Interview. We came across UK-based Predatar when its Cyber Recovery Orchestration achieved Veeam Ready Security status in November. This was followed by an email interview with marketing head Ben Hodge, which revealed some surprising points about the company's relationship with Index Engines and Rubrik.

Blocks & Files: How does Predatar's technology and use relate to that of Index Engines?

Ben Hodge: Index Engines is the solution that Predatar's capabilities get confused with the most, but they are actually tackling the problem of malware in backups differently. In my opinion, Predatar and Index Engines actually complement one another beautifully (not that anyone is using both as far as I am aware).

Index Engines excels at scanning data on ingest, detecting anomalies and identifying encrypted data that might slip past other tools. This gives customers peace of mind that only unencrypted data is vaulted, which is crucial for securing backups.

Predatar is all about validating recoverability. It focuses on continuous recovery testing and deep malware scanning of the data that resides within backups (and snapshots). Predatar continually mounts and powers-up workloads to validate recoverability and then runs a malware scan using built-in XDR tools in a Predatar CleanRoom environment - Index Engines does not do this.

The Predatar team claims to have found malware hidden in backups at 79 percent of the customers that use it, which goes to show that Predatar is solving a very real problem.

In addition to validating the cleanliness and recoverability of data, Predatar also records recovery times, allowing users to validate their SLAs/RTOs.

I think a lot of the confusion comes from the fact that Predatar also includes backup anomaly detection - but that is really secondary to our core proposition of recovery validation. Predatar uses the anomaly detection as just one mechanism to help prioritize which backups/snapshots to test next.

So, to recap... Index Engines ensures clean, encryption-free vaulting, while we guarantee reliable and proven malware-free recovery.

Blocks & Files: How does Predatar's technology compare to data protection supplier's in-house malware detection and reaction facilities. Rubrik for example?

Ben Hodge: Rubrik, IBM, Veeam, and HPE have all acknowledged (not all of them publicly) that Predatar does something different to their own offerings, and for now at least they consider us to be partners rather than competitors. Rubrik, IBM, and HPE all participated in our recent Control24 user summit. As per the question above, I'll focus on Rubrik specifically here.

Rubrik has some fantastic tools to spot and track malware and signs of encryption in data. However, once Rubrik finds an issue, that's were it stops. Rubrik doesn't provide any automation to push suspect data to a cleanroom for testing, and Rubrik doesn't have a way of doing recovery testing at scale. In the words of Rubrik, "Predatar picks up where Rubrik stops."

Blocks & Files: Doesn't HPE's Zerto have in-house recovery testing capabilities?

Ben Hodge: Not really. HPE has something called the Cyber Resilience Vault (Zerto is a component of it), but it's missing a "Predatar-type" component that validates the recoverability and cleanliness of the data that is stored in it.

HPE is offering a version of their Cyber Resilience Vault with Predatar incorporated into it. You can see Shariq Aqil, Global Field CTO at HPE explaining the solution here (skip to 12:03).

Blocks & Files: I see Predatar has evolved. Its Crunchbase profile says "the Predatar platform enables the traditional VAR to evolve into an MSP, through the delivery of remote management, on-premise BaaS." How did this happen?

Ben Hodge: Step 1. The beginning: Predatar was originally designed as a tool to help the Silverstring MSP scale up by automating repetitive maintenance tasks and reporting - thus meaning Silverstring could manage more customer's backups without employing more people.

Step 2. What the Crunchbase blurb is about: We realized that other MSPs (or resellers with an ambition to become MSPs) could benefit from Predatar in the same way Silverstring did. We went to market with Predatar as a tool for MSPs.

Step 3. The cyber recovery piece; we continued to develop the platform with more features that MSPs would benefit from. This included automated recovery testing and later malware detection tools that would allow MSPs to guarantee the backups they were managing were recoverable and infection-free.

The reaction to these new tools was huge. Interest in the new tools eclipsed the original reporting and management tools.

Step 4. Marketing focus: Earlier this year we took the decision to focus solely on the cyber recovery proposition, which is applicable to MSPs and end users alike.

Blocks & Files: Crunchbase lists no funding details. I guess Predatar got its original funding from Silverstring? And I think Predatar was founded from within Silverstring by CEO Alistair Mackenzie. Is that right?

Ben Hodge: Correct, Predatar and Silverstring are owned by Alistair. Predatar had no external funding.