Harbor Solutions partners with Rubrik to launch APAC expansion, starting with Australia

Encouraged by partners to fill a gap in the market, it’s the first phase is a wider growth strategy.

Harbor Solutions is expanding into Australia and New Zealand in collaboration with cybersecurity company Rubrik.

Harbor Solutions is eyeing opportunities to deliver its recovery and resilience model here in Australia, a market with similar cultural values, growing regulatory requirements and rapid cloud adoption.

The MSP specialises in data protection services, offering backup, disaster recovery and resiliency with multiple vendors and platforms including Rubrik.

The company said the move is more than a geographic expansion, it’s about scaling its cyber recovery model internationally starting with this region.

Harbor will offer localised, managed services around Rubrik’s leading data protection platform, with Steven Baker leading the local expansion after being appointed ANZ country manager.

“We see a significant opportunity to support businesses with proven recovery services that extend beyond traditional backup solutions,” Baker told CRN Australia.

Baker will oversee operations including sales, marketing, partnerships and customer outcomes, with a mission to drive opportunities as Harbor looks to aggressively grow in the region.

With cyber attacks on the rise, many organisations still depend on “outdated backup technologies”, Baker said.

“This is not just a technology issue — it’s a significant business risk,” he said.

Harbor believes it has a clearly defined, repeatable process that will meet that need. It’s the right combination of platform, people and process, he said.

Partner-supported expansion move

Harbor said the move has been strongly encouraged by its ecosystem partners and executed in close partnership with Rubrik.

“[Our partners] have highlighted a gap in the market for a specialised provider with expertise in cyber recovery,” Baker told CRN Australia.

With strong MSP adoption and an appetite for commercial models that focus on measurable outcomes, Baker said the local partnership will deliver capability and scale to help partners serve clients who are facing increasing pressure.

“We see a significant opportunity to support businesses with proven recovery services that extend beyond traditional backup solutions,” he said.

Harbor Solutions was named 2024 Global MSP of the Year, manages more than 80 petabytes of data globally and operates some of the largest Rubrik clusters in the world.

Baker said partnerships like this help organisations bridge the gap between simply deploying tools and technology and ensuring they’re resilient in the wake of any incidents. It can also cater to different markets and levels of in-house skills capabilities.

“It’s not just about the tools — it’s about validating recovery, conducting real-world testing and ensuring businesses are ready when the worst happens,” he said.

“Our managed service model is designed to support highly regulated environments and teams with limited capacity, giving them assurance around recovery.”

Seeking to improve the partner ecosystem

Changing regulatory frameworks, accelerating cloud adoption and the need for meticulous data management raises the importance of resilience.

“Compliance is accelerating the shift towards modern data protection platforms, which aligns well with our offering,” Baker told CRN Australia.

Harbor wants to support organisations to be able to recover data and operations quickly from a specific point in time that’s close to the intrusion point as possible

However, the challenge lies in the complexity of legacy environments and the rising need for assurance beyond just system uptime, according to Baker.

This is the need Harbor is targeting, aiming to improve resilience and add value to the wider partner ecosystem.

“Our services are designed to integrate with and enhance partner offerings, allowing them to deliver end-to-end protection and recovery with confidence,” he ended.