Shiva Pillay

Two weeks in. Time to mark my own World Cup homework. When the World Cup kicked off, I made a few calls. Some are ageing nicely. One I got wrong. One I missed completely. And one I'm switching outright.... Australia. Through, out of a group with the USA, Türkiye and Paraguay, just as I'd hoped. Egypt next, in Dallas. I said Round of 16 and a scare for someone elite. Still live. Not exactly how I imagined it but will take it. Morocco. I said 2022 was no fluke. They've just knocked the Netherlands out on penalties. Let that one marinate. Norway and Portugal. Sleeper picks, both still swinging. Haaland's Norway meet Côte d'Ivoire; Portugal face Croatia. The dark horses are running. Then Brazil. I called defensive headaches. They've conceded once and sent Japan home. Might owe Ancelotti an apology. But "won't make the final" still stands. Not folding. Of course we can't go on without mentioning the US. Bold start and very solid clearing of the group stage, home town heroes, rising to the occasion so expect them to be in contention during this next phase. France. The one I left off the sheet, and shouldn't have. Top of everyone's rankings, perfect in the group, +8. Mbappé's got unfinished business. Sweden tonight. If the bracket holds, we get a France v Argentina final. Football rarely scripts it this neatly. Maybe this time. Argentina. I doubted the repeat. No one's done it since '62, and I wasn't sure a 39-year-old could drag a side through. Messi's answered: all-time World Cup top scorer now, on the board in seven straight. So I'm backing them and stand corrected. They're the smallest, most technical side left, in a tournament full of bruisers. But I'm not betting against Messi twice. Speaking of records that hold up: Veeam Software named a Leader again in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Backup & Data Protection Platforms. A decade at the top. Seven straight highest in Ability to Execute. Some streaks aren't luck. Different pitch, same rule: nobody coasts on last year. Who's still alive in your picks? And tell me I'm wrong about that final. The knockouts are where folklore gets written. Kick-off's soon. Tea's on. #WorldCup #Football #Veeam

The World Cup is back, and the world is bracing for the drama, the glory, the heartbreak, the moments that never leave you. Need proof of how mad this tournament gets? Ask Pickles. In 1966, a collie sniffed out the stolen Jules Rimet Trophy after Scotland Yard couldn't. A dog cracked the case. Overnight legend. That's the World Cup completely mad, completely brilliant, where heroes turn up from anywhere. I grew up chasing a ball. Bleary-eyed from late-night broadcasts watching with my dad and my brother on SBS back in Australia. I wanted to be Jay-Jay Okocha. Mustapha Hadji. The underdogs who made the world look twice. Roger Milla dancing for Cameroon at 38. Tim Cahill's thunderbolts for the Socceroos. This tournament is a stage for dreamers and for anyone daring enough to believe. The world cup is now on home turf, and for once, football at a civilised hour. No 3am alarms. No test-of-character time zones. Just prime-time football, and I plan to soak up every minute. So who are you backing? The usual suspects, Argentina or Brazil? Here's a take worth a fight: no one has defended the title since Brazil in '62, Messi turns 39 mid-tournament, and even the ESPN desk isn't picking Argentina to repeat. Brazil carry defensive headaches, Ancelotti or not. Call it now "Brazil won't make the final" and you'll probably be right. You'll also have every Brazilian you know coming for you. My sleeper picks. Portugal... João Neves and Vitinha running the midfield, Bruno Fernandes on fire. Morocco 2022 was no fluke, and they're built to top a group that includes Brazil. Norway...Haaland and Ødegaard finally let loose at a major. I'm in for all of it. And Australia. I'll be loyal and honest. Group D with the USA, Türkiye and Paraguay. Long odds. But the 48-team format is made for the Socceroos, and third place might just be enough. So I'll call it: Australia into the Round of 16 and they'll frighten someone elite on the way out. That's what we do. Your turn. Who's your pick and who makes the world stop and watch, the way Okocha and Milla once did? Drop your wildcards and your upsets below. And if you’re joining one of Veeam Software watch parties throughout the month of June or one of our exec hospitality events across 10 FIFA World Cup matches for our customers and partners, hit me up! Nothing beats sharing the biggest moments in football with our Veeam community Kick-off's here. Let's hear it. #WorldCup #Football #Soccer #Veeam

What a week in New York. Met Andre Agassi at the CXO Exchange and spent most of it pretending to play it cool. Didn't pull it off. But one thing he said stuck, that the hardest part of his comeback wasn't the tennis. It was admitting he needed one. The market is having that exact moment with AI. Everyone is building. Compute, models, orchestration, applications, every layer of the stack moving faster than the last. But between the models and the data, nobody built the trust layer. Until now..... This week we launched the Veeam DataAI™ Command Platform, the industry's first unified platform for Data and AI Trust. The agentic era has rewritten the rules: 82 AI agents for every human, 97% with excessive privileges. The new failure mode isn't a breach, it's a wrong decision at machine speed. The control point is the data itself. So we built one platform, built as one, not stitched together, that understands, enforces, and recovers with surgical precision. Alongside it: Veeam Intelligent ResOps — the industry's first context-driven recovery for the platform, starting with Microsoft 365. Restores only what was impacted. Veeam Data Platform v13.1 (exclusive preview) — 70+ new capabilities, including post-quantum cryptography and the DataAI Resilience Module. The Data and AI Trust Maturity Model — built from 300+ CIO and CISO conversations. 80% say they can scale AI safely. One in three can prove it. The overflowing rooms were a great signal. The real test is what we do next, turning conversations into customer outcomes solving the most complex challenges we have faced in our time. Thank you to every Veeam'er, partner, and customer who made this week what it was. #VeeamON #DataAITrust

Note to self #1: the camera really does add ten pounds. Note to self #2: stop eating on the road. Jokes aside, real privilege to share the WSJ Future of Everything stage with Raakhee Mirchandani this week, in a room full of CEOs, founders, policymakers and operators trying to figure out what comes next. Two questions kept surfacing. How do enterprises actually adopt AI without losing control of their data? And who's accountable when an agent gets it wrong? The dinner the night before mattered. Smaller room, senior leaders, a candid exchange that builds trust before the show. While AI was the focus, humanity was the connection that made the evening. By the time Raakhee and I sat down the next day, the conversation was already running. One line stuck with the room. AI will eat anything, including the old, redundant, trivial data sitting at the back of the corporate fridge. Food poisoning for the enterprise. Judging by the camera, perhaps I've been doing the same on the road. Veeam was the presenting sponsor. Proud of that. Prouder of the fact that we had something real to say on trust, governance and the data layer underneath all of this together with Securiti AI. Join us next week for VeeamON NYC is Tuesday May 12 first of three London and Sydney to come. https://lnkd.in/g7DWWex The Wall Street Journal Veeam Software Matt Kalmenson Simon Le Comte 📷 Nikki Ritcher

Grew up with a ball at my feet and with FIFA International Soccer on MS-DOS, back when Alexi Lalas and the '94 US squad were the face of the sport for a generation of kids who'd never seen a World Cup on home soil. So sitting down with a World Cup legend to talk football, resilience, and what it takes to show up for the biggest moments. Same qualities define great teams on the pitch and in business. Thanks Alexi a proper pleasure.

Two Disciplines. One Course. Yesterday, Rory McIlroy made history at Augusta. Back-to-back Masters champion. And if you watched it, you already know, he didn't win on the range. He won at Amen Corner, where the course gets brutal, the pressure compounds, and champions separate from contenders. Scottie Scheffler is one of the best in the world. Rory still out-executed him when it mattered most. That's not just a golf story. That's a blueprint. The Green Jacket demands two disciplines, not one. Distance off the tee gets you in position. But the short game wins the hole. Augusta doesn't reward specialists. It exposes them. You need power and precision, working together, or the course beats you. The same is true for how organisations manage their data. The drive: Data Resilience Backup, recovery, continuity. The ability to absorb a ransomware hit, a targeted attack, an outage, and keep moving. For years, this was the whole game. Organisations invested heavily here, and it mattered. But the fairway has changed. Attackers now target backup infrastructure first. A great drive doesn't count if the course is already working against you. The short game: Data Security Knowing what data you have. Where it lives. Who can touch it. How sensitive it is. This is precision work, classification, access governance, sensitivity controls. Too often it sits in a different org, a different budget, a different conversation. Resilience for the CIO. Security for the CISO. But today's threats don't respect org charts. Amen Corner: Where both disciplines are tested at once That's the moment regulators call. Attackers strike. Your AI systems start reasoning over enterprise data at scale. The questions come fast and they don't wait. The only organizations that answer them confidently are the ones that connected these disciplines before they needed to. Recovery informed by data sensitivity. Classification feeding resilience telemetry. AI governance built at the intersection not bolted on after. Champions aren't built for calm conditions. They're built for the moments when everything is on the line and both disciplines have to perform. Rory showed us that yesterday. The organisations building unified data strategies are showing us the same thing every day. What did you see in that final round that stuck with you? And where does your organisation stand, one discipline, or both? #veeam #convergence #securitiai #masters

San Francisco's fog has a name. Meet Karl. He rolls in fast, makes his presence known, and just as quickly, he vanishes. I've been coming to RSAC for over 20 years. Karl is always there. So is the energy 40,000 security professionals, big ideas, and an industry that never stands still. It's one of the few events where I genuinely look forward to reconnecting with old friends as much as I do the conversations on the floor. But this year, something stood out: the industry is at an inflection point. AI and security are everywhere, but volume isn't insight, and broad strokes don't protect anyone. What resonated most, with customers and peers alike, was specificity and I mean that precisely. Not specificity as a buzzword, but as a discipline: knowing your data, understanding its relationship with governance, identities, and systems, and having the precision to undo, correct, and recover so your services stay running and your customers stay served. That's what resilience actually looks like in practice. Four days. 3,000+ conversations. One clear signal: contextual awareness of your data environment is the real differentiator and Veeam is built for exactly that, especially with our new AI and security capabilities. That's the edge. That's the commitment we bring. Here are three takeaways from conversations this week: The silos between security and data must be broken. Real business agility depends on it. Availability is a critical part of resilience. In today's world, keeping services running through adversity is mission critical. Software-defined flexibility is cutting through hardware and supply chain noise, giving organisations the agility they need. When the fog lifts, it's the prepared and focused who define what's next. Ready to see how we cut through the noise at RSAC? Check out my quick recap video — I'd love to hear your key takeaways from this year. RSA Veeam Software Securiti AI https://lnkd.in/e2XAhera

Trust is the ultimate currency. As organisations accelerate their journey into the world of AI, one truth is becoming clear: the real winners in this new era will be those who turn data and AI from a risk into a strategic advantage. At Veeam, we’re not just talking about this shift, we’re making it a reality. I recently joined Dr. Tony Phoang as a guest on The Artificial Intelligence Podcast to share why "data confidence at machine speed" is no longer optional. It is the new expectation for the modern enterprise. https://lnkd.in/eVgbKq29 We at Veeam are also thrilled to unveil Agent Commander, the industry’s first unified solution built to: Detect AI risk in real-time. Protect AI systems across every environment. Surgically Undo AI mistakes before they ever impact the business. Agent Commander isn't a tool, it’s a transformation. We are converging data protection, AI governance, and security into one unified experience, allowing our customers to command their data, command their AI, and command their future. https://lnkd.in/e2XAhera To our customers and partners: This is the moment to lead. Let’s move fast, stay secure, and unlock the full potential of AI safely and responsibly. Heading to RSAC in San Francisco? We want to hear from you. Let’s have a conversation about what’s possible when you command your data with confidence. The future belongs to those who take control. #Veeam #DataTrust #AIGovernance #RSAC2026 #AgentCommander #CyberResilience

The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina are a powerful reminder of what happens when relentless preparation meets a passion to win. I recently had the privilege of co-hosting a webinar with Olympic Gold Medalist and NHL legend Henrik Lundqvist. Beyond his four Olympic shutouts, "King Henrik" is a masterclass in discipline and resilience. My biggest takeaways for the business world: * Long-term goals require daily pursuit. * Resilience isn't just bouncing back; it's staying ready. * The "ice" changes, but your preparation is your anchor. At Veeam, we apply this same Olympic mindset to data resilience. Whether it’s the Veeam Data Platform or our AI innovations, we’re built to help organizations prepare, adapt, and win. Missed the session? Catch the full replay here: https://lnkd.in/eGEUVJrW What’s your "Gold Medal" moment in business or sports that keeps you pushing boundaries?