HYCU Introduces First Data Protection Development Platform for SaaS

HYCU, Inc. unveiled R-Cloud, to allow SaaS companies and ISVs to provide, in days, backup and recovery services for their SaaS offerings.

R-Cloud is the first low-code, purpose-built data protection development platform designed to make it easy for SaaS vendors to deliver a true enterprise class backup and recovery service for their users that is secure and scalable. With more than 17,000 SaaS applications in use across organizations today[1], 99% of those applications have no reliable backup and recovery available. With the explosion of SaaS and the rapid modernization of applications, it is more difficult than ever to see, manage, and protect business-critical applications for IT departments. 

“If the number of vendors in one of the industry’s leading market reports have only protected seven SaaS applications to date, the current approach to backup and recover SaaS has no future,” said Simon Taylor, founder and CEO. “The entire approach is broken. New SaaS offerings are being built. New approaches to protect them are a must. That is why we have re-thought the way data protection is done and found a way to provide ISVs and SaaS vendors the ability to add data protection with ease. Granular backup and recovery for SaaS is now available in as little as four days when it would have taken at least four quarters before to develop.”

R-Cloud is the result of 4 years of development, and a number of patent pendings, in an effort to closely engage with existing customers and SaaS solutions providers and to ensure there is an easy way to visualize all data across the enterprise, identify what data is protected, ensure data is not left unprotected, and be able to recover data in the event of human error or malicious attack. At its foundation, the R-Cloud platform empowers SaaS companies to leverage company’s data protection expertise, orchestration, identity and access management, policy management, and analytics to ensure all SaaS data is protected.  

“Today marks a significant new milestone in what HYCU has been able to accomplish and will set a new standard in what companies should expect from data protection solutions,” said Enrique Salem, HYCU chairman of the board and Bain Capital Ventures LLC partner. “Only HYCU provides the solution for organizations to protect, manage, and recover all of their SaaS applications.”

For the first time, SaaS companies using R-Cloud can quickly release secure and verifiable data protection delivered as a service for their customers. Now, IT admins and developers that need data protection regardless of SaaS-based application will be able to access powerful data protection services. Today, the average development time to create new data protection is at least four quarters, and HYCU has reduced the time to 4 days.

With the introduction of R-Cloud, users will gain the following benefits:  

• Low-code, Integrated Development Environment: R-Cloud empowers SaaS companies and ISVs to quickly develop new R-Cloud modules for their SaaS services, shortening development cycles to days rather than years. 
• Rapid Diagnosis via Graphical Visualization: Businesses get a comprehensive visualization of their entire data estate and protection status via auto-discovery and mapping of all applications and services – SaaS, PaaS, DBaaS, public, and private cloud. Organizations get a detailed and holistic view of their business-critical data and their protection status. 
• Tight Integration with Data Protection Technology: SaaS companies and ISVs can couple their application intelligence with the discovery, orchestration, security, policy management, and reporting of HYCU. 
• Secure, Patented New Recovery Service: Applications developed on R-Cloud will provide SaaS users with: 
  • One-click backup – Users can ‘set and forget’ backup policies that run 24/7 
  • Granular recovery – Quickly recover granular elements across any SaaS application protected. 
  • Self-service capabilities – Deliver role-based access control and enable SaaS admins and users to protect and restore critical data. 
  • Security and confidence – All developed data protection services are stored securely, and protected against ransomware.
• Data Protection Services on HYCU Protégé Marketplace: Organizations can subscribe and access a growing library of all SaaS, DBaaS, and PaaS applications that are protected. 

The first SaaS-based applications, databases, and services supported in R-Cloud will include Amazon RDS, Google Cloud SQL, Google Workspace, Google BigQuery, Salesforce, Atlassian Confluence, Jira Software and Atlassian Jira Service management, and Microsoft 365. New application integrations will be available through Protégé Marketplace.

“Now, more than ever, companies need to keep their employees and their technology resources secure, especially in light of geopolitical risk and the increase in ransomware attacks,” said Theresia Gouw, founding partner, Acrew Capital. “This has been a key area of investment for us and HYCU is well suited to address. The launch of R-Cloud comes at an important moment in time, where the rise in SaaS application use in organizations is forcing new and innovative approaches to protecting and recovering applications and data. HYCU is leading that charge, and we are excited at what’s to come.”

“We invested in HYCU because of its leading data protection technology,” said Philip Braddock, portfolio management lead, Atlassian Ventures. “We believe that data protection as a service is crucial to the success of teams and with R-Cloud, HYCU enables teams to deploy data protection solutions faster to safeguard their work. R-Cloud adds huge value for Atlassian’s 200,000+ cloud customers and we’re excited to see its impact on thousands of global teams.”

[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1239046/top-saas-countries-list/

“We’re at a point in time where SaaS sprawl and ransomware threats are leading to significant challenges, and forcing companies to rethink the way they secure and protect data,” said Austin Arensberg, senior director, Okta Ventures. “R-Cloud is a game changer. It’s an innovative way to eliminate those challenges, and by incorporating Okta SSO technology, it provides a powerful approach to access and visualize data and applications to see what needs to be protected. This is what we saw from the beginning, and why we invested in HYCU last year. We’re excited at the launch of R-Cloud and we know that it will impact the way companies address their SaaS data protection challenges today, and well into the future.”  

“One of the key findings from our recent SaaS Data Protection Report was that solutions to protect and recover SaaS apps was a work in progress,” said Christophe Bertrand, practice director, data management and analytics, ESG Global. “While there are many solutions available, there are still too many challenges in what end users expect and what is available. What has been needed is a way to democratize the data protection, and recovery, in a compelling and new way. The introduction of R-Cloud can help in resolving what I see as the SaaS applications data protection disconnect.”

“As the front-line enabler of digital society in the Nordics, we continuously look for ways to protect our customer’s data better and reduce the complexity in managing multicloud environments,” said Harri Kallioniemi, head of public cloud and cyber security, Tietoevry. “As HYCU partner, we’re excited to see new kind of approach that enables the data protection for the long tail of increasing amount of SaaS solutions our customers are using.”

“Our customers look to SADA to provide best-in-class professional services and technical expertise to unlock the power of Google Cloud,” said Tony Safoian, president and CEO, SADA Systems. “R-Cloud is an innovative technology approach to scale and protect business critical Google Cloud services. It provides a compelling way to protect and recover modern applications in Google Cloud and we couldn’t be more excited at what R-Cloud can offer.”

“The SaaS backup problem has been a difficult one to crack due to the overwhelming number of unique SaaS applications, which only continues to grow,” said Vid Sista, VP, digital strategy, Alchemy Tech Group. “HYCU’s unique approach of crowdsourcing may be the best way to democratize SaaS backup. Allowing solution providers and ISV’s access to their API’s to develop the backup and recovery solution, then publishing a certified solution to their marketplace for other customers is an ingenious way to capture the most critical SaaS applications quickly.”

“HYCU is addressing a significant challenge for SaaS data protection, by turning things on its head,” said Chris M. Evans, principal and founder, Architecting IT. “R-Cloud, as a SaaS data protection development platform, provides a way to address not just the visualization aspect of a company’s data estate but provides an attractive way to address the scalability and recovery issues that no one has come up with before. Now, for example, a CIO would be able to see a completely different view well beyond just the individual asset or physical infrastructure. The physical infrastructure it sits in will be irrelevant in that sense.”

“In my more than twenty years tracking significant developments in data protection and security, HYCU R-Cloud ranks in the Top Five,” said Jerome Wendt, founder and principal, DCIG, LLC. “With more data unprotected than ever before, HYCU is turning the ability to backup, recover and protect SaaS data on its head, making it far easier and simpler while providing enterprises with unprecedented flexibility.”

“The explosion of point-SaaS applications in the workplace has led to massive sprawl of both apps and data within an organization,” said Rob Drivers, UK sales director (public sector) software division, SCC UK. “This has left many companies and their business-critical applications at risk. SCC always strives to provide quality solutions and services to support our customers, embracing innovation from our strategic partners. With the announcement of R-Cloud, HYCU is on the way to setting the standard for managing the integrity of SaaS applications and data. It gives the power to SaaS companies and their customers to ensure that their data is secure, no matter the application. This, in turn, will enable SCC to build services and deliver new ways to empower and protect our customers in a significant and new manner. We look forward to working with HYCU with the roll out of R-Cloud.”

“The explosion of SaaS solutions has fractured visibility and recoverability of an organization’s data assets,” said Scott Lowe, co-founder, CEO and lead industry analyst. “R-Cloud brilliantly solves the two sides of this complex problem – for both customers and SaaS vendors – with an abstraction layer that provides SaaS vendors with a low-code plug-and-play backup as a service offering and customers with a point-and-click affordable marketplace and single pane of glass insight across their organization’s entire supported software portfolio. R-Cloud represents a new era in data protection and recoverability for modern enterprises.”

“I’ve been following HYCU since its inception, and I’m impressed by the trajectory of the company and their capability to address key challenges in the application data protection landscape with an innovative approach,” said Philippe Nicolas, founder and analyst, Coldago Research. “But, incremental evolutions won’t solve challenges in data protection for SaaS applications and something new is needed. HYCU realized this and the introduction of R-Cloud represents a significant change in closing the gap that exists between SaaS application adoption and protecting users’ data.” 

“SaaS data protection has become a growing painpoint across organizations, especially with the rise of ransomware,” said Krista Macomber, senior analyst, data protection, Evaluator Group. “I see R-Cloud as a unique solution, providing a development platform to accelerate the ability of SaaS app providers to develop native backup and recovery capabilities, and then a marketplace to streamline adoption.”

“There is an increasingly concerning massive gap in the industry with numerous unprotected SaaS applications and services. This translates into substantially increased business risks and cybersecurity threats linked to unprotected data and exposure to IT departments” said Dan Molina, co-president and CTO, Nth Generation. “By opening their technology and allowing SaaS companies, ISVs, and partners to write to HYCU R-Cloud, we see this as a significant catalyst in bridging the exposure and data protection gap. Along with the ability to visualize the entire data estate, this architectural enhancement will allow us to bring business-critical awareness to clients on what applications and data are unprotected, and at risk. We are excited to work with HYCU to further help our clients strengthen their security posture in our role as trusted advisors on IT, Cloud and cybersecurity solutions.”