Richard Spurlock

Cobalt Iron Inc., a provider of SaaS-based enterprise data protection, announces the appointment of Rodney Foreman to the newly created position of chief revenue officer. In this role, Foreman will be responsible for all sales initiatives for the company, including direct and indirect sales channels. "Cobalt Iron has an outstanding reputation in the market for providing customer solutions that deliver exceptional ROI and performance. We added the chief revenue officer position so we can become more agile and better leverage the channel and top industry partners to extend our market reach, which means we can solve data protection challenges for more customers," said Richard Spurlock, CEO and founder of Cobalt Iron. Creating high-Performance sales organizations "Rodney is known in the software industry as a leader that drives transformation within software companies in order to deliver results, capture market share, and win new customers. He develops growth strategies and operational processes and empowers people to drive the business and grow revenue with a focus on customer success," Spurlock continued. Foreman has a global software sales and product management background "His remarkable track record and reputation for creating high-performance sales organizations and innovative channel programs will serve us well as we expand our sales organization." Foreman has a global software sales and product management background. He spent 16 years as an executive at IBM, where he drew on his extensive experience and success in the data management and data protection markets. Automated and intelligent solution After that, he led the design, development, and implementation of channel and midmarket sales programs as senior vice president at Informatica, and then he built a multitier global channel program as vice president of global channel sales at Nutanix. "I am thrilled to join Cobalt Iron at this exciting time. Cobalt Iron has a clear strategy and solid momentum and is challenging the industry to think differently about data protection," Foreman said. "I look forward to working with our teams globally to advance Cobalt Iron's mission of transforming how businesses manage their data with an automated and intelligent solution. We will enhance our customers' experiences as we deliver value and drive business outcomes with our trusted partners." Foreman will report to Spurlock.

Cobalt Iron Inc., a provider of cloud-based data protection, announced Cyber Shield, an extension of its Adaptive Data Protection SaaS solution that locks down and shields its customers' backup data from loss, corruption, or attack. Cyber Shield sets a new standard in the enterprise data protection market for data access control, data security, ransomware detection, and ransomware responsiveness by building those functions into the software. This unprecedented ‘built-in’ approach to data security and cyberattack preparation brings peace of mind to data custodians, saves the time and cost of designing additional security measures, and greatly reduces a company's financial exposure to any cyberattack. Securing data Cyber Shield provides readiness, response, and recovery functions to minimize or eliminate the impact of cyberattacks"Companies' backup infrastructures are prime targets for cyberattacks, yet the backup products do not have comprehensive cybersecurity central to their design. Vendors are reacting by adding bolt-on features after the fact — increasing costs and even introducing new attack vectors," said Richard Spurlock, CEO and founder of Cobalt Iron. "With Cobalt Iron Cyber Shield, the security of your data is not an add-on or afterthought; it is chiseled into every aspect of the solution." Cyber Shield provides readiness, response, and recovery functions to minimize or eliminate the impact of cyberattacks, which are a growing menace for companies. Traditional backup products and infrastructure are notorious targets for ransomware attacks largely because they hold copies of all key corporate data and typically have numerous open ports for authenticated administrative access. Identifying and containing cyberattacks According to the IBM 2019 ‘Cost of a Data Breach Report’, the average total cost of a data breach is $3.92 million. The report also found that the length of time it takes to identify and contain a data breach was a significant contributing factor to the overall cost and impact. The automation and analytics inherent in Cyber Shield help to identify and contain any cyberattacks automatically. Cyber Shield's immediate response to any incidents minimizes the scope of impact, downtime, data loss, and costs Cyber Shield locks down data access control and data security in a manner not possible with traditional backup products. Adaptive Data Protection's operations and administration model eliminate attack points prevalent in those products, while built-in containment and air gap by design further restrict the possible scope of any malicious attacks. Air-gapped copies of corporate data are always available as a recovery source. Minimizes scope of impact, downtime, data loss In addition, Cyber Shield includes vigilant continuous monitoring, proactive problem avoidance, and automated software updates to ensure that enterprise data protection is battle-ready at all times. Cyber Shield's immediate response to any incidents minimizes the scope of impact, downtime, data loss, and costs. Rapid data restore functions allow fast, validated recovery of any compromised data. Finally, Cyber Shield analytics-optimized insights provide a faster and more comprehensive understanding of any attack as well as fortifications against future attacks. Cyber Shield comes as an inherent part of Cobalt Iron's Adaptive Data Protection SaaS solution and does not require any additional equipment, software, or license.

Cobalt Iron Inc., global provider of cloud-based data protection and security solutions, has announced that it has received a patent for its techniques related to electronic discovery (e-discovery) when searching for data in backup storage. Solidifying Cobalt Iron's advanced enterprise-data discipline capabilities and providing further proof of it, this patent represents the company's unique approach to managing backup data sets to facilitate e-discovery requests. As a result, CIOs, data custodians, compliance officers, systems administrators, backup administrators, and other IT professionals who use Cobalt Iron's Adaptive Data Protection platform can fulfill e-discovery requests more quickly and cost-effectively, with verifiable data discipline. Adaptive Data Protection platform Among the largest data targets for e-discovery searches in most enterprises are backup data sets In today's business and regulatory climate, it is essential for enterprises to be able to respond to e-discovery requests in a timely, comprehensive, and cost-efficient manner. Among the largest data targets for e-discovery searches in most enterprises are backup data sets, which typically contain copies and versions of all key corporate data. Performing e-discovery data searches on these enterprise backup data sets can be complex, time-consuming, and very costly. Enterprise data custodians struggle with balancing the demands of legal e-discovery requests against the challenges and costs of performing the searches. e-discovery in backup data This Cobalt Iron patent unveils novel techniques for facilitating electronic discovery in backup data including: - Extracting metadata from a backup data set for e-discovery - Efficiently identifying a subset of data within a backup data set associated with an e-discovery request - Performing data reduction on data targeted by an e-discovery request - Preserving a native file format and a chain of custody for each data item in a backup data set identified by an e-discovery request - Applying e-discovery and backup policies to data identified by an e-discovery request - Automatically copying e-discovery data that is about to be deleted or modified within a backup data storage e-discovery techniques "Cobalt Iron's new electronic discovery techniques bring insights and efficiencies to corporate data custodians, allowing them to manage e-discovery requests more effectively and introduce new levels of data discipline," said Richard Spurlock, CEO and founder of Cobalt Iron. "Preserving native file formats, maintaining a chain of custody, and applying e-discovery policy for each data item identified by an e-discovery request greatly simplifies the arduous tasks associated with regulatory compliance."