During a recent visit to Komprise headquarters in Silicon Valley as part of the 60th IT Press Tour, VMblog got an inside look at how this fast-growing company is tackling some of the biggest challenges in enterprise data management. The timing of our visit was particularly interesting, as Komprise was recently recognized by Coldago Research as the leader in unstructured data management - a space that's becoming increasingly critical as organizations grapple with explosive data growth and AI adoption.

What struck me immediately was the clarity of their mission. As Kumar Goswami, CEO of Komprise, put it: "We're here to change the way the world manages data." It's an ambitious goal, but one that makes sense when you consider how organizations currently struggle with data management. They're pushing for a fundamental shift - moving from basic storage administration to strategic, analytics-driven data management, and from data being "locked away" to making it "securely available" whenever and wherever it's needed.

The Data Management Challenge Gets Real

Let's be honest - managing enterprise data isn't getting any easier. According to Goswami, about 90% of enterprise data today is unstructured, creating massive headaches for storage teams trying to keep costs down while keeping data accessible and secure.

"We started Komprise because we saw how much unstructured data was coming, and if there was ever a time to change how the world manages data, this was it," Goswami explained during our briefing.

The company's approach focuses on three key requirements they identified early on:

• Never getting in the way of active data access
• Making data insights actually useful through automated actions
• Building for massive scale while keeping things simple

Innovation in Action: The Technical Edge

 

The Komprise architecture is pretty clever. At its core are three main components:

• Director console that provides unified visibility
• Observer virtual machines that run near your storage
• A Global File Index that maintains metadata about all your files

The system works across on-premises storage, cloud platforms like AWS and Azure, and object storage - giving organizations a single view of their data wherever it lives. And it does this without requiring agents on storage systems.

What makes Komprise's approach unique is how they've architected their solution to handle massive amounts of unstructured data without creating performance bottlenecks. The system uses virtual machines called "Observers" that run close to your storage systems, analyzing and managing data locally rather than forcing everything through a central bottleneck.

"These observers are basically virtual machines that run in your data center," Goswami explained during our briefing. "We put them near where your storage is, where your data is, so that we can very quickly look at it, analyze it, and give you information about it."

But the real game-changer is what Goswami calls their "crown jewel" - the Global File Index. This isn't just another metadata database. Instead, it creates a comprehensive view of your data ecosystem, storing detailed information about every file: who created it, when it was last accessed, what type of data it contains, and more.

"We have about an exabyte of customer information up here," Goswami noted, pointing to one of their architecture diagrams. "Think of it as basically how you are to do things. The real essence of what we're doing is the fact that we can actually work with all kinds of storage sources."

What's particularly clever about their approach is how they handle the metadata. Rather than keeping copies of the actual data, Komprise only maintains metadata and information about the data's location. This makes the system incredibly efficient while maintaining security - your sensitive data never leaves your control.

The platform can:

• Analyze data across multiple storage systems simultaneously
• Move data without disrupting user access
• Maintain transparent access to moved data without complex stubs or agents
• Create automated workflows based on your policies

For organizations struggling with data sprawl across multiple storage systems and clouds, this unified view and control is a game-changer. IT teams can finally understand what data they have, where it lives, and most importantly, take action on that information without disrupting business operations.

Cloud to Ground: Flexibility Across Environments

One of the most compelling aspects of Komprise's platform is its ability to work seamlessly across different environments. During our briefing, we learned that while many vendors force customers to choose between cloud and on-premises solutions, Komprise takes a more practical approach.

"We've always focused from day one on working across everything," Goswami emphasized. This isn't just marketing talk - the platform supports virtually any storage environment you might have, from traditional NAS systems to modern cloud platforms.

When asked about cloud support, Krishna Subramanian, President and COO, explained their reach: "We are an AWS and Azure partner, and we're also a Google Cloud partner." However, she noted that most of their customer activity currently centers on AWS and Azure, reflecting market demands. Beyond the big three, Komprise also works with alternative cloud providers like Wasabi, giving customers flexibility in their cloud strategy.

What's particularly interesting is how they handle different environments:

• For on-premises: Support for NetApp, Dell, Windows File Servers, and other NAS systems
• For cloud: Native integration with AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud
• For object storage: Compatible with any S3-compatible storage

"Many customers of ours run everything on-premises," Goswami noted, especially when discussing European customers with strict data sovereignty requirements. To address these needs, Komprise can run entirely on-premises, including their management console, which comes as a container for local deployment.

This flexibility extends to their approach to data movement. Whether you're moving data between on-premises systems, to the cloud, or between clouds, Komprise maintains transparent access to the data. Users and applications continue to see their files exactly as before, even after they've been moved to a different storage platform.

For organizations planning their cloud strategy or managing hybrid environments, this versatility is crucial. It means they can optimize their storage costs and data placement without getting locked into any particular vendor or platform.

New Kid on the Block: Sensitive Data Detection

Here's where things get interesting. Komprise recently announced new capabilities for finding and managing sensitive data - a huge deal for organizations worried about exposing private information to AI systems or cybercriminals.

Subramanian put it in perspective: "The biggest challenge for a business, for an Enterprise, is how to safely connect corporate data to AI."

The new features include:

• Built-in scanning for PII like social security numbers and credit cards
• Custom pattern matching for organization-specific sensitive data
• Local processing that keeps sensitive data behind your firewall
• Automated workflows to quarantine or protect sensitive information

What makes this particularly valuable is the timing - recent research shows that over half of data loss prevention events now involve attempts to input PII into AI platforms. With breaches costing an average of $4.88 million in 2024, this isn't a theoretical problem.

Real World Impact

During our visit, we heard about several organizations already seeing benefits from Komprise's platform:

A global financial services firm started with a 10 petabyte migration project that expanded to over 100 petabytes. "Komprise has the most comprehensive migration tool on the market for large-scale global migrations," their team reported.

A research hospital implemented self-service data management for departments while maintaining central control. Scientists and researchers can now find and tag their own data while IT maintains governance.

A law firm initially deployed Komprise for Azure cloud tiering but now uses it as a key part of their ransomware protection strategy, saving substantial costs while improving security.

The AI Connection

"AI is only as good as the data fed into it," Subramanian emphasized during our briefing. She explained that while everyone focuses on AI performance, Gartner research shows data management is actually more critical for enterprise AI success.

Why? Because only about 5% of enterprises will ever train their own AI models. The real challenge is safely connecting existing AI systems with corporate data - and doing it in a way that protects sensitive information while making useful data accessible.

Looking Ahead

Komprise is growing at 40% year over year, suggesting their approach is resonating with enterprises dealing with data management challenges. The company's focus on making data management more strategic rather than just administrative seems particularly relevant as organizations tackle AI adoption.

"From storage administration to strategic analytics-driven data management" is how they describe their vision. And from what we saw during our visit, they're delivering on that promise.

The Bottom Line

What impressed me most about Komprise was their practical approach to a complex problem. Instead of trying to boil the ocean, they've built a platform that gives organizations visibility and control over their data while staying out of the way of day-to-day operations.

Their new sensitive data detection capabilities come at just the right time, as organizations struggle to balance AI adoption with data security. And their growth suggests they're solving real problems for enterprises drowning in unstructured data.

As Jonathan Kowall from AHEAD put it, "With the new PII capabilities, storage admins get an extremely powerful feature on top of an already impressive tool. Storage teams are challenged to do more with less and features like these are why we are proud to partner with Komprise."

For organizations looking to get smarter about managing their data while preparing for AI adoption, Komprise offers a compelling solution worth considering.

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