HYCU R-Cloud Platform Overview

Why we renamed the platform 

In May 2024, we renamed HYCU® Protégé™ to HYCU® R-Cloud™. The rename mattered less than what it signaled. HYCU was no longer a backup product that runs on top of platforms. It was a platform that protects across them. 

That sounds like marketing, but the architectural difference is concrete. When we built HYCU Protégé, the orientation was "backup software with cloud capabilities." Customers deployed Protégé to protect specific environments: Nutanix first, then VMware, then GCP. By 2024, we covered enough workloads (100+) and enough environments (every major hyperscaler, Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Salesforce, Atlassian, GitHub, Okta, Dynamics, dozens of others) that the orientation had to change. R-Cloud is the platform. The individual workload integrations are how customers consume it. 

This piece walks through what is actually in R-Cloud, what it protects, and the three architectural decisions that make the platform different from the alternatives most evaluators are comparing it against. 

What HYCU R-Cloud actually is 

R-Cloud is a multi-cloud data protection platform delivered as a service. The operational model is straightforward. No backup appliances to deploy. No agents on protected workloads. No proprietary storage to provision upfront. No separate licensing for migration or disaster recovery. Customers subscribe. The service runs. 

The platform protects 100+ workloads across on-premises infrastructure, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and SaaS applications through one management plane. It is used by more than 4,600 customers across 78 countries, holds a Net Promoter Score of 91+ (technology industry average is around 32), and has been recognized as a Visionary by Gartner five years running. 

What is in the platform 

What R-Cloud protects 

100+ workloads across four broad categories. The breadth matters because most organizations live across all four. A backup platform that covers VMs but not SaaS, or AWS but not Azure, leaves gaps customers fill with additional tools and additional vendors. 

Public clouds. Native protection for AWS, Microsoft Azure including Azure Government Cloud, and Google Cloud. Each integrated through native APIs, native snapshots, native IAM, native storage tiers, and consumable through each cloud's marketplace. 

On-premises and private cloud. Nutanix AHV and ESXi-on-Nutanix, VMware, Dell PowerProtect Data Domain, NetApp ONTAP, and physical Windows and Linux servers. HYCU was the first enterprise-ready backup for Nutanix HCI in 2017 and remains the deepest Nutanix integration in the market. 

SaaS applications. Microsoft 365, Microsoft Entra ID, Google Workspace, Salesforce, Atlassian Cloud, GitHub, Okta Workforce Identity, Box, iManage Cloud, Dynamics 365, and dozens more. The marketplace approach lets HYCU and partners add SaaS coverage continuously. 

Applications and databases. Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle Database, SAP HANA on Google Cloud, and managed cloud databases (Cloud SQL, Azure SQL, RDS) with application-consistent backup and point-in-time recovery. 

Three things that actually differ in the architecture 

Coverage breadth is necessary but not sufficient. Three architectural decisions separate R-Cloud from products that look similar in a feature matrix. 

Ransomware readiness built into the platform 

Most backup products treat ransomware protection as a configuration option. R-Cloud treats it as architecture. Backups land directly on WORM storage. Air-gapped backup isolation through native storage segmentation. Abnormal change rate detection between backups, surfacing potential encryption in progress. Alerts on misconfigurations, specifically backup storage targets (NAS, S3, GCS, Azure Blob) with unintended public access. Backup validation runs continuously, with options from basic checks (VM power-on, shutdown) through advanced operations (network validation, disk validation, custom script execution). Webhook notifications surface ransomware events into Slack, Microsoft Teams, and ITSM platforms before the recovery scenario arrives. 

Deeper Nutanix integration than any other vendor 

HYCU has been first on Nutanix capabilities consistently since 2017. R-Cloud was the first solution to protect Nutanix Volume Groups, including independent groups not attached to VMs, which covers Nutanix Karbon containerized workloads and physical machines using iSCSI LUNs from Nutanix. R-Cloud integrates with Nutanix Era for database lifecycle management with intelligent disk inclusion. And it uses Nutanix Objects directly as a backup target with auto-discovery, not a generic S3-compatible interface. 

Cloud backup with zero footprint 

R-Cloud writes primary backups, secondary copies, and archives directly to cloud object storage. Not to an intermediate appliance that then writes to the cloud. The platform handles streaming backups of VMs with vDisks larger than 5TB directly to object storage (something most cloud-streamed approaches cannot do). Egress costs are managed automatically. Secondary copies of primary backups already in the cloud do not incur egress IOPs. Restore operations include a metered option to avoid retrieving unnecessary data. 

R-Score: a different kind of initiative 

R-Score sits outside the R-Cloud platform and is worth understanding separately. It is a free public service at getrscore.org that scores ransomware recovery readiness. The analogy I use is the FICO score: a standardized assessment with a methodology, applicable across organizations, producing a single number plus specific recommendations to improve. 

R-Score was built as a collaboration between HYCU, security industry partners, and academic and government institutions including Boston College's Cybersecurity and National Security Graduate Programs and the Center for Cybersecurity at MIT Sloan (CAMS). 

"Cybersecurity is not a tech issue. It's actually a business, enterprise risk management issue that needs to be run from the top down, not the bottom up." — Kevin Powers, JD, Founder and Director of Cybersecurity Graduate Programs at Boston College and Cybersecurity Research Affiliate at MIT Sloan CAMS 

The use case is most powerful at the board level. A director or senior executive can look at the score and decide whether the organization needs to invest more in ransomware readiness or whether current posture is acceptable. That clarity is often missing between CISOs, IT leadership, and business stakeholders. 

Why customers stay 

Five proof points worth weighing during evaluation. Scale and geographic reach: 4,600+ customers across 78 countries, every major industry vertical from healthcare and legal to federal government and financial services. Customer satisfaction: NPS of 91+ against a technology industry average closer to 32. Industry recognition: Gartner Visionary three years running, which reflects strong vision combined with focused execution. Compliance: FIPS 140-3 certified in 2025, and first data protection provider to publish a DISA STIG, which matters for federal customers, defense contractors, and commercial organizations using DISA STIGs as a security baseline. And customer-first philosophy: in Simon Taylor's framing, "Your data. Your cloud. Yours to control." Customers choose their clouds, SaaS applications, and infrastructure. R-Cloud protects what they chose without requiring HYCU's preferred architecture. 

Common questions about R-Cloud 

What is the difference between HYCU R-Cloud and HYCU Protégé? 

Same platform under different names. HYCU renamed Protégé to R-Cloud in May 2024 to reflect the platform's expanded scope across multi-cloud and SaaS. Existing Protégé customers received R-Cloud capability transparently with no migration required. References to Protégé in older documentation should be read as referring to R-Cloud. 

Does R-Cloud require deploying any infrastructure? 

Not for public cloud or SaaS. R-Cloud Hybrid Cloud Edition deploys a lightweight virtual appliance to the on-premises environment for Nutanix, VMware, and physical server protection, with no agents on protected workloads. Cloud and SaaS components are pure SaaS, consumed through cloud marketplaces (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) and billed through existing cloud relationships. 

How does R-Cloud compare to native cloud backup services? 

Native cloud backup services are useful primitives within their own cloud. They do not cover multi-cloud, on-premises, SaaS, or cross-cloud DR. R-Cloud layers on top of native services where appropriate (using native snapshots, for example) while adding cross-environment policy, recovery, and management that native services do not provide. 

Is R-Score actually free? 

Yes, with no catch in the traditional sense. The initiative was designed as a public service. HYCU sponsors the platform; Boston College and MIT Sloan contribute academic rigor. Anyone can take the assessment at getrscore.org without becoming a HYCU customer. 

How to evaluate this yourself 

The fastest way to understand R-Cloud is to run it. The trial works against actual customer infrastructure, not a sandboxed demo. The real product against real workloads. The trial is at hycu.com/trial. If you want to take R-Score first to see where ransomware readiness stands, that is at getrscore.org.