ExaGrid CEO on Tiered Backup Storage, Ransomware Defense, and the Death of Traditional Deduplication

In this in-depth interview, VMblog sits down with Bill Andrews, President and CEO of ExaGrid, to discuss the evolving landscape of backup storage and why traditional approaches are falling short for enterprise data centers.

Key Topics Covered:

Backup Storage Architecture Innovations
Bill explains ExaGrid's unique tiered backup storage approach that separates fast backup ingestion from long-term deduplicated storage. Unlike inline deduplication appliances that slow down backup windows, ExaGrid's landing zone architecture delivers rapid backups while maintaining cost-effective retention through adaptive deduplication in a separate repository tier.

Ransomware Protection Beyond Basic Recovery
Learn why having backups isn't enough in today's threat landscape. Bill details ExaGrid's multi-layered security approach, including non-network-facing repository tiers, immutable data objects, and delayed delete policies that protect against sophisticated ransomware attacks that target backup infrastructure first.

The Hybrid Cloud Reality Check
After the cloud migration hype of 2014-2018, Bill shares real-world insights on why the pendulum has swung back. He explains which workloads make sense in the cloud versus on-premises, and why backup data specifically is "way too expensive" in public cloud environments due to egress charges and operational costs.

Disaster Recovery Best Practices
From dual data center replication to tertiary site protection, Bill outlines practical DR strategies for different organization sizes. He also discusses why ExaGrid is seeing increased demand for triple-hop replication as natural disasters become more frequent and severe.

The Backup Application Landscape
Bill predicts the future of enterprise backup applications, forecasting that Veeam, Commvault, Rubrik, and Cohesity will dominate the upper mid-market to enterprise space, while legacy solutions like Dell Networker, Avamar, and IBM TSM continue their decline.

What's Coming Next
Bill teases several upcoming announcements, including AI-powered features for threat protection and new storage options—making this interview essential viewing for IT professionals planning their 2026 data protection strategies.

With ExaGrid operating in 81 countries and serving customers across the globe, Bill brings valuable perspective on how backup storage requirements are evolving in response to security threats, cost pressures, and scalability demands.

About ExaGrid:
ExaGrid specializes in tiered backup storage appliances for the upper mid-market to enterprise, sitting behind backup applications like Veeam, Commvault, and Rubrik. The company is now the largest dedicated backup storage vendor globally outside of major diversified storage manufacturers.