“We have the most important real estate” in the GenAI market

In an interview with CRN, Rubrika CEO Bipul Sinha discusses data security in the era of GenAI and why “no one in our industry even dares” to make this information public.

The well-known data security challenges posed by the advent of generative AI have accelerated Rubrik’s already strong growth opportunities, according to Rubrik co-founder and CEO Bipul Sinha, which is at the center of ensuring the secure use of GenAI tools.

Rubrik, which became the first cybersecurity provider to go public in more than two years after its initial public offering. in April— continues to show strong growth, with annual recurring revenue (ARR) reaching $919 million as of the end of July, up 40 percent from a year earlier.

(Connected: All focus is on improving data security)

In a recent interview with CRN, Sinha said there is no doubt that the growing interest in GenAI adoption is helping to provide momentum for Rubrik. But the company in particular is positioned to capitalize on this opportunity through its years of work. zero trust security approach and steps such as entering the realm of data security posture management (DSPM), he said.

When it comes to implementing GenAI, “Rubrik is uniquely positioned with data (governance) and data security integrated into our platform,” Sinha said. “This is an emerging market and we have the most important real estate in this market. Because without data (governance) and data security, GenAI is meaningless.”

Sinha also discussed the global situation caused by CrowdStrike. IT outage in July, and in an IPO market where no other cybersecurity vendor has made an offering this year.

In the data security space in particular, “nobody in our field even dares to go (to the IPO market),” he said. “And if you look at our competitors, they are merging with each other to survive.”

Here’s more of CRN’s interview with Sinha.

What do you think is the most important thing organizations should know about data security in the era of GenAI?

Since the early 2000s, the technology industry has been focused on automating workflows and creating productivity applications. The power has shifted from data to workflow. Now, the advent of GenAI has essentially ushered in a new era in which workflows will not matter as workflows will be generated and executed behind the scenes by AI. All you need is an agent: you ask him to do something and he reports back to you. So, in this new world, the power has shifted from workflows and applications back to data. Data fuels the workflow, which fuels the generative AI engine.

So now that data is king, data integrity, data availability and data security is the No. 1 concern because if you lose that data, you can’t have GenAI. If you give data to the wrong people through GenAI, you have huge compliance and governance problems. So now it comes to data management and security – that’s the name of the game.

Where exactly does Rubrik fit in here?

In the cybersecurity industry, Rubrik is uniquely positioned with data (backup) and data security integrated into our platform. This is an emerging market and we have the most important real estate in this market. Because without data (backup) and data security, GenAI is meaningless.

Every organization is now thinking about how to ensure that the right data is delivered to the right user at the right time, on the right platform, and within the right period of time. This is where security becomes huge because your trust in the AI ​​system will decrease significantly (without security).

How would you describe the biggest difference with Rubric at this point?

We have created a unique platform. To do this, you can’t just add a layer to your legacy architecture. We created a completely new platform, a completely new architecture, specifically designed for this. We combine data security posture management (DSPM) and cyber recovery into one platform. So we have a complete understanding of data risks, data threats and cyber remediation in a single platform. No one else has this. This is why we are the first cybersecurity company to go public in (several) years, and no one in our industry even dares to enter it. And if you look at our competitors, they are merging with each other to survive.

What would you say is the most promising area for Rubrik since going public in April?

We said in our earnings call that we are winning this market. Just look at the growth and the scale at which we are growing. We’ve surpassed $900 million in subscription ARR in just nine years of (product) sales, and we’re aiming for the market to top $1 billion this year. So, we have now achieved significant scale as a software company. Very few companies have reached $1 billion in ARR.

Our goal is to truly create a new vision for the cybersecurity industry. Because for too long, the industry has focused on preventing attacks from various infrastructure platforms. But the ultimate goal of all this is data protection. Our vision was that we would focus on cyber resilience. Because the attacks cannot be stopped. You can’t stop all attacks. How can we ensure your business continues to operate?

In terms of sustainability, what lessons did you draw from the CrowdStrike incident this summer?

First of all, CrowdStrike is a great partner. They responded and responded very well and quickly. It was an unfortunate incident, but it really brought attention to what it means to have resilience. Everyone wants productivity. Everyone is engaged in digital transformation. Everyone automates tasks. But the Achilles heel of this digital transformation is sustainability. Can you have these services that your business now depends on that will continue to work forever? As for what happened with CrowdStrike – think of it as a (movie) trailer for what could happen, on an even larger scale, if it were a real cyber attack.

This was definitely a reckoning for the world. People wrote their boarding passes by hand. Suddenly you go from the 21st century to the 20th century where these services don’t work. So it was a huge payback. And right now, productivity is still the focus, but people are also thinking about how to deliver those productivity gains. And security doesn’t just mean protecting against cyber threats. But ensuring security means making sure those services are available.

Overall, it seems like 2024 was a pretty tough year in terms of cyber resilience?

Look at what happened at (UnitedHealth Group) and Change Healthcare. This affected the entire ecosystem. If you do any business with Change Healthcare, your business will be affected. When an incident like this happens, everyone realizes how interdependent we are in different areas of business. If you look at systemic risk, it increases as interconnectedness increases. And one of the goals of technology is to create more connections. That’s why this particular CrowdStrike incident had global implications. So this is something we all have to reckon with: are we making our digital lives sustainable? So, as digital intensity increases, if that digital part is not resilient, there are huge problems.

Do you feel like your channel partners are aware of what you see as the data security needs right now or not?

I think our channel partners who have fundamentally understood that the market has moved from backup and recovery to cyber resilience in the data security space, channel partners who have understood that are making tremendous strides. Channel partners who are still in this old world of backup and recovery are struggling. That’s why we constantly train our partners, because that’s where the market is. This is not much different from what happened to the phone market. BlackBerry and Nokia used the phone and text messages, but the iPhone invented an Internet device that, in addition to the phone and text messages, brought apps, data, and the Internet to the phone. Likewise, Rubrik has shifted this market from backup and recovery to a data security platform for cyber resilience. If you’re selling old, outdated products, this is a bad proposition.