At SHIFT 2025, Commvault announced Data Rooms, a new offering that provides customers with the ability to safely tap the rich intelligence of backup data without sacrificing data security. We wanted to share more about it with the Community, including the demo that was shared at SHIFT in New York.
AI innovation depends on data – but not just any data. It depends on trusted, governed, and accessible data. Yet for most enterprises, the data that could fuel AI lives deep within backups, scattered across environments, and wrapped in compliance constraints. That’s where Commvault’s Data Rooms offering comes in.
Key Takeaways:
- Commvault’s Data Rooms offering transforms backup data into trusted, AI-ready assets while helping maintain governance and compliance.
- The offering bridges data protection and AI activation without creating new security risks or requiring another platform.
- It integrates with existing AI ecosystems like Microsoft Azure and Snowflake using open standards such as Apache Parquet and Iceberg.
- Built-in governance helps enable secure data curation, classification, and sharing within a zero-trust architecture.
- By activating historical data, organizations can help accelerate AI innovation, analytics, and compliance workflows safely.
Watch the Data Rooms demo
Accelerating AI, Safely
Unlike other approaches that bring AI models into backup environments, expanding the attack surface and compliance exposure, Commvault does the opposite. We bring governed, policy-controlled data to the AI ecosystems customers already use, preserving their freedom of choice and avoiding vendor lock-in.
The Data Rooms offering is not another AI platform. It’s the bridge between data protection and data activation, designed to make your existing AI investments work faster and safer. It does this by creating governed, policy-controlled “rooms” inside Commvault Cloud – spaces where data can be classified, curated, and shared securely with AI and analytics tools without leaving the protection boundary.
Listening to Customers: No More Platform Proliferation
We heard customers loud and clear: You don’t need another AI platform. You need a secure, simple way to use the data you already protect – across the AI tools and ecosystems you’ve already chosen.
That’s why Commvault built Data Rooms to integrate with partners like Microsoft Azure and Snowflake using open-standard formats such as Apache Parquet and Iceberg. This helps you keep your data portable, policy-compliant, and ready for activation – wherever your AI strategy takes you.
Turning Data Protection into Data Activation
With Data Rooms, authorized users can discover, classify, and prepare data directly from backup repositories – across on-premises and cloud environments. Built-in governance helps maintain control, allowing only approved datasets to be shared, with automated classification, sensitivity tagging, redaction, and audit trails applied every step of the way.
Data Rooms acts as a governed, policy-controlled workspace inside Commvault Cloud – where data can be securely curated and made available to AI or analytics tools without leaving the protection boundary. This governed design provides a secure bridge between backup data and activation workflows, helping organizations unlock their information for innovation while maintaining full compliance and control.
Data Rooms can help you:
- Accelerate insights: Quickly find and export historical data in AI-friendly formats to train models or power analytics.
- Simplify operations: Eliminate brittle ETL pipelines with automated data discovery and curation.
- Maintain compliance: Keep governance intact with policy-based controls and traceability from backup to activation.
Trust as the Foundation for Responsible AI
In the rush to adopt AI, trust often becomes collateral damage. According to a recent study, roughly three-quarters of surveyed IT leaders said that using AI could make their organizations more vulnerable to cyberattacks. That’s why Commvault built Data Rooms within Commvault Cloud’s zero-trust architecture, complete with encryption, RBAC, and audit-ready compliance.
By combining data protection, governance, and activation in one platform, Commvault enables enterprises to accelerate AI innovation without compromising security, compliance, or control.
Accelerate Innovation Without Adding Risk
Commvault’s Data Rooms offering helps organizations move faster by making data safely accessible to the tools that drive their business forward – from AI model training to analytics, eDiscovery, and compliance automation. Because when backup data becomes usable data, enterprises unlock years of historical intelligence and context that most AI models simply don’t have.
As Pranay Ahlawat, Commvault’s Chief Technology and AI Officer, said: “Organizations are beginning to realize that their historical data is more than just insurance – it’s a powerful, untapped strategic asset. With Commvault Data Rooms, enterprises can confidently export their secondary data and harness it with the AI platform of their choice to unlock new opportunities for intelligence, innovation, and business growth.”
Read more in my full blog on Commvault.com, including FAQs.
