What's Up with Tech?
Tech Transformation with Evan Kirstel: A podcast exploring the latest trends and innovations in the tech industry, and how businesses can leverage them for growth, diving into the world of B2B, discussing strategies, trends, and sharing insights from industry leaders!
With over three decades in telecom and IT, I've mastered the art of transforming social media into a dynamic platform for audience engagement, community building, and establishing thought leadership. My approach isn't about personal brand promotion but about delivering educational and informative content to cultivate a sustainable, long-term business presence. I am the leading content creator in areas like Enterprise AI, UCaaS, CPaaS, CCaaS, Cloud, Telecom, 5G and more!
What's Up with Tech?
Securing Your Entire Data Estate: From SaaS Apps to AI Infrastructure
Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com
Universal data protection has never been more critical as organizations spread their digital footprint across hundreds of SaaS applications and cloud environments. In this compelling conversation, Andy Fernandez, Senior Director of Product Marketing at HYCU, pulls back the curtain on the company's groundbreaking integration with Dell Power Protect Data Domain, recently announced at Dell Technologies World.
As the fastest-growing data protection as a service provider globally, Haiku now empowers Dell customers to shield their entire data estate through 86 specialized integrations. The partnership comes at a pivotal moment when organizations face unprecedented challenges in securing critical information. Beyond the obvious Microsoft 365 environments, Andy reveals the "crown jewels" hiding in plain sight – GitHub repositories containing intellectual property, Box folders housing sensitive research, and emerging AI vector databases that remain dangerously exposed in most enterprises.
The conversation explores why data governance has suddenly become a central focus at major tech conferences, driven by dual pressures of geopolitical data residency requirements and the growing threat of supply chain attacks. Andy dismantles the false choice between compliance and innovation, sharing real-world examples from financial services and healthcare customers who successfully balance protection with progress. With 60% of corporate data now residing in cloud environments and the average mid-sized organization using over 200 SaaS applications, the discussion provides timely guidance for organizations navigating complex decisions around VMware transitions and AI implementation. Whether you're rethinking your approach to data protection or building resilience into your cloud strategy, this episode delivers actionable insights for securing your organization's most valuable digital assets.
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Hey everybody, what an exciting guest today on Topic one of my favorites, andy from Haiku. How are you?
Speaker 2:Evan, I'm doing well, so nice to see you again.
Speaker 1:Good to see you. You have so much going on at Haiku. Recently, dell Technologies World a fantastic event, lots of takeaways and insights. Before that, maybe introduce yourself your role at Haiku and the mission of the company for those who aren't familiar.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. My name is Andy Fernandez. I'm the Senior Director of Product Marketing here at Haiku. For those who are hearing about Haiku for the first time, we are the fastest growing data protection as a service provider in the world. We have over 4,600 customers in 78 countries. But at the end of the day, evan, our mission is universal protection of data.
Speaker 1:And it's an important mission increasingly and you're a long time Dell partner, but you've had so much new news You've taken the collaboration to a whole new level. What stood out most from the event and what were the key highlights and takeaways from the iQ perspective?
Speaker 2:Yeah, highlights and takeaways from the IQ perspective. Yeah, it was a super interesting conference. I wish I could have spent more time in the sessions, but what I could gather was, you know, there was really three things that I noticed from the sessions, the keynotes, the conversations that we had at the booth was. The first one was obviously AI infrastructure. You have to talk about it, but it's something very critical that there's actual investment happening in that space, and Dell is doing really a lot of pioneering around the infrastructure side of the house.
Speaker 2:What we saw that was super interesting as well, though, evan was also the combination of Nutanix and Dell within PowerFlex being able to give customers that option, but, of course especially in the context of today's conversation all of the benefits that we're seeing with data domain. They obviously announced all flash and, of course, my favorite, very biased announcement, evan, is the integration of Haiku SaaS and cloud applications onto power protect data domain as well. So this is something that I've been you know it's been hard for me to keep quiet, but it's something that we were able to announce and we got incredible feedback from the community and it's really an incredible integration and partnership for us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's an amazing partnership and, even more important, customers are loving it. What were some of the benefits announced for customers and the feedback from real customers at the event?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. You know, when you think about what Dell customers are unlocking first is actually the power of Haiku. What does that mean? It means, you know we have over 86 integrations that we're able to protect Everything from hybrid cloud workloads, especially those customers who are leaving VMware and they maybe need to protect stuff on Nutanix or Azure, stack, hci, or customers who want to protect their SaaS and cloud estate. We are by far the leader by 10 times in terms of coverage when it comes to SaaS and cloud.
Speaker 2:So the first, most basic thing that Dell customers have is the ability to protect their entire data estate, from 365 to GitHub, to Box, to Salesforce, and so on. Now, when you dive a little bit deeper, what this actually means, though, too, is it's not just backup and recovery and DR that they get access to it's control. It means that all of that data, all those backups, evan it goes to their infrastructure, their data domain environment, and we all know the benefits that data domain provides on storage efficiency, on deduplication, on cost and on resilience, on deduplication, on cost and on resilience. So not only do they get to protect their entire organization with Haiku, but they're doing it with their Dell investment and with the infrastructure that they trust.
Speaker 1:Yeah, your approach really stood out at Dell Tech World, and it wasn't just. You know the Microsoft 365s of the world. I mean, there's so many SaaS apps that are more important than ever. You know beyond. You know the big names like Microsoft. What other SaaS or cloud apps are seeing this need for data protection at the moment?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, evan. When you talk to IT leaders, the first reaction they have is usually to name the SaaS apps that they spend the most money on. So Microsoft 365, salesforce the things that they're really spending a lot of money on. But there are other places where there is so much critical data. For example, let's take GitHub, evan. That is a critical. Critical ground jewel of the organization. That's your IP. That's how your infrastructure works most of the time. Critical ground jewel of the organization, that's your IP. That's how your infrastructure works most of the time. That's a huge area.
Speaker 2:But you also take a look at things even outside of Salesforce, even things like Box. Think of how organizations are using Box and what kind of research whether it's academic, financial due diligence all that lives in Box. But you continue to name these applications and you're shocked by what they're used for and how they're not protected today. Even when we talk about AI and ML workloads, evan, most organizations that are running enterprise-ready architectures for artificial intelligence are also leveraging vector databases and data warehouses like BigQuery. This is something now Dell customers can protect as well, using their data domain infrastructure as well. So you know M365, that's the tip of the iceberg, but what we're finding Evan is that 60% of corporate data actually lives in cloud and the average mid-size organization uses over 200 SaaS applications. Now, when you think about Dell's ICP, we're talking about much larger organizations leveraging many, many more SaaS applications.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic to see the opportunity there, and the general theme of data protection, data governance, was throughout Dell Tech World and it was kind of critical for AI success. Dell even said they wish they had started earlier in their journey around governance. So what do you think is behind this renewed focus and why is it one of the top five or six topics now at events like Dell Tech World?
Speaker 2:I think, evan, you know we see this in every new technology shift, where we all get super excited, we adopt, we build, we talk about it and then something really bad happens. And then we go, okay, how are we securing this, how are we complying? And then there's three years spent on making sure that what is being built is secure. But governance is in play and it's a huge discussion for a couple of reasons, but I'm going to nail it down to you too, evan. One of them obviously geopolitics, where data is stored now actually has a significant impact on organizations and what country they live in and what is their economic exposure in that sense, right. But then there's also supply chain attacks.
Speaker 2:Evan, 20 years ago, when you had a data center, if something bad happened to your organization, there's a cyber attack. It was your fault because you made a mistake and somebody was able to access. Now you can do everything perfectly. But if your vendor, your ISV, what you're trusting on your AI infrastructure is compromised, then you're also compromised. And that's where hackers are going. They're not trying to go and attack single organizations, they're going after the entire ISV. So that ability to have control of the data from supply chain attacks. But also, evan. If you have control of the data, you also have control of the future and you're not dictated by a vendor on what you're supposed to do. So I'd say it's down to geopolitics, but also the supply chain risk that we live in, not just with AI, but also what we've been living in with SaaS applications. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, really well said. So many industries that are regulated I think of healthcare big one for me here in Boston face such a tough challenge of moving fast and innovating with AI while staying compliant not just with, you know, hipaa, gdpr and all the new AI rules, but so many emerging rules. How do you recommend customers balance the need for data residency, as you mentioned compliance, versus the need to work at speed and innovate?
Speaker 2:What's working with the many customers and partners that you work with? Yeah, evan, what I've noticed, too, is some people think it's a zero-sum game between data protection, compliance and security and innovation, and it's not. It's about finding the right technologies and the right partners. And we get this question all the time and they're asking how do I secure my AI infrastructure? And we'll say well, when you look at your organization, you haven't even been securing your as-a-service infrastructure. You haven't been securing things like Salesforce or GitHub or Google BigQuery. You have no protection or retention for this. These are critical components of your business. It's not just about your net new AI infrastructure, but you have to go and protect everything that's on a virtual machine, and that's one of the biggest areas where people have been exposed much longer than they've realized. I think AI is making that conversation much more tangible.
Speaker 2:But, Evan, we have customers all over the world, specifically in financial services and in healthcare, biotech, where they are leveraging best of breed technologies. But in that selection of a vendor, they always make that decision. Do I have data protection? Can I retain this data? Do I have access to it? If something were to happen, could I recover? It's just a couple simple questions that you have to ask before you implement a new architecture and onboard a new product. Our customers do it really well and they trust us to help them protect those new workloads they adopt.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic. So you go to big events like Dell Tech World lots of excitement, lots of dopamine and everyone's super excited and you're in the spotlight there. What's next, with the go-to-market teams and all the positive vibes at the show in terms of getting this solution to market in more hands and more customers, more partners with Dell.
Speaker 2:No, absolutely, evan. I was telling you I never had so many conversations in one week. My social battery was probably drained by the end of it, but it was also invigorating at the same time Simply the thirst that people have to finally start protecting that critical data. Giving them the ability to do it with data domain was incredible. So what we're focused on making sure is we continue to collaborate with Dell to drive more capacity to drive more protection onto data domain, with Dell to drive more capacity to drive more protection onto data domain. But that also includes technology innovations continuing within the Dell ecosystem continuing and, as you know, based on our previous conversation, evan, we released R-Shield, a cyber resilience fabric for the entire data estate. We're going to continue driving new use cases, new capabilities. But also, evan, there are 30,000 SaaS applications out there. There are more applications to be protected and we're always going to continue driving more protection for customers based on what they ask.
Speaker 1:Amazing, so it used to be. You know you head into June, july, august. It's summer, it's quiet. It doesn't sound like you're going to have a quiet summer. Things have been moving so fast lately, including at Haiku. What's next? What are you looking forward to over the next few months before we ramp up again in September?
Speaker 2:You know, maybe a few years from now, evan, you'll see me in Provence. We'll have a cocktail on the beach somewhere, but this is going to be a very busy summer. You're going to see some pretty exciting releases for us. One thing that I will leave you with as a preview as well, evan, is we had conversations with customers moving away finally from VMware. Everyone's going to renew at the beginning, but everyone is making that decision Should I stay or should I go, for lack of a better phrase and they're trying to understand where am I going? Am I going cloud? Am I going to another hypervisor? At Haiku, we want to make sure that we are there to equip them to move wherever, whenever they want to go. So we're not going to stop working until customers have complete choice with Haiku. So you'll see tons of announcements, tons of new capabilities around that, but, of course, cloud and SaaS. This is just the tip of the iceberg. There's so much more to be done.
Speaker 1:More work to be done. So where can you go to learn more about Haiku? Obviously, if you're a Dell partner customer, how do you navigate and find the best place to start, the best person to speak with, Maybe yourself? You're out there all the time as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so, haikucom. Just request a conversation with us. We'll introduce you to the right person. Whether that's our field CTO in the Americas or in EMEA, we have a global presence and, of course, you can even test the product out yourself from the website. So haikucom, and you'll find your way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a great site, Great content. Congratulations on all the success, onwards and upwards. Thanks, andy.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, evan. Have a good weekend. Thanks everyone.