VMblog:  How excited are you that VeeamON is back as a physical event this year?

George A. Crump:  I am very excited. I think there is pent-up demand to see people in person.

VMblog:  Why should a VeeamON attendee add you to their MUST SEE list?

Crump:  StorONE's S1:Backup raises the bar for backup storage, enabling Veeam to reach its full potential. Our flash-first technology enables you to improve RPO and RTO, while our intelligent use of hard disk drives makes long-term data retention more affordable than ever. Combine that with our instant immutability, and you have the foundation of a solid ransomware recovery strategy.

VMblog:  Can you give VMblog readers a sneak peek as to what you will be showing off at your booth?

Crump:  We will be exhibiting the hardware we use to deliver the solution to the market with our friends from Seagate. Attendees that stop by the booth will see our 360° Ransomware Technology and the Seagate hardware that runs it.

VMblog:  Talking about your product solutions, can you give readers a few examples of how your offerings are unique?  What are your differentiators?

Crump:  StorONE's S1:Backup is the first backup solution to provide 360° Ransomware Recovery. Our flash tier increases ingest performance so you can execute more backups, more often improving RPO and RTO. High-density hard disk drives support while maintaining rapid recovery from drive failure enables customers to keep costs down safely. Our instant immutability protects from a ransomware attack across all protocols, and our standby storage feature enables customers to maintain an isolated recovery environment at backup storage prices. Most importantly, S1:Backup is the only solution to go beyond backup and provide an archive, NAS, VMware, and database storage.

VMblog:  How does your company work with Veeam?  And how does your product fit within the Veeam ecosystem?

Crump:  StorONE's S1:Backup is a Veeam Ready certified backup repository. It enhances Veeam features like change block tracked backups and instant recovery and secures them with unparalleled resiliency.

VMblog:  What do you think we need to do collectively as an ecosystem to strengthen the industry?

Crump:  I think it is clear that ransomware is our greatest threat and bad actors keep "innovating" to lock out their victims successfully. I think the industry needs to develop a way to share insight into new attack vectors and targets so that we can improve our collective products.

VMblog:  We expect to hear about big industry topics during the keynotes, but what does your company see taking shape in the coming landscape?  What would your keynote topic include?

Crump:  Our keynote would be "Ready for Everything." While the biggest protection challenge today, ransomware is just one of the many threats to data that customers face. Modern data protection infrastructure (software and hardware) will need to work together to secure customer data, help them identify potential threats, and enable them to recover quickly. It needs to adapt quickly to new hardware capabilities without data migration.

VMblog:  What is it about VeeamON that makes you want to sponsor?

Crump:  The attendees are our potential customers and partners. Just interacting with customers face to face and responding to their questions in real-time will be a welcomed treat.

VMblog:  We've been forced to attend virtual/online events for the past 2+ years.  Attendees are ready once again to throw some amazing tchotchke into their swag bags.  Are you giving away anything special at this event?

Crump:  Through our partner Seagate we are giving away external portable hard drives, and we might have a couple of big surprises up for grabs.