HyperGrid’s former CEO is now the new general manager of SaaS backup and recovery vendor Metallic.

Manoj Nair, who also previously was a cloud executive at Hewlett Packard, arrives to drive growth at Metallic. Expect Nair to help expand the company globally, including an immediate launch into Canada. At HP, he was a general manager and VP of product management for converged cloud products.

Metallic’s Manoj Nair

Metallic, a division of Commvault, was created in October of 2019 as Commvault’s SaaS-based data backup and recovery vendor. Nair replaces Rob Kaloustian, a 20-year Commvault veteran, who was Metallic’s first general manager. We could not reach Kaloustian for comment about his departure.

Nair told Channel Futures he’s excited about working to help Metallic reach the next level of its SaaS backup mission. Nair will report to Commvault CEO Sanjay Mirchandani, who took over as president and CEO in February 2019.

“Our goal is to now take this globally after Metallic originally launched in the U.S.,” said Nair. “As part of that global launch, it is now available in Canada.”

Metallic kicked off with a soft launch last October with the debut of SaaS-based data protection services. Commvault created Metallic to offer SaaS backup and recovery services, only through the channel, for midsize organizations.

As a co-founder of HyperGrid, a cloud management platform, it was the right time to leave that company, said Nair.

“Timing is everything,” he said. “I spent four years getting the company into a good place at HyperGrid. When I saw what was [happening] here at Metallic, it was a good time to make the change.”

Looking for New Challenges

The data protection industry comes with different requirements. And Nair wanted to be part of that journey.

In a blog, Nair wrote he’s excited to lead a startup born out of an established company.

“When I decided to join Sanjay’s team at Commvault, I knew I was in for some fun,” he wrote. “Even as an outside observer, I followed as Commvault unveiled Metallic in October and was impressed by the combination of elegance and power of a SaaS offering built on the proven technology of Commvault. Since then, the team has moved with bold speed and precision to get us into a new phase of evolution for Metallic built around continued innovation, customer experience and global expansion. We are well underway.”

As he arrived, the company launched its customer care program to help companies in the time of COVID-19.

“Our goal was to quickly help organizations with increasingly remote workforces ensure their data is protected,” he wrote. “At the heart of the program is a complementary offering of our Metallic Endpoint Backup and Recovery SaaS-based solution, delivered jointly with our valued partner, Microsoft.”

The offering is available until Sept. 1, and includes unlimited storage on Azure.

Metallic has three enterprise-grade products: Metallic Core Backup & Recovery, Metallic Office 365 Backup & Recovery, and Metallic Endpoint Backup & Recovery.

Metallic’s SaaS backup and recovery products are based on core Commvault code, but organizations with 500-2,500 seats are the target customers.

In March, Metallic brought in industry veteran John Schwan to head its then-new channel partner program. Schwan previously worked for Puppet, VMware and Tintri. The Metallic channel program is separate from Commvault’s channel program, but Commvault partners can access it.