Looking forward at the year ahead – we can see it’s going to be a big one for Predatar. But before we really get stuck in to this exciting new year, we wanted to take a few moments to reflect on some of the best moments and biggest achievements from 2021 – with a particular focus on our user community. After all, it’s our users’ feedback and ideas that drive us forward.
Shaping the future of Predatar together
Last year we really ‘switched things up’ with the Predatar user group. Moving from an email-based group to a more collaborative community forum using LinkedIn and the all-new Predatar Ideas Portal gave all of our users the chance to engage with us (and one another) in new ways.
The new format has given our users a mechanism to give feedback directly to the product development team, make suggestions, and vote for the ideas they want to see most on the Predatar product roadmap. We saw over 50 new ideas submitted in 2021. 20 were shortlisted and 4 are now in production.
If you want to see how your input is shaping the future direction of Predatar you can take a sneak peek on the Ideas Portal. Why not share your ideas with us while you’re there?
Beta programme
We ran two community betas in 2021. These focussed on new cyber resilience features (more info below). By engaging with our user-base early, we were able to deliver functionality to meet the needs of real customers with real-world challenges from the very first release.
We want to say a huge thank you to everyone that took part and we encourage you all to join our beta programme in 2022.
Events, content and product updates
2021 was our busiest ever year at Predatar. We launched 22 new features across 11 releases, while also hosting a number of industry events. Here’s just a few of the highlights:
- Q1: We launched a raft of new cyber resilience features in the Orca 11.7 release. These features gave users the ability to quickly search for viruses across all their backups and plot these on a real-time infection map.
- Q2: User Experience is a key driver for Predatar, and Q2 saw the release of Grizzly Bear 12.0. This brought a new user interface (UI) codenamed Sherlock. Built using React, Openshift and Containers the Sherlock UI took the Predatar platform to the next level – bringing more insights, improved ease-of-use and greater support for mobile devices.
- Q3: Hot on the heels of the 12.0 release came Grizzly Bear 12.3 with unique behaviour-based automated testing, virus scanning and cyber orchestration. These features were all designed to help businesses recover fast from cyber-attacks. And the result? With Predatar, organisations can recover up to 85% faster versus using manual methods. See the Grizzly Bear release in action here.
- Q4: In October we ran the largest Storage Protect User conference of the year. We were joined by industry leaders from IBM and IBM’s Partner network to discuss the impact that ransomware is having on businesses and backup professionals. The stand-out session from the event was an interview with a victim of a real ransomware attack. You can watch it on replay here.
A big thank you
As we say goodbye to 2021 we want to put out a huge thank you to all of our users and partners that came together as a Predatar community. You’ve helped us to keep moving, improving and developing our platform to meet the demands of our growing user base.
Building a community is hard work. We appreciate all of you and the support you have given us. We wish you all a happy and restful holiday. Stay safe and we’ll see you all rested, recharged and ready to go in the new year!
