What is with data backup and protection these days? The whole space is having an identity crises. Suddenly, “backup” is a bad word — it must be “data management” or “multicloud data storage fabric” or it’s passe. Should companies throw out their trusted data backup and go buy something with new buzz terms on the label?

The reason data backup is shape-shifting is because information technology and data in general have become moving targets.

“The problem is that data’s going to be more distributed; it’s going to be more central to a company’s mission; it’s going to be used by more functions and re-purposed into more applications that have a greater diversity of [recovery time objective] and [recovery point objective],” said Peter Burris (@plburris), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio.

In turn, data backup and protection have to become more agile and dynamic. They have to follow the flow of data around multicloud environments. There are a ton of companies aiming to be chief in multicloud generally and multicloud backup — sorry, data management –specifically.

Burris spoke with co-host Dave Vellante (@dvellante) during the VeeamON event in Miami Beach, Florida. They discussed the clamoring data backup and protection market and its growing relevance in multicloud (see the full interview with transcript here).

Veeam changes and stays the same

At VeeamON, “backup” isn’t a bad word. Veeam Software Inc. began as a backup solution for VMware Inc. customers. It is evolving its product positioning without discarding what has worked for it and its customers so far. After all, this strategy helped it surpass the $1-billion mark.

“They’re very judicious about how they allocate their R&D capital, and you’re seeing that translate into function that actually gets used,” Vellante said.

The company announced the “with Veeam” program to extend the functionality of its products through partnerships with storage and hyperconverged infrastructure companies, including Nutanix Inc. and ExaGrid Systems Inc. Application program interface integrations will enable specializations of secondary storage.

“The big question is, will their focus on what they’re currently doing translate into focus on multicloud? Here at this conference, they’re claiming, ‘Yes,'” Burris said. “But there’s a lot of new players out there who are in that space and saying, ‘You know what, I can do that too.'”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the VeeamON event.

Photo: Veeam Software Inc.