Platform9, Commvault Partner to Bring Data Protection to Platform9 Private Cloud Director

Platform9’s enterprise private cloud platform, Private Cloud Director, is gaining broad data protection capabilities through a new partnership with cyber resilience and data protection vendor Commvault.

Under the deal, Commvault brings its cloud protection services to Platform9 Private Cloud Director in an agentless integration aimed at improving data security for virtual machines and Kubernetes workloads, according to the companies. The new integration includes agentless virtual machine backup and recovery, granular file recovery for fast and efficient restoration of files and folders within VMs, VM disaster recovery for rapid recovery to Private Cloud Director clusters in different physical locations, and Kubernetes protections to ensure safe data states in dynamic cloud-native environments.

Madhura Maskasky, the co-founder and chief product officer at Platform9, told ChannelE2E that MSPs have been asking for integrated data protection for use with Private Cloud Director.

"We have been getting asks from enterprises as well as MSPs for a private cloud solution that integrates critical backup, disaster recovery, and data protection capabilities,” said Maskasky. “The new services and integration are available to all our customers, resellers, as well as MSP partners to use and benefit from. For MSPs, this provides a more complete solution with data protection included that they can now offer as part of their managed private cloud.”

In addition, “the combination of Platform9 Private Cloud Director and Commvault makes it even easier for VMware customers to migrate over to Private Cloud Director, since now they have the confidence that their data will always be protected as they move to a new environment,” she said.

Platform9’s Private Cloud Director is an enterprise private cloud platform that enables IT and DevOps administrators to manage their virtualized and Kubernetes infrastructure at scale while leveraging their existing investments in storage and server hardware.

‘A Strategic and Timely Move,’ Says Analyst

Anurag Agrawal, founder and chief global analyst for Techaisle, told ChannelE2E that the partnership and resulting integration is a “highly strategic and timely move, directly addressing a critical need in the evolving private cloud landscape.”

As more enterprises bring workloads back in-house or build new private cloud environments, it becomes more essential for companies to also establish robust data protection, strong cyber resilience, and simplified management for their operations, said Agrawal.

“For MSPs, a major headache has always been juggling the array of disparate tools and platforms needed for a client's infrastructure,” he said. “This integration changes that by providing a unified control plane for both private cloud management from Platform9 and critical data protection from Commvault. This significantly slashes operational complexity, reduces the need for specialized training across multiple vendors, and minimizes configuration errors, directly translating into increased technician efficiency and higher profitability for MSPs.”

By joining forces with Commvault, Platform9's offering becomes even more compelling for users, he said. “This means MSPs can confidently recommend and deploy Platform9 Private Cloud Director, knowing that data protection is handled by an industry leader.”

Another analyst, Rob Enderle, principal analyst of Enderle Group, said that the partnership will be particularly helpful for MSPs because they often have limited resources on their own. “Partners that provide help and assistance focused on helping these MSPs overcome their limitations are always welcome,” said Enderle.