Time to call in Rubrik amid 'machines attacking machines'

Born poor in India and embraced by American meritocracy, Bipul Sinha is reimagining the cyber-security space.

- Ravi Velloor

On Sept 9, when Rubrik announced results for the three months ended July, the numbers exceeded all previously guided metrics; subscription annual recurring revenue (ARR), a key number, had grown 40 per cent on year to US$919 million (S$1.2 billion). The number of customers paying US$100,000 ARR or more was up 35 per cent to 1,969.

With such tailwinds, the Palo Alto-based cloud data management and security firm, which sold shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) just this April, raised full-year guidance across all the scores. It now expects to finish the 2025 fiscal year with a subscription ARR exceeding US$1 billion.

Some sections of the technology world are saying that just as Google is the de facto standard for search, Rubrik is being increasingly associated with cyber resilience. Mr John Chambers, the legendary former chief executive officer of Cisco who is now a board adviser of Rubrik and has invested in the firm, has talked of Rubrik's potential being in the league of a Dell, or Cisco itself.

To Rubrik CEO Bipul Sinha, who is convinced that he and his co-founders have hit upon the next big thing, all this is to be accepted with a shrug.

"The cyber-security industry as we know it is completely broken," he told me. "As our spend on cyber security increases, so do attacks. You have to assume that some attacks - maybe half a per cent will be successful.

"Our vision is that fundamental resilience comes from assuming some bad things will happen but you need to continue operating your business without being disrupted. If a bank gets attacked, you should still be able to swipe your credit card. We have this new vision for that market." Rubrik advises its customers to develop a twofold response plan.