Customer story
A global data protection vendor builds its Linux backup future on RLC Pro
A global data backup, disaster recovery, and cyber resilience vendor, long the standard for backing up Windows environments, expanded into Linux by building a security-focused backup infrastructure on RLC Pro, with a FIPS 140-3 certified foundation purpose-built for its backup and replication products.
FIPS 140-3
Certified cryptographic modules
Built into each major RLC Pro release
2
Product lines on this foundation
The backup repository ISO and the broader infrastructure appliance
Direct
Repository mirroring
Updates reach customers through the vendor’s own channel
The vendor, the appliance, and why RLC Pro
How a Windows-first backup vendor moved its core backup infrastructure onto a certified, limited-footprint Linux foundation it didn’t have to build itself.
- Who
- A global data backup, disaster recovery, and cyber resilience vendor
- What they needed
- A limited-footprint, certified Linux foundation for a backup and replication appliance, without turning their own team into Linux and OS security specialists
- What’s on it
- RLC Pro with Long Term Support, FIPS 140-3 certification, CIQ-maintained .NET runtime backports, and third-party open source package management
- What it powers
- A security-focused backup repository ISO and a broader infrastructure appliance, both built on a minimized footprint
- Why RLC Pro
- Certified cryptography, broad filesystem and cloud platform coverage, and a distribution channel that stays in the vendor’s own hands
The story in brief
This customer has long been the standard for backing up Windows virtual machines, with the large majority of its installed base running Windows. As demand grew for backup solutions that work as well on Linux as on Windows, the company saw an opportunity to expand its reach without disrupting the Windows-based service its existing customers depend on.
Building a Linux-based backup appliance meant more than running existing software on Linux. The company needed an operating system limited to exactly what a backup and replication appliance requires, so there was less surface area to expose to the ransomware and tampering threats its backup repository product exists to defend against. It also had to be certified to meet the cryptography standards regulated and government customers require, all without asking its own team to become Linux and OS security specialists.
CIQ built the company a custom, streamlined distribution on RLC Pro, delivered as a pre-configured bootable ISO and virtual appliance carrying only what a backup and replication role needs. The company rebrands and ships this build as the foundation of both its backup repository ISO and, in later releases, its broader infrastructure appliance. CIQ holds the certification and maintains the platform, so the company’s team stays focused on backup and recovery instead of kernel maintenance and NIST certification work.
“We rely on CIQ more every year, and on the technical side, we trust them completely.”
Three problems a self-built OS would have left unsolved
Certified cryptography, kept current.
FIPS 140-3 certified cryptographic modules are built into each major RLC Pro release, targeted at every long-term support milestone rather than certified once and left to age. Regulated and government customers get certified cryptography as part of the platform, not as a separate security engineering project the company would otherwise have to run itself.
Recovery that works no matter what the data sits on.
The kernel work extends into the company’s bare-metal recovery tooling, with support spanning a wide range of filesystems, including BTRFS, the ext family, XFS, and NTFS. A recovery appliance that only handled one filesystem well would leave gaps exactly when a customer can least afford one.
One appliance, every major cloud and hypervisor.
CIQ builds the platform-specific packages the company needs to run its appliance across AWS, Azure, GCP, and KVM, plus UEFI Secure Boot signing for the kernel modules the appliance depends on.
The result
The company moved its core backup infrastructure onto RLC Pro, eliminating the Windows dependency that had limited its reach and opening the door to Linux-based enterprises a Windows-only product couldn’t serve. The backup repository ISO built on this foundation has seen strong adoption, and the company’s own product documentation now describes the RLC Pro foundation as a standard part of how its infrastructure appliance is built.
Why this matters beyond one vendor
A limited-footprint OS you don’t have to build yourself.
An OS trimmed to exactly what your product needs reduces the attack surface and the maintenance burden of running a general-purpose Linux distribution.
Compliance built into the platform.
FIPS 140-3 certified cryptography, targeted at every long-term support milestone, means your product’s security promises don’t depend on a separate, self-run security engineering project.
Your own distribution channel, your own pace.
Repository mirroring rights mean updates reach your customers through your own channel, on your own release cadence, not a third party’s.
Evaluate RLC Pro for your product
RLC Pro overview and FIPS 140-3 options
Explore RLC Pro, its Long Term Support and FIPS 140-3 options, and how to build a certified Linux foundation into your own product.
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See how a global data backup vendor built its Linux-based backup infrastructure on RLC Pro, and what a purpose-built, certified foundation looks like from OS to appliance.