," he explained. "What you could really say is that CommVault really is redefining what this industry is all about."

As technology evolves, so too does the company's roadmap. "We're going to continuously add new capabilities to our platform. These new capabilities are ultimately going to help enterprises bolster their cyber resiliency and basically build a blueprint for data resilience that extends to all of their environments," Kriegen said.

Moreover, customer experience is front and centre for the company's future plans. CommVault has recently appointed its first Chief Customer Officer, Saravan, to further enhance enterprise engagement. "Above and beyond having a great platform that secures your data, we absolutely are focused on that customer experience and making it easier for our customers to be safeguarded when it comes to ransomware or cyber attack," Kriegen said.

Kriegen closed the conversation by reaffirming CommVault's commitment to the ANZ region and its readiness to support businesses and partners in their battle against cybercrime. "We have a large team of employees across Australia and New Zealand that are here to support all of our customers and partners, and we look forward to helping everybody fight this fight against ransomware, against cyber attacks, and make sure that data resiliency and data recovery are here to stay," he said.