VMblog:  If you were giving a VMware Explore attendee a quick overview of the company, what would you say?  How would you describe the company?

Caroline Seymour:  Zerto is the leading company for disaster recovery, ransomware resilience, and multi-cloud mobility. It's the go-to solution for a world in which ransomware attacks are perpetually on the rise and even an hour of downtime can have disastrous consequences for a company's operations, tanking productivity and causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue. Zerto is the pioneer of continuous data protection that delivers unbeatable RPOs and RTOS and, with its unique journaling technology, lets businesses "rewind" and recover data from any point in time, meaning users can time travel back to just a few seconds before a disruption - whether a ransomware attack or a technology failure.

VMblog:  As a VMware Explore 2023 sponsor, what does that sponsorship look like?  Will you have a large delegation at this year's event?  Do you have a theme for your booth?  Do you have anything interesting planned at your booth?

Seymour:  We're part of the HPE booth this year - Booth 301- as a Diamond Sponsor. Our experts will be on-site to answer questions and demo products, and there will be several theater presentations at the booth, which will provide quick overviews of what's new for attendees. Our theme is about how real-time detection meets real-time protection, and we are excited to talk about and demo our latest release - Zerto 10 - as we have a lot of exciting new capabilities. We're really looking forward to interacting with VMware's attendees as conversations at the show are always energizing. It's also a good place to gauge the temperature of what's going on in the world of multi-cloud; we always end up leaving with a laundry list of exciting new ideas.

VMblog:  Do you have any speaking sessions during the event?  If so, can you give us the details?

Seymour:  Anthony Dutra, technical marketing engineer, and Andrew Silva, technical marketing manager, will be participating in a roundtable called "Building a Cyber Resilience Vault for VMware with Zerto" on Tuesday, August 22 at noon, Level 2, Ballroom G, Table 6. They'll be discussing the key components of a new cyber vault solution from Zerto and HPE that enables rapid air-gapped recovery from even the worst ransomware attacks.

VMblog:  Can you give us the high-level rundown of your company's technology offerings?  What kind of message will an attendee hear from you this year?

Seymour:  While no one can predict when a disruption might occur - whether a system failure or a ransomware attack - everyone can be sure that a disruption will occur eventually. Zerto is a solution designed for this inevitability, and, more than any product on the market, it reduces the fallout from a disruption and helps organizations keep their objectives on-track even at periods of real technological crisis. Most organizations are running applications on some combination of multi-cloud and on-premises, and Zerto's technology ensures that all of it remains continuously protected. This year, Zerto will address the ongoing ransomware crisis and how Zerto is helping to neutralize it.

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

Seymour:  In the 14 years that Zerto has been in operation, our proprietary continuous data protection (CDP) engine has been refined and battle-tested into an industry-leading technology with no equals in its space. No one can offer RPOs as low; no one can offer RTOs as fast. The numbers speak for themselves. And we do this at scale, across clouds and without burdening IT departments with extra work - initiating the recovery process can be as simple as pushing a button. The result is radically reduced data loss and downtime to ensure your business can achieve continuous availability of data and applications.

VMblog:  How does your company work with VMware?  Where do you fit within the VMware ecosystem?

Seymour:  Our ties to VMWare are deep - we have a strong strategic relationship with them. Zerto is tightly integrated into the VMware ecosystem, and our solution has become a cornerstone in the SDDC for many of our customers. Where you find VMware vCenter or VMware Cloud Director - not to mention VMware in the public cloud - there's a strong chance you'll find Zerto right alongside. It's the reason VMware Explore is such a great event for us every year.

VMblog:  Have you launched anything new recently that you can spotlight for us?

Seymour:  Zerto 10 represents the next step in our evolution into an all-encompassing industry leader for data protection and ransomware resilience. It comes with a suite of innovative, game-changing features that we're excited to show off to VMware Explore's attendees.

I've already mentioned that Zerto lets you time travel back to a point right before a ransomware attack began. With Zerto 10, you can identify that point with laser-like precision - our new real-time encryption detection mechanism can surface the first trace of suspicious activity, however faint, allowing our customers to restore their system to a point just a few seconds before the attack began via our recovery capabilities.

Then there's our new Cyber Resilience Vault, which is something we're very excited about here. It's the ultimate air-gapped solution and the only vault on the market that offers journal-based recovery. With these advancements, companies can quickly bounce back from even the most devastating ransomware scenarios.

VMblog:  VMware gets the big stage to deliver their message during the keynote sessions.  If you were giving the keynote, what big topics would you discuss?  What big changes or trends do you see taking shape in the industry for 2023 and beyond?

Seymour:  This one's easy: the persistent, worsening, and keep-you-up-at-night problem of ransomware. We have waited and waited for the fever to break without relief: ransomware attacks are once again on the rise in 2023 with Russian cybercriminals and other bad actors ramping up attacks on both private industry and government systems. This year is already on pace to be one of the worst for ransomware payments - one expert tracked $450 million in payments by mid-June - and there are strong indications that it might turn out to be the worst we've ever seen.

Given all of that, businesses need to be proactive about protecting their assets and ensuring their systems are as resistant as possible to the relentless incursions of cybercriminals. Modern solutions like our above-mentioned Cyber Resilience Vault effectively serve as insurance policies against the worst possible outcomes, which grow likelier for businesses by the day. The Zerto Cyber Resilience Vault is a fully isolated data vault that cannot be infected by ransomware - an option of last resort during a large-scale ransomware attack. Combining the unique strengths of Zerto replication and the Zerto journal, as well as industry-leading hardware from HPE, the Cyber Resilience Vault allows for a rapid air-gapped recovery unlike anything else on the market. This is essential both in the actual moment of danger - when the hackers have entered the system and everyone's scrambling to get things back on track - but it also provides peace of mind at every other moment by ensuring that, no matter what happens, your critical assets will be safe.

VMblog:  Are you giving away any prizes at your booth or participating in any prize giveaways?

Seymour:  Yes! We'll be giving away a travel bag and travel essentials. We'll also be handing out tote bags as giveaways to general attendees as well as raffling off a collector's edition LEGO Millennium Falcon. Some really cool stuff.