Backup supplier Veeam has declared it will no longer sell its products in Russia in response to the country’s military invasion of Ukraine.
Veeam CEO Anand Eswaran issued a blog post about “Veeam’s Actions in Support of Ukraine” in which he confirmed: “Veeam has paused all sales in Russia.”
He wrote: “As a company that prides itself on a culture of equality, teamwork, innovation, and action, we cannot stand by while those values are taken away from the Ukrainian people. The need for freedom, stability and peace outweighs the need to sell software.”
Veeam is making access to all its data protection products “along with full production level support free to all business and government entities in Ukraine, for the duration of this conflict as well as the recovery phase.”
It has set up an employee contribution match to registered charitable organisations up to $1,000,000 and is donating $250,000 to organisations focused on providing medical aid, helping with children and families’ basic needs, and assisting with the escalating refugee crisis.
Veeam is also supporting the use of employee volunteer days to help make a difference at this time.
Some readers may consider it’s time now for all storage sector suppliers to stop sales to and support in Russia.
Background
The company was founded in 2006 by Andrei Baranov and Ratmir Timashev and set up its HQ in Switzerland, with software research and development in a St Petersburg office, the Russian city on the Baltic coast.
The founders focused the company on backing up and restoring VMware virtual machines faster and better than anyone else and saw sales soar for more than two decades. By 2020, annual revenues had surpassed $1bn and its worldwide customer count had passed 365,000.
Veeam was bought by Insight Venture Partners for $5bn in 2020. American William Largent, then EVP for operations, was promoted to CEO and board chair. Veeam became a US-led and headquartered company. Baranov and Timashev stepped down from the board. Timashev styles himself on LinkedIn as a contracted consultant at Veeam.
Anand Eswaran was appointed CEO in December last year with Largent remaining as the chairman.
Nevertheless, Veeam has a Russian aspect to its corporate identity and the CEO has moved quickly to distance the company from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Kaspersky
Another prominent Russian company, security supplier Kaspersky, has adopted a neutral stance with CEO Eugene Kaspersky tweeting: “We welcome the start of negotiations to resolve the current situation in Ukraine and hope that they will lead to a cessation of hostilities and a compromise. We believe that peaceful dialogue is the only possible instrument for resolving conflicts. War isn’t good for anyone.”
That stance is not getting a lot of positive comments.
