Assured Data Protection launches Innovation Team for global growth

Assured Data Protection has established an Innovation Team to drive the expansion of its disaster recovery, backup, and cyber resiliency services portfolio with new technologies and services for customers worldwide.

Tony Giannini, recently appointed to Assured Data Protection, will lead the newly formed Innovation Team. Giannini's background in the IT service sector is expected to support the team in identifying and integrating technologies that enhance the company's existing Rubrik-based service offerings. The team's senior members include UK-based cyber resiliency professionals Chris Deacon and Nik Grove, who, along with others, will support Giannini in this strategic initiative.

Assured Data Protection's first project under this initiative is a collaboration with hybrid-cloud company Nutanix to deliver Disaster Recovery as-a-Service for global customers. This solution allows companies to implement Nutanix disaster recovery capabilities without investing in additional physical infrastructure or hardware, offering protection across more than 70 countries. Customers can balance critical application recoveries with cost-effective options for less time-sensitive workloads, with the service operational within hours of deployment.

Assured's partnership with Nutanix has already gained traction both for the company and its clients. Assured has recently been named Nutanix MSP of the Year for 2024 in the UK, and further collaboration is planned, overseen by the Innovation Team.

Stacy Hayes, Executive Vice President of Americas at Assured Data Protection, commented: "The formation of our Innovation Team is an important strategic initiative for Assured. We've built a strong business taking Rubrik's market-leading disaster recovery and immutable backup technology to market through our MSP model. As we grow and expand globally, now is the time to build on our success by adding additional technologies that will complement our data protection services, bringing new value to our customers. We're thrilled to have Tony Giannini onboard to lead this initiative, supported by Chris Deacon and Nik Grove. The Innovation Team will greatly contribute to our rapid growth."

Tony Giannini, Global Innovations Team Leader at Assured Data Protection, said: "This is a great time to be joining Assured and a fantastic opportunity to work with the most talented people in the data protection space. I'm looking forward to working with the Innovation Team to develop adjacent technologies that complement Assured's as-a-service offer in a stand-alone product development business unit within the company."

Chris Deacon, Co-Lead, Innovation Team, Assured Data Protection, added: "There's a great need and demand for innovation in the backup and disaster recovery sector, especially around managed services. Nik and I have worked together as a team for over 10 years, having built and run successful technology businesses in this sector. We understand the market and customer pain points, and we're delighted to work with Tony Giannini to provide customers with more technology options to solve their specific challenges, while helping Assured diversify its technology portfolio."

The creation of the Innovation Team aligns with Assured Data Protection's strategy following capital investment from Oakley Capital in 2024. The business is seeking to accelerate its global expansion further, with ongoing growth in established markets such as the United States and the United Kingdom, and increased activity across Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North Africa. This growth is attributed to growing global demand for consumption-based IT services and managed offerings.

Assured Data Protection provides managed services in data backup, disaster recovery, business continuity, and extended detection and response, aiming to enable organisations to transfer critical but non-mission supportive tasks, such as data protection and cyber resiliency, to external providers.