Veeam CEO discusses data resilience, VMware migrations, IPO

SAN DIEGO -- Data resilience was a major theme of VeeamON this year, as it was at last year's user conference, a reprise that was deliberate.

"The key is consistency over a period of time," Veeam CEO Anand Eswaran said in an interview at the show last month. "There's no change in strategy. If we were changing strategy in a year, then it means we didn't have the right one to begin with."

This year, Veeam broke down data resilience for attendees -- 1,600 in-person and 5,000 virtual -- into five pillars: backup, recovery, intelligence, security and portability.

Intelligence, for example, includes helping organizations improve their data resilience by using surveys, workshops and assessments, all through the lens of a new framework. As customers deal with headaches following Broadcom's acquisition of VMware, the portability pillar includes protection for additional hypervisors and migration capabilities.

In this Q&A, Eswaran details the process of moving off VMware, the Data Resilience Maturity Model framework and the business point of view for Veeam, such as a potential IPO, tariff effects and acquisitions.

Editor's note: The following was edited for length and clarity.

The issues related to Broadcom's acquisition of VMware -- price jumps and product changes -- were a major discussion point at VeeamON this year. A year ago, it seemed early in the process, but now it appears more organizations are migrating off VMware. Is that what you've found?

Anand Eswaran

Anand Eswaran: Everyone is thinking about it. It could be to an alternate hypervisor like Hyper-V, or it could be it's the right time to modernize the application stack and go directly to the cloud, or it could be go down to a cloud VM and make it simpler.

What we also see is that it's not easy. People have used VMware for so long -- vSphere virtualized stack is embedded into the organization. It's not easy, and it's not cheap. It's going to be a little bit of an effort. It's going to be a two- to three-year journey. And I suspect that even at the end of those two to three years, you may not see everyone move because it is actually very hard.

In your keynote, you said resilience doesn't come just from technology. Veeam released a Data Resilience Maturity Model, a framework that aims to help organizations align people, processes and technology with overall strategy. Is the model a concerted effort on Veeam's part to put a focus on that people side of disaster recovery?

Eswaran: It is because people shouldn't think, 'I'm going to deploy a solution, and suddenly I should not have any more issues going forward.'

The model allows people to understand where they are and all the reasons that slot them into a certain stage of resilience, compare themselves to other companies in their industry, and then get very precise actions and the roadmap on what they need to do to actually move up. 'Do these seven things now to get to the next stage, and this is what it gets you. Do these 10 things, and this is what it means for you on resilience.'

Does it cost customers extra money to go through the process?

Eswaran: No, it's time. What costs extra money is you not having this thought process in your head. If you don't do it, the repercussions are much higher. When you look at the money being spent and the ROI, this is probably one of the simplest ROIs for a company. I would ask it differently: What's the cost of you not doing it?

On the business side for Veeam, where are you as far as potential IPO?

We will eventually become a public company -- not for the liquidity, not for cash, because we don't need it. But there's value in being a public company -- you become part of the daily conversation, which is very helpful.

Eswaran: We run our company like a public company. We don't need to be an IPO'ed company. We run our company responsibly, unlike most private companies.

We will eventually become a public company -- not for the liquidity, not for cash, because we don't need it. But there's value in being a public company -- you become part of the daily conversation, which is very helpful. We will at the right time. The good thing is we don't have to do it now. We'll look at the markets, we'll see where the volatility is, and at the right time, we'll make the call.

Are you seeing any effects from tariffs? Are they driving up your costs?

Eswaran: We're a software company, so no. I don't think it has made an impact, but we are working with our customers and partners every day to keep an eye on the ground.

Veeam has made several acquisitions in recent years, including Kasten and Coveware. Is M&A still a possibility?

Eswaran: We're constantly keeping an eye on the market -- on the new startups, on our adjacencies. You should expect to see a trickle of M&As.

And on the flip side, is Veeam open to being acquired?

Eswaran: It's not a conversation we've ever had, [but] I never say no to anything.

Paul Crocetti is editorial director of Informa TechTarget's SearchStorage, SearchWindowsServer, SearchDataCenter, Data Center Knowledge and ITPro Today sites. Since starting at then-TechTarget in 2015, he has also worked on the SearchDataBackup and SearchDisasterRecovery sites.