Veeam acquires Object First in move to expand data resiliency

Co-created by the founders of Veeam, Object First is the developer of a line of appliances which provides immutable storage to data protected in the vendor’s environments

Data resilience and data protection technology provider Veaam has confirmed its acquisition of one of its top technology partners, Object First.

The newly acquired company, which developed purpose-built data protection appliances specifically for Veeam environments, exited stealth in mid-2022.

It was co-founded by Ratmir Timashev and Andrei Baronov, who also co-founded Veeam and who continued to support Veeam after it was acquired in early 2020 by Insight Partners.

Object First is headed by CEO David Bennet, a longtime storage tech vet who previously served as president and CEO of Axcient.

It has developed a series of appliances the company said ensured that data was protected in Veeam environments by making it immutable.

Immutable data refers to data which, once created, cannot be modified or deleted to ensure data integrity.

The company’s technology, which uses the S3 object storage protocol, is known as Ootbi, or “Out Of The Box Immutability.”

Ootbi was designed specifically to work with data stored using Veeam.

The Ootbi line includes 2U appliances with individual node sizes of 20 TBs to 432 TBs.

They can be used to build clusters of up to four nodes to provide up to 1.7 petabytes of usable immutable storage.

Multiple clusters can be scaled to reach over seven petabytes.

Object First also recently introduced a “honeypot” feature to help provide early detection of cybersecurity risks.

Veeam, in an emailed response to CRN US attributed to Dave Russell, the company’s SVP and head of strategy, confirmed the successful acquisition of Object First by Veeam.

“Many customers want the simplicity of a single supplier for an out-of-the-box, immutable backup target appliance that combines hardware and software.

“Object First enables Veeam to offer a pre-integrated, easy-to-deploy solution that complements our existing partner ecosystem.

“Veeam Data Cloud Vault is the fastest-growing product in Veeam's history, because it removes complexity for customers who need a simple, secure, single-supplier experience.

“With Object First, we extend that same value on-premises while continuing to support an open, hardware ecosystem, allowing customers to choose simplicity, best-of-breed solutions, or a mix of both based on their needs and timelines.

“Our strategy remains unchanged: we are software-first and partner-first, empowering customers to deploy Veeam solutions wherever and however they choose,” Russell said in the email.”

News of the acquisition was first reported by StorageReview.

Veeam declined to provide further information regarding the buyout

Timashev and Bennet both declined to comment on the takeover.

Veeam’s purchase of Object First comes just three months after it acquired Securiti AI in a $1.7bn (£1.3bn) deal aimed at providing a unified platform across the entire data estate that takes aim directly at the 90 per cent failure rate of AI projects.

This article originally appeared on CRN UK sister website CRN.