SaaS data protection provider Parablu is partnering with Microsoft in a pact that includes joint engineering and co-selling. The partnership, which Parablu announced on Monday, is a step poised to challenge Druva, a rival SaaS backup provider aligned with AWS and Dell Technologies.

Druva, founded in 2008 and boasting a market cap of $2 billion in 2021, has offered its data protection service much longer than Parablu, formed in 2014, but only started recruiting customers and partners two years ago.

Two years ago, Druva inked a partnership with Dell, allowing its partners to bundle Druva’s SaaS backup as the Dell EMC PowerProtect Backup Service. Both offer multicloud data protection services, though Druva hosts its service in the AWS cloud, while Parablu is hosted in Microsoft Azure. Druva’s new senior VP of global partners and alliances, Mike Houghton, earlier this month said Druva remains committed to the Dell partnership.

Leveraging Azure for SaaS Data Protection

Despite its status as a startup, Parablu has quickly gained a considerable partner and customer base. Last year, longtime Commvault veteran Randy De Meno saw an opportunity to leverage Parablu’s decision to host its service in Azure when he joined the company.

During more than 20 years at Commvault as CTO, De Meno said he built and expanded its alliance with Microsoft. De Meno’s relationship with Microsoft provided an entrée for Parablu. According to De Meno, Parablu’s unique approach to data protection helped seal the deal.

Parablu lets organizations pool their Google Drive and One Drive cloud storage to protect Microsoft 365 data. De Meno noted that a customer with 1,000 OneDrive accounts would effectively have a petabyte of capacity available as a primary storage target, with the option of tiering it into Microsoft Azure.

Parablu’s Randy De Meno

“We’re using OneDrive, a reliable, secure storage mechanism,” De Meno told Channel Futures.

Through Parablu’s co-engineering work with Microsoft, the two companies added functionality to protect OneDrive data. For example, when a Parablu administrator deletes a customer’s user account, the data associated with that account moves to an alternate data location instead of disappearing.

“Those who follow me shouldn’t be surprised that I pursued a partnership with Microsoft, but what they will be surprised about is the scale,” De Meno said. “It’s a joint go-to-market sales initiative.”

According to De Meno, Microsoft is providing aggressive pricing that will allow Parablu to offer a competitive service.

“They also gave us pretty significant discounts to enable us to not just compete with a better product, but also price compete for the overall solution,” he said.

Co-Selling with Microsoft

De Meno said that the co-sell part of the SaaS data protection alliance means Microsoft partners can sell the Parablu’a BlueVault backup and Ransomware Defense Suite SaaS offerings.

“They can go to their field with a co-sell this endorsed product, knowing that when Parablu wins, it will go in Azure,” he said. “It shows that Microsoft has a lot of trust in us, that they can go to their field and to their partners in a co-sell way.”

John Gallo Jr., Parablu’s VP of channel sales and distribution, said Microsoft partners could add Parablu’s service to their offerings by going through distributor TD Synnex.

Parablu’s John Gallo Jr.

“Our price book is loaded there,” Gallo said. “Any partner that wants to get a quote can literally work with them.”

Gallo also said that Parablu partners can earn 20% in margins selling SaaS data protection. And he added that they can continue to earn those margins as long as customers keep renewing.

“It’s a really good story for partners,” he said.