Veeam recently confirmed its acquisition earlier this month of Object First, an immutable backup storage appliance vendor founded by Veeam’s original co-founders Ratmir Timashev and Andrei Baronov in 2022.

The transaction resolves a strategic conflict where Veeam competed directly with Object First’s Ootbi appliance while simultaneously offering its own Veeam Software Appliance for backup storage. The acquisition provides Veeam with purpose-built hardware capabilities to complement its software-first strategy.

Financial terms remain undisclosed, and Veeam has not publicly detailed plans for Object First’s workforce or long-term product strategy.

Who is Object First?

Object First launched in 2022 as a purpose-built backup storage vendor targeting Veeam deployments exclusively. The company developed the Ootbi (“Out of the box immutability”) appliance, a hardware-software integrated system using object storage architecture optimized for Veeam backup workloads.

The founders’ deep understanding of Veeam’s architecture enabled Object First to create a tightly integrated solution that eliminated common configuration pitfalls in traditional backup storage implementations.

Ootbi appliances incorporate an NVMe SSD landing zone for fast backup data ingestion paired with disk-based storage for long-term retention. The system implements hardware-enforced immutability rather than software-only protections. Recent product iterations added security features including honeypot threat detection capabilities designed to identify ransomware activity targeting backup infrastructure.

Object First expanded its product portfolio significantly during 2024-2025. Initial offerings consisted of three-node clusters with 64TB, 128TB, and 192TB raw capacity options per 2RU node.

Current configurations now span 20TB to 432TB capacity points across 3-node and 4-node cluster options, providing broader deployment flexibility for different customer environments and data volumes.

Strategic Rationale & Fit

Veeam’s acquisition of Object First resolves a problematic competitive dynamic that emerged when the company launched its Linux-based Veeam Software Appliance in September 2024. That product targeted the same market segment as Object First’s Ootbi appliance, creating a scenario where Veeam competed directly with its founders’ new venture.

Prior to this acquisition, Veeam customers evaluating on-premises backup appliances faced three distinct options:

• Deploy commodity x86 hardware running the Veeam Software Appliance, which offered flexibility but required customers to source, configure, and support their own hardware infrastructure.
• Traditional deduplicating backup appliances from Dell (PowerProtect), HPE (StoreOnce), ExaGrid, and Quantum (DXi), which all provide integrated hardware-software solutions but introduced third-party dependencies and potentially conflicting support relationships.
• Object First’s Ootbi appliance, which offers Veeam-optimized integration but came from a vendor outside Veeam’s direct control.

This fragmented approach created several business challenges for Veeam:

• Channel partners faced unclear guidance about which solution to recommend for different customer scenarios.
• Customers seeking simplified procurement preferred single-vendor solutions rather than assembling components from multiple suppliers.
• Veeam lacked control over roadmap coordination with Object First despite the products’ tight technical coupling.

The competitive dynamic also risked confusing market messaging about Veeam’s backup storage strategy.

The acquisition directly addresses customer demand for simplified deployment experiences, with parallels to Veeam’s Data Cloud Vault service. The acquisition extends this integrated approach to on-premises deployments.

Object First also brings proven hardware designs, supply chain relationships, manufacturing partnerships, and field-tested appliance software.

Analysis

Veeam’s acquisition of Object First resolves a strategic contradiction while positioning the company to compete more directly with integrated backup platform vendors like Cohesity and Rubrik. The transaction provides Veeam with proven appliance technology, eliminates marketplace confusion from competing products, and extends the simplified deployment model that has driven Veeam Data Cloud Vault adoption into on-premises environments.

Organizations seeking turnkey backup infrastructure from a single vendor now have a Veeam-branded option that combines hardware and software under unified support.

The competitive landscape continues favoring vendors with deeply integrated platforms that extend beyond pure backup functionality into security analytics, compliance automation, and secondary data utilization. Veeam’s combination of Object First’s appliances with Securiti’s data governance capabilities also provides building blocks for this broader platform vision.

The combination of Veeam’s software leadership, Object First’s purpose-built hardware, and the founders’ deep architectural knowledge creates a compelling on-premises backup platform that addresses the complexity, performance, and security challenges that have plagued traditional backup deployments.

Organizations requiring air-gapped, immutable backup infrastructure now have a stronger Veeam-native option that eliminates multi-vendor dependencies while maintaining the flexibility to integrate with broader data protection ecosystems.

As ransomware threats continue driving demand for isolated, verifiable backup repositories, Veeam’s expanded capabilities position the company to capture increasing share of the rapidly evolving data resilience market.