Rubrik partnered with Microsoft to roll out a cloud vault service to combat ransomware and cyber attacks. Built on Microsoft Azure, the vault maintains recoverable copies of critical data in an isolated and secure cloud location.

The Rubrik Cloud Vault combines Azure’s immutable storage capabilities, Rubrik’s data protection platform, and zero-trust security services from both vendors. It uses multi-factor authentication and role-based controls so only authorized users can access the stored data.

Putting the vault in the cloud brings scalability, fast recovery, and cost-saving benefits, said Vamshidhar Kommineni, group product manager at Microsoft Azure Storage. In addition, Rubrik provides hybrid-cloud services and a single control plane for all on-premises, software-as-a-service (SaaS), and cloud services, so it is complementary to Azure’s own backup and security services, he added. 

“One of our biggest volumes of data we expect here is coming from customers backing up data centers,” said Vasu Murthy, VP of product at Rubrik, referred to the cloud vault usage.

This service is equally seamless for hybrid- and multi-cloud customers that need to back up their Azure assets because they only need to specify a cloud location to store their data, according to Kommineni.

The Rubrik Cloud Vault is the first SaaS offering from the Rubrik-Microsoft partnership. In August, the two companies announced a strategic agreement to fight ransomware and integrate cloud security services, which included a Microsoft equity investment in Rubrik. 

The collaboration is built on more than 2,000 joint customers and hundreds of petabytes of data under Azure management, according to Rubrik. Neither party revealed the financial terms for the equity investment. 

“The partnership benefits Rubrik by providing access to the broad Azure ecosystem, and to Microsoft by extending their hybrid cloud presence with Rubrik's on-premises install base,” IDC Research VP Phil Goodwin wrote in an email to SDxCentral. It also benefits “customers who want seamless data protection practices across on-premises and Azure,” he added.

Rubrik is one of the latest vendors to extend on-premises vault services to the cloud.

Dell Technologies announced an air-gapped cyber vault for Amazon Web Services (AWS) earlier this month, which brings its on-premise Cyber Recovery Vault to the public cloud. Cohesity also rolled out a vault service for public clouds called Project Fort Knox to complement its on-premise data protection services. 

What is unique about Rubrik’s services is that it's “actually bringing ITOps and SecOps together,” Murthy said. 

IT operation and data teams focus more on data backup and security, while security teams pay more attention to ransomware detection, prevention, and recovery. “Turns out these two worlds have not really converged,” Murthy added.

Rubrik helps IT and security teams work together in the threat detection and data recovery processes so companies can have a coordinated plan to detect and respond to ransomware attacks, he explained

Similar to Dell’s strategy, Rubrik also aims to expand its cloud vault services to other public cloud providers such as AWS and Google.

​​Rubrik Cloud Vault will be available in a few months, and customers can get the service through Rubrik and the Azure Marketplace. 

On top of the cloud vault, Rubrik also announced a new threat hunting capability to mitigate ransomware risks. It enables organizations to scan their backups directly for indicators of compromise and more accurately identify the last known clean copy of data for faster recovery from attacks and reinfection prevention. 

Users can integrate Rubrik threat hunting with Palo Alto Networks’ Cortex XSOAR, which is an extended security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) platform designed to simplify and automate complex security workflows.

Palo Alto Networks creates custom playbooks for standardized attack recovery that can invoke Rubrik’s threat hunting and data protection capabilities through automated security operation interfaces to expedite the incident response process, explained Murthy Mathiprakasam, director of product at Rubrik. 

"It's really leveraging analytics in a unique way in a backup environment, so that it can actually help drive a security outcome,” Mathiprakasam said. “When a ransomware attack happens, every minute counts, every hour counts, every day counts, so if we can expedite that it's a huge benefit to organizations.”