Hewlett Packard Enterprise - Experts & Thought Leaders

Zerto, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, recently commissioned IDC to conduct a major ransomware and disaster preparedness survey, which revealed the extent to which backup-related issues are currently failing organisations across the globe. These backup-related issues are currently the number one cause of data loss —responsible for 32% of incidents — despite the fact that backup and recovery was cited as the number one priority for IT software investment this year.  Data disruptions Respondents reported an average of 4.2 data disruptions per year requiring an IT response The IDC White Paper, titled 'The State of Disaster Recovery and Cyber-Recovery, 2024–2025: Factoring in AI,' pulls its insights from a survey carried out across North America, Western Europe, India, and Australia, among organisations with 500 to 10,000+ employees. Respondents reported an average of 4.2 data disruptions per year requiring an IT response with one ransomware attack and one internal attack per year on average. Backup environments Across respondents, the weakness of a backup-only recovery strategy was evident. For instance, 48% of organisations in the survey that paid a ransom indicated they did so despite having valid backups, with the most common reasons cited being a desire for a speedier recovery or minimised data loss. Nonetheless, only 20% of ransom-payers were able to fully recover their data after payment, creating a "worst of both worlds" situation in which organisations deploy and maintain backup environments without any concrete advantages in the event of an attack. Disaster recovery challenges   Most commonly cited DR challenges for organisations are IT personnel time and resource availability These challenges are exacerbated by worsening personnel issues: according to the report, the most commonly cited disaster recovery (DR) challenges for organisations are "IT personnel time and resource availability" and "IT personnel skills and knowledge."  The same applies to cyber recovery, with 34% of respondents citing "keeping recovery processes up to date" as a primary challenge in this arena and 31% of respondents citing "staff knowledge and skill sets."  Importance of a holistic approach In response to these challenges, the report highlights the importance of a holistic approach to DR and cyber recovery (CR) in which "backup and recovery, disaster recovery, and cyber-recovery" build on each other and provide a higher degree of data protection. Continuous data protection (CDP) in particular provides essential support here, allowing organisations to recover to a point just prior to the attack and consequently minimise any data loss. Unified solutions like these enable organisations to scale systems without proportionally adding staff — an essential benefit since, per IDC, IT organisations tend to take a cautious approach to hiring. Trustworthy for DP/CR  While most respondents claim that AI will have a "significant" impact on DR/CR down the line At the same time, businesses remain split on the future of AI. While most respondents claim that AI will have a "significant" impact on DR/CR down the line, a strong majority — 59% — don't think current AI is trustworthy for DP/CR. Meanwhile, although the vast majority of organisations are using cloud for backup/DR, 58% are still protecting a majority of their apps purely on-premises, suggesting that on-prem remains a highly viable backup/DR solution. Overall, 40% believe AI will provide a greater benefit than a threat. Data protection efforts  "It’s unfortunate to see organisations funnelling resources into backup processes only to realise that it was all for naught — paying the ransom money and losing the data," said Phil Goodwin, research vice president, IDC. “What's clear is that only a holistic approach can eliminate these negative outcomes and keep organisations safe. In particular, CDP will prove increasingly central to unified data protection efforts in months and years to come."  Data environments "Organisations are increasingly responsible for data environments whose complexity they are unequipped to handle and whose integrity they are ill-prepared to safeguard," said Caroline Seymour, vice president, storage product marketing, HPE.  "This is not the fault of any individual organisation, but it does demand a more sophisticated approach to data protection — one in which traditional backup is not the be-all-end-all but instead one of a suite of complementary tools, including CDP." 

Intellicene, the pioneer in intelligent security management platforms, announced the appointment of Greg Colaluca as General Manager. With more than 20 years of global leadership experience, Colaluca will guide the company into its next growth phase, emphasising the delivery of intelligent security solutions for mission-critical environments. Colaluca brings a wealth of experience in customer success, growth, profitability, and operational excellence. He leverages vision, analytics, and continuous process improvement to develop successful business models and plans, and his technical background and business development skills ensure focused sales, product development, and service delivery. Delivering innovative technologies “Greg’s experience and proven track record in global leadership and customer-focused solutions will drive a continued focus on market leadership and innovation,” said Becky Stout, Volaris. “We are confident in his ability to lead the company with his extensive experience in delivering innovative technologies, his proven history of program development, and his unwavering commitment to the organisation’s mission and values.” Prior roles of Colaluca Colaluca brings extensive experience to his new role as General Manager of Intellicene Colaluca brings extensive experience to his new role as General Manager of Intellicene. At Sensormatic, he led the Global Services team, providing solutions in design, RFID consulting, solutions design/architecture, implementation, and analytics.  Before Sensormatic, he led Global Delivery at Astreya Partners, managing network engineering, network operations, and IoT services. At Hewlett Packard Enterprise, he served as Senior Director for the Consumer and Retail Industry, overseeing IT delivery across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC regions. Intelligence and stronger risk mitigation "Intellicene is well-positioned to deliver on its promise of helping organisations achieve greater intelligence and stronger risk mitigation in an evolving business environment,” Colaluca said. “Backed by a world-class team and a robust technology portfolio, I am excited to lead this organisation into its next era and help customers around the globe achieve safer and stronger operations.”

Following a year of significant growth, Zerto, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company announced strong momentum in 2023 in the SEUR region. The company has been fueled during the past 18 months by aggressive hiring, the addition of two significant new regions, an influx of new partners, and a strategic expansion of its channel business.  New energy These successes have brought new energy to the company and continue to solidify its fast-growing reputation since its acquisition by HPE in 2021. Zerto has already stated its goal of accelerated growth of the business in the next 24 months, and this latest news indicates that it is well on its way.   An expanding global footprint  2023's aggressive expansion efforts in the SEUR region have brought Zerto's best-in-class capabilities Beginning at its launch in 2011, Zerto's industry-pioneering data protection (DP) and disaster recovery (DR)-to-cloud technology has made a significant day-to-day impact on thousands of companies, ensuring continuous uninterrupted workflows at a time when even an hour of downtime can have disastrous financial consequences for businesses.  2023's aggressive expansion efforts in the SEUR region have brought Zerto's best-in-class capabilities to a whole new audience, and the results are revealed through a sizable increase in active customers YOY.  New hires The demand for Zerto continues to grow in lockstep with its team, which continues to consistently add new hires. New team members include locally-based staff with specialised language capacities supporting Zerto's significant new SEUR sales region, covering Italy, Spain, Portugal, Israel, Cyprus, and Greece.  Cristian Meloni In his new role, Meloni will focus on growing Zerto’s presence in Italy and developing a sales staff Specifically, Zerto hired Cristian Meloni in April 2023 to be the Country Sales Leader in Italy. Meloni came to Zerto after spending six years leading sales in Italy for Rubrik, giving him ample experience in the data protection market.  In his new role, Meloni will focus on growing Zerto’s presence in Italy and developing a sales staff that is motivated to exceed targeted sales objectives and deliver high-quality service to customers.  Matthias Traeger Zerto also elevated Matthias Traeger to the Regional Sales Director position in SEUR in February 2023. Traeger joined Zerto in September 2021 and has since significantly contributed to the successful development of the business, not only in the SEUR region. Before joining Zerto, he held various sales roles at Dell and HP/HPE.  Real-time detection meets protection Zerto illustrated the value of its real-time detection meets real-time protection disaster recovery solution These expansion efforts have been accelerated by Zerto's identification of and collaboration with 40 new partners across the SEUR region. Through these partnerships, the company has been introduced to a brand-new clientele and has further illustrated the value of its real-time detection meets real-time protection disaster recovery solution. Combined with the expansion of Zerto's channel business in the region which is helping Zerto to leverage its increased resources and market presence, these developments suggest a future of rapid and continued growth.   Data recovery and protection "Data recovery and data protection are problems without borders, and it's no surprise to see people across the globe take to Zerto's technology with this much enthusiasm," said Matthias Traeger, Regional Sales Director, Zerto. He adds, "The last 18 months of aggressive hiring in the SEUR region has paid off in a big way and you can expect us to continue strategically hiring throughout both regions and beyond as we continue our efforts to bring the undeniable benefits of Zerto to every corner of the globe."