Are you attending the upcoming VeeamON 2022 event in Las Vegas?  The show is coming up quickly, taking place May 16 - 19, 2022, both virtually and yes, physically, at the ARIA Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. 

Ahead of the show, VMblog spoke with Anthony Cusimano, Director of Technical Marketing at Object First, a brand new company brought to you by Veeam founders Ratmir Timashev and Andrei Baronov, promising to supercharge your Veeam experience.

Read this exclusive pre-show interview between VMblog and Object First to learn what they have planned for the upcoming VeeamON 2022 event.

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VMblog:  How excited are you that VeeamON is back as a physical event this year?

Anthony Cusimano:  On a scale of 1-10, we are at an 11. You cannot recreate the spark of energy that exists at physical conferences virtually, and we are so excited that Object First's, first VeeamON, is the return to physical!

VMblog:  Why should a VeeamON attendee add you to their MUST SEE list?  

Cusimano:  We think all VeeamON attendees and all Veeam users will be keenly interested in how Ratmir and Andre's latest vision will improve how they backup their data. We'll get into it more with some of your later questions, but the founders of Veeam have definitely done it again!

VMblog:  Can you give VMblog readers a sneak peek as to what you will be showing off at your booth?

Cusimano:  This is not only our first showing at VeeamON but also our first real showcase as a company in general. We are very excited to be demoing our product which provides primary target object storage for Veeam. Booth visitors can watch us run demos and talk about why they should be considering Object First as the primary landing place for Veeam backups.

VMblog:  Talking about your product solutions, can you give readers a few examples of how your offerings are unique?  What are your differentiators?

Cusimano:  Object First represents the ever-increasing need for next-generation immutable object storage that isn't locked into a remote location or monthly bill. What we have built offers instead all of the immutability and security that comes with S3-based cloud storage but is owned and stored locally, and we simplified that too! Object First can be up and running and storing Veeam Backups immutably in under 15 minutes.

VMblog:  How does your company work with Veeam?  And how does your product fit within the Veeam ecosystem?

Cusimano:  Currently, Object First ONLY works with Veeam! We will be launching alongside VBR12 and will plug right into the latest way Veeam writes to S3 object storage. Veeam users will be able to leverage all of their favorite features they have used with previous storage types like immutability and instant recovery while also gaining the increased performance and affordability of Object First.

VMblog:  What do you think we need to do collectively as an ecosystem to strengthen the industry?

Cusimano:  The industry has started to take the threat of ransomware seriously, which is a great thing! But unfortunately, we are still behind when it comes to the implementation of better securing our applications, infrastructure, and data. We have seen all too many times that when bad actors get into the primary data, they then go straight for the backups. We would love to see hackers disappear not because we managed to find and defeat them but because they can no longer pose any threat to the hardworking IT individuals working in their data centers. 

VMblog:  We expect to hear about big industry topics during the keynotes, but what does your company see taking shape in the coming landscape?  What would your keynote topic include? 

Cusimano:  That's easy! The importance of object storage as something more than just a tape equivalent in the cloud or something you run alongside Kubernetes. We see object storage as the untapped resource of the future. When properly utilized, it helps mitigate ransomware, brings universal simplicity into the storage space, and delivers ease of scale without the pain of breaking the budget. The solution we have built utilizing object storage represents the technology genuinely firing on all cylinders. We are excited for IT practitioners to start seeing the untapped potential of object storage beyond the cloud.  

Cusimano:  As a company that is directly creating value for Veeam customers, there was no other choice. We understand that Veeam is the best data management platform in the business. We also saw an opportunity to bring additional value with Veeam's latest S3 functionality launching in V12. We want Veeam customers to realize the power of Object First and understand how our optimized on-prem object storage will further enhance everything they love about Veeam with the comfort of knowing their data is safe and recoverable right in their data centers.

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