Why are about half of companies on the verge of breaking up with their data-protection platform? In a word, multicloud. Shimmying and shaking across multiple environments takes a new kind of nimble, everywhere-all-the-time backup with high automation IQ and pay-as-you-go pricing; it takes cloud-like data protection.

“Multicloud is a forcing function to rethink your backup,” said Dave Vellante (@dvellante), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio.

The whole digital-transformation movement comes down to data, so it’s natural that people are re-examining all its angles, according to Vellante. Many who’d prefer to let well enough alone are rethinking the definition of data backup and recovery. They can’t afford to lazily stick with old faithful with multicloud presenting hairy new problems.

Vellante analyzed the shifting data-protection market during the Veritas Vision Solution Day event in Chicago. He discussed what exactly cloud-like data-protection might look like. (* Disclosure below.)

New backup bonus round

Companies juggling multiple infrastructure as a service and software as a service clouds need data backup that offers a cloud-like experience across all of them. What does that mean?

“That means they want pay-as-you-go; they want simple deployment; they want fast, seamless recovery; and they want a lot of automation,” Vellante said.

Automation is a standout in the bunch, since it has dual expense-cutting and value-adding advantages for digital businesses.

“While the price of technology comes down year after year, the price of people doesn’t,” Vellante said. Multicloud infrastructure is getting too complex to keep throwing more salaried employees at it. Automation eliminates the need for human hands to toil at data protection. Meanwhile it frees staffers to work on high-value activities like application development.

Startups like Cohesity Inc. and Rubrik Inc. and legacies like Veritas Technologies LLC are jostling for these multicloud customers. If they can offer a juicy bonus by multi-purposing the corpus of backup data — for analytics, dev/test, ransomware detection, etc. — they could get an edge, Vellante concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Veritas Vision Solution Day event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Veritas Vision Solution Day. Neither Veritas Technologies LLC, the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: Veritas Technologies LLC