The Greek poet Archilochus wrote, “the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” This lesson can certainly be applied to corporate strategy, and like the hedgehog, Druva truly believes in one big thing — how to harness cloud to provide a SaaS-based data protection experience that radically simplifies data protection and management.
So, while the foxes dotting the landscape of data protection try to do it all — on-premises, hybrid, hardware, software, and cloud, Druva’s April announcement was further validation of our pursuit to master a single craft — cloud data protection.
I’ll get back to the hedgehog metaphor later in the blog, but let’s reflect on this moment for just a second. Almost a year ago, the global pandemic took the world by storm. As office doors closed, multi-year digital transformation plans accelerated and became business-critical overnight. In a rush to stand up remote work support, organizations flocked to the cloud at a speed and scale never seen before.
Every strategy has a trade off
What did the 2020 market dynamics mean for Druva and our customers? Enterprises had to quickly move workloads to cloud environments, adopt SaaS solutions, and combat ever-rising cyber threats. These unique market conditions required a very specific skill set and expertise to help organizations navigate this moment and emerge stronger than before.
Druva’s core focus is to help customers who are making a significant shift to public cloud, and are considering a data and architectural shift as a result. Customers who want to solely focus on growing their data center footprint have a number of vendor options — Druva was never intended for such use cases.
Druva’s commitment to a cloud-based approach is a journey that began almost seven years ago, when cloud infrastructure was still in its infancy. Our unrelenting focus and penchant for success through continuous innovation has fueled a new level of demand for the Druva Cloud Platform to meet today’s unprecedented needs.
The new funding round
With the completion of our $147 million fundraise, led by new investor Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), and co-led by existing investor Neuberger Berman, we will continue to accelerate the global expansion of the Druva Cloud Platform and extend our category leadership. This investment also elevates Druva’s value to more than $2 billion, doubling the company’s last valuation less than 24 months ago.
The new investment will be used to fuel growth, expand the reach of the Druva Cloud Platform into strategic markets, and broaden our global routes to market. We will be expanding headcount across all departments and exploring new reseller partnerships and agreements as well. Regions including Australia, New Zealand, and the Nordics are increasingly turning to the cloud to improve business operations, drive agility, and scale with changing needs. By expanding our global footprint in these regions, more businesses around the world will be able to thrive in the cloud era and benefit from the Druva Cloud Platform.
Dell Technologies partnership
The strongest business relationships are created when two companies work together to bring customers added value and opportunity not otherwise possible. Through our new collaboration with Dell Technologies, their customers can now better protect evolving environments, whether it’s in the cloud, hybrid environments, or endpoints. Leveraging Druva’s underlying cloud infrastructure, the service deploys in minutes and brings customers a new level of visibility, management, and peace of mind that their data is always protected and compliant with today’s strict governance requirements such as GDPR or CCPA.
This new collaboration brings advantages to all of us. More companies are now able to experience the benefits of Druva, and Dell Technologies can now offer a mature, best-in-class solution, giving users the tools to thrive in the cloud era.
Aspirations vs. capabilities
In every business the hard question is — how would you think about the future if today was your first day?
As our customers increasingly adopt cloud solutions, they expect their vendors to follow the model and reflect the advantages they’ve come to expect — overall cost reductions, on-demand scalability, value-added services, and an enhanced user experience. But for those not born in the cloud, adopting the cloud operating model is hard work. Such a shift requires a complete reimagining of technology, operations, go-to-market, and financial model. More importantly, it requires courage and relentless focus to let go of the legacy and build for the future.
Over the last several months, we have seen a number of others in our space trying to adopt a similar approach, but their capabilities do not yet match their large aspirations. Transforming to a cloud model cannot be done overnight (as we can attest to from experience), and the strategy of trying to do it everything, like the fox, ultimately leads to mastery of none.
And finally, a big thanks to our customers, partners, and employees
We have been fortunate to have such a passionate team of customers, partners, and employees that have not only helped Druva survive the last year, but thrive. Druva has already helped thousands of organizations navigate their cloud migrations, protect their workforce, and ensure compliance with ever-increasing data regulations. Customer data on our platform is growing almost 50% every year, and accelerating!
With this recent investment, we will turbo-charge our ability to serve current customers, and expand capabilities for partners and resellers shifting their business and expertise to the cloud alongside customer needs. To meet this need, we will continue to expand our headcount, and I’m happy to share that we currently have more than 250+ positions open across the globe. Individually and together, this would be an accomplishment to celebrate at any time, but it carries added significance in light of the last year and what the next 12 months will hold.
The time of cloud has indeed arrived, and I for one, can’t wait to see what happens next.
Read our recent press release for details of Druva’s $147 million fundraise, and watch the video for our highlights and milestones over the last year.