Rubrik Extends $5M Ransomware Warranty To Include Data Stored On Microsoft Azure

Rubrik in December introduced Rubrik Cloud Vault, a fully managed isolated cloud archival service built on Microsoft Azure aimed at helping businesses defend against cyberattacks.

Data protection appliance and cloud developer Rubrik Wednesday said it is extending its current warranty to pay up to $5 million to customers who suffer losses from ransomware attacks on data protected by the company to now include data stored on Microsoft Azure via Rubrik’s Cloud Vault technology.

Rubrik last May first introduced protection against ransomware attacks on data stored on its technology, and in October followed with the introduction of a ransomware warranty under which the company would pay customers up to $5 million to recover data protected by Rubrik, said Vasu Murthy, vice president of products for the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company.

“We will help recover data,” Murthy told CRN. “We don’t want customers to pay the ransom. We see companies pay a ransom to recover data, but often it’s too late to recover the data even if they can recover it.”

[Related: Investors Make Huge $261 Million Bet On Rubrik]

Rubrik in December introduced Rubrik Cloud Vault, a fully managed isolated cloud archival service built on Microsoft Azure aimed at helping businesses defend against cyberattacks.

Rubrik Cloud Vault resulted from a strategic agreement signed last August between Microsoft and Rubrik under which Microsoft made an equity investment in Rubrik to help drive marketing activities and co-engineer products, Murthy said.

“Cloud Vault is built on Microsoft Azure,” he said. “It’s the first joint project of Microsoft and Rubrik to protect data on Azure. Microsoft is promoting Rubrik Cloud Vault.”

Starting Wednesday, Rubrik’s ransomware warranty will be available for free to customers of Rubrik Cloud Vault, Murthy said. However, customers will need to meet specific requirements.

For instance, he said, they will have to use best practices to protect their data and acquire the Rubrik Enterprise Edition, a suite that includes data protection, ransomware detection, sensitive data discovery, incident containment and orchestrated recovery. They will also need a set of Rubrik data health checks to ensure they follow best practices, he said.

Bringing Rubrik’s ransomware warranty to Rubrik Cloud Vault is a huge opportunity for customers, said Jeff Guenthner, director of solutions architecture at CMI, a Mill Valley, Calif.-based solution provider and Rubrik channel partner.

“The opportunity for Cloud Vault is big because a lot of our clients send their data to the cloud and end up with a big sunk cost with Azure,” Guenthner told CRN. “It’s a win-win for everyone. Microsoft gets credit for selling Cloud Vault so the Microsoft sales teams get paid. And customers get increased security with an air-gapped solution they didn’t have before.”

Rubrik Cloud Vault is priced well for a managed service that includes all egress charges as well as help from Rubrik in recovering data, and the ransomware warranty makes it even better, Guenthner said.

Guenthner said that while the Rubrik ransomware warranty is on a sliding scale so that only those customers with multiple petabytes of data might get the whole $5 million in case of an attack, the warranty is still useful for smaller customers.

“We have clients with under 100 Terabytes of data who now may not use Rubrik but who may now see a great value proposition with Rubrik,” he said.