Rubrik has set up a joint venture with managed service provider Assured Data Protection (ADP) to enter the Latin American market, and there is potential for the deal to spark further projects covering the Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions.
A conversation with ADP UK CEO Simon Chappell drops a few hints about this. We should note that privately held ADP US has its own head: Washington DC-based EVP Americas Stacy Hayes. He and Chappell co-founded ADP back in 2016 and set it up with two headquarters: one in the US and the other, nominally the main one, in the UK. This unusual structure has enabled ADP to operate faster and more deeply in the US market than most other UK-based businesses with US market entry ambitions. That in turn led to the ADP-Rubrik joint-venture – a deal without parallel in the data protection/cyber-resilience part of the storage market, or the storage market generally for that matter.
We talked to Simon Chappell about the Rubrik deal and what comes next, with the text edited for readability.
Blocks & Files: What was the reasoning behind the JV from your point of view?
Simon Chappell: It was unbelievably exciting for us when this was was mooted by Brian McCarthy, the CRO of Rubrik and his team, because, if you think about what we’ve got in America, it’s 60 percent of our revenue. The obvious places for us to go are north to Canada and south to Latin America. We felt Canada was the easier move, because it just always is obvious. We have a datacenter there now, and a good relationship with CDW there now. So we kicked that off, and then, from left field, comes the conversation with Rubrik.
The motivation really feels like it’s one of those areas which is easier to approach with a consumption-based model than it is to do resale. And the obvious partner for Rubrik to talk to about that service flow is us, because we’re pre-eminent in their world. And then the conversations move quickly. So we went from it being a chat about ‘how do we put some sort of commercial agreement in place’ straight to ‘right, let’s just both of us commit to this relationship in a joint-venture style.’
So our commitment is investment in sales talent, investment in technical talent, and the third leg of it is making sure that we had Spanish-speaking capability. From a support perspective, those were the asks – very fair asks, of course – from Rubrik to us. And all we asked from Rubrik was, don’t compete with us in Latin America if we’re going to put all this investment in – hence, the reason that the JV was created.
Blocks & Files: Is it a 50:50 JV?
Simon Chappell: I can’t go into the details as you might guess, but what I can tell you is that Rubrik’s capturing the top line revenue. That’s important to them. Everything else flows through from that.
Blocks & Files: I remember talking to you a year or two ago about this focus on Rubrik, and it’s turning out very well.
Simon Chappell: We did take an enormous bet. It felt obvious to me that they were going to win, but it needed a lot of things to go right for them, and it has gone right for them. So absolutely, eight years on, I’m so happy with that bet we made.
Blocks & Files: Where next?
Simon Chappell: We’ve talked about Asia Pacific, or APJ. We’ve talked about actually doing more in continental Europe. We’re strong here [in the UK], but we are weak in continental Europe. And Rubrik is building, but is not hugely strong.
I can tell you that every geo that we’re both looking at, having set this precedent that we’ve got with Latin America. The early signs are incredibly positive. The pipeline looks great. The Spanish-speaking support is fully live, going live on the first of August. And we found as well, that we actually have certain customers, that were existing customers to whom we were actually providing support to in English, who read that we were able to do Spanish-speaking, and have chosen to move their support into Spanish-speaking. And of course, we’re delighted because it’s the same support, just in a different language.
So absolutely APJ, looking at it in detail, what’s really interesting for us is the Middle East, the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) area. That’s top of mind for all of us at the moment. We’ve started a relationship with a single person based out of Dubai. Rubrik is doing the same. They already have a presence there. That’s got great potential.
We’re really looking at all of the areas where it makes more sense for us to front the Rubrik motion and for it to be an Assured Rubrik go-to-market.
We want to do more of the same. We want to expand. Our goals are really ambitious for us and and EMEA, so that’s first and foremost. But we we should be ambitious globally.
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Comment
Looking at the Middle East and Asia Pacific regions, there are strong large areas with dominant languages – India for example, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, and the Arabic region. We wouldn’t be at all surprised if ADP and Rubrik replicated their Latin American joint venture and its local language capability in other regions round the globe.
