Data management company Aparavi unveiled its File Protect and Insight software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that takes aim at challenges mid-market customers face in long-term data retention across modern, multi-cloud architectures.

The new offering features a hybrid and multi-cloud file backup tool that enables long-term retention with insight to store, protect, and manage unstructured data — which is fitting for a company whose name is derived from the Latin word apparare meaning “to prepare.”  

The Santa Monica-based company — founded in 2016 by CEO Adrian Knapp — emerged from a stealth project within NovaStor and launched both itself and its three-tiered software platform in October 2017. 

“We saw about five years ago that unstructured data was the future," explained Aparavi VP of business development Jonathan Calmes in an interview with SDxCentral. "And really, the backup softwares that were existing were not valuing data — they [legacy backup agents] were valuing machines."

According to Calmes, Apravi’s engineers and executives saw data retention practices becoming increasingly antiquated, using image-based formats primarily designed to capture, replicate, and move files elsewhere. 

“We wanted to build a solution that could handle increasing data complexities and compliance regulations today and in the future," Calmes said.

Aparavi is compatible with all leading public cloud vendors, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, and Wasabi, and on-premises cloud vendors such as Scality, Caringo, Backblaze, and Cloudian.

With an executive leadership team that hosts several ex-employees from legacy backup player Novastor, “We're storage industry and backup industry veterans,” Calmes said.

The two companies announced a partnership late last year to offer a joint solution for unstructured data that combines NovaStor’s portfolio with Aparavi’s data management technology called NovaBACKUP EDM. 

Aparavi is backed by a Swiss angel investor who has contributed to a couple rounds of funding, according to Calmes; however, exact amounts were not disclosed. 

The demand for software-defined storage (SDS) is booming with Commvault, Veeam, Rubrik, and Cohesity leading the sector, according to a recent Forrester Wave Data Resiliency Solutions report. 

“Competition is a fun one,” said Calmes, in explaining how Aparavi’s platform differers from the rest of the storage world. “I’m going to liken the backup industry to the hamburger industry. Everyone’s got their hamburger, and really, it’s the unique mix of ingredients that make that hamburger amazing.”

As for Aparavi’s unique mix, it’s a one-to-one ratio of backup to data insight and file analysis. 

“We bring a unique architecture that isn't reliant on hardware. We bring the data classification, tagging, and intelligence. We bring the open data format,” Calmes said. 

He added that the company’s vision extends beyond business continuity with its sights set squarely on long-term retention, archive, governance, and compliance. “We see backup as a great place to enter that market because we're already creating that copy of the data, we might as well add that layer of intelligence and governance to it.

“Our goal is freedom of vendor lock-in, not only from a cloud standpoint, but also a backup software standpoint," Calmes added. "We've gone so far as to document our data format and place that in the public domain.”