VAD Axiz Distributor of Rubrik

Rubrik, Inc. is positioning for growth across Africa through the appointment of Axiz (Pty) Ltd as a VAD and strategic partner.

Werner Vorster, country manager, Rubrik, says the next phase of its company’s growth will include expansion across the rest of Africa: “We awarded the business to Axiz for several reasons: they have good coverage in South Africa and an impressive footprint across Africa.

“Our longer-term goal is to expand the business into the rest of Africa, so when we are ready to make the move, we already have a partner to support us,” he says. He also highlights the high-quality sales teams, technical expertise and marketing support Axiz will avail to support Rubrik’s growth.

“Importantly, we also looked at Rubrik alliance partners in the Axiz stable. We are Microsoft’s number one ISV partner globally and work closely with the likes of VMware, both of which are strong within the Axiz portfolio. This will allow us to leverage the ecosystem within Axiz. Another area in which Axiz is strong is that they have already onboarded a few next-gen vendors, and as a disruptive technology, Rubrik wanted a partner with experience in taking next-gen vendors to market.“

Axiz CTO Jacques Malherbe says the partnership encompasses sales, marketing and technical support: “It’s a strategic partnership. We have built a services engine behind it and a full support system to get the product to market across Africa.“

Axiz, with a presence in 33 countries and technical support services in most of them, fields a portfolio of disruptive solutions and cloud solutions including Microsoft and VMware. “We are proud of our portfolio of hardware and software vendors; we look for those in the top right of the Gartner Quadrant – those that are disruptive, and we look for key players in the cloud space, like VMware and Microsoft.“

Rubrik ticks all these boxes, he notes, as a disruptive technology extensible to the cloud. “How data is managed and secured is usually important to our customers. So, as a disruptive, growing and accepted technology, it is cloud-ready and integrates into the Microsoft cloud and VMware environment, making it a perfect fit for us and our customers,” says Malherbe.

Both companies report promising growth across African markets, with strong demand for disruptive and cloud technologies and solutions.

Says Vorster: “Amid the pandemic, we’ve seen massive adoption of the likes of Microsoft 365, and mass migration to cloud. At the same time, cyber-attacks are accelerating. These are all areas where we excel as a technology. Last year, organisations had to quickly mobilise their workforces, and this year they are looking to optimise and protect their data. Every customer is concerned about ransomware, and in South Africa, they are looking to support compliance with the deadline for POPIA compliance approaching.“

Malherbe adds: “Ransomware is a major concern for customers, particularly as malware can be embedded in the backed-up data. Rubrik has the ability to detect anomalous behaviour and quickly remediate, while the fact that it backups to an immutable platform makes it super important today. So the services that our clients want makes Rubrik a perfect fit for us. We see strong demand for solutions that integrate with customers’ existing solutions and hybrid cloud infrastructures, make data secure and safe, and automate data management. Rubrik fits right in there, with the advantage that it meets the modern demand for technology that is simple to manage, automated and easy to run.“