Protecting Your Data Layer: Datto Acquires Backupify

Backup is undergoing a revolution.  What was once a simple technology, copying data from one central data source to another for backup and restore purposes, has become increasingly complex in a world where the location of your data is ever more fragmented.  The world needs a new approach, and today, we are proud to announce that two market leaders, Datto and Backupify, have joined forces to accelerate the future of backup.  Our joint vision is to protect the data layer of your business.  No matter what data you have, or where it is located, we will make it findable, recoverable, and restorable.

Six years ago we set out to build the world’s first cloud to cloud backup.  In the intervening years, we have maintained our market leadership.  We have the most scalable and secure solution on the market, the largest customer base, and the most data under management.  We have been the most innovative company in the space, being first to market with multi-app, first with migration functionality, and first with many of the security and administration features that enabled cloud to cloud backup to penetrate the enterprise market.  Our customer rating in the Google Apps marketplace for our popular Google Apps backup product is 5 out of 5 stars.  We have very high standards and so, while we have had many preliminary M&A discussions over the years, none of them ever felt right.

Earlier this year, when Datto approached us about a partnership deal, we realized that our companies shared a similar vision about the future.  Datto is a 3 time consecutive Inc 500 company with a suite of award winning products.  Our cultures are similar in many ways, and from the very early days of our partnership discussions, we realized that by joining forces we were on to something big, and that maybe we should consider a deeper relationship.

This is an important milestone for Backupify, for Datto, and for the cloud to cloud backup industry.  We couldn’t have reached this point without the excellent work of so many great team members,  so I thought it might be nice to have some of them share a sentence or two on what this means for customers, partners, and the industry in general.

We always knew we were ahead of the market when we began our cloud-to-cloud backup business.  We were excited to provide a product that the mature, long-standing and crowded on-premise backup market did not provide.  Our approach led to tremendous learning for us about the unique challenges of cloud-to-cloud backup.  We also enjoyed tremendous growth as we led the charge in this new market.  However, one lesson we’ve learned is that (at least for the next few years) cloud-to-cloud will not completely replace on-premise backup, and our customers want and need a single, integrated solution for all their applications and data at two levels: (a) coverage for both on-premise and cloud data, and (b) backup access on-prem and in the cloud.  Combining our products with Datto’s unites two pieces of a puzzle that provide these missing elements for our customers. – David Block, SVP Engineering

“What has always been most compelling about the vision of Backupify is what we work so hard to provide to our customers: control. Control in the midst of the stress and pressure of data loss and control over all of their most important business data across an increasing number of applications and locations. Joining forces with Datto is a quantum leap forward in our ability to deliver on that vision for customers by protecting data wherever it lives. It is particularly exciting to do that as part of a company that, like Backupify, is a new breed — born in the cloud and relentlessly committed to always pushing forward and innovating for our customers.” – Chris Essler, VP Sales

We don’t think of this acquisition as an ending, but rather, another beginning.  This is the next step in pursuing our broad vision of a data protection layer in the cloud.  Thank you for joining us on this journey.  We appreciate your support.

If you would like to learn more, check out the news release or read Datto’s blog post from Datto CEO Austin McChord Datto blog.