Object First posts 118% bookings growth on backup demand

Object First reported 118% year-on-year bookings growth in the first quarter of 2026, driven by demand for immutable backup storage.

The on-premises backup storage supplier recorded its strongest growth in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where bookings rose 275% from a year earlier. In the Americas, bookings increased 45%. Six-figure deals doubled, and global customer numbers rose 115%.

The figures reflect rising spending by organisations looking to strengthen recovery systems against ransomware. Buyers are also paying closer attention to compliance and data sovereignty rules, particularly in Europe, where some want to keep backup data on premises and under direct control.

The company sells storage for customers using Veeam software and has tied part of its sales strategy to that installed base. Momentum from that relationship helped drive broader adoption among larger customers, with higher-value transactions increasing during the quarter.

Regional demand

In EMEA, growth was linked to regulatory requirements and the need for local data control. The company cited demand from healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, hospitality, gaming, mining and the public sector.

Examples included a national public health system and a hospital group in Benelux that selected a backup system built for Veeam environments. A German manufacturer also chose on-premises immutable backup storage to maintain full control of its data.

Object First expanded its partner network during the quarter, with transacting partners up 81% from a year earlier. It also signed a distribution agreement with TD SYNNEX Germany and elevated SVA System Vertrieb Alexander GmbH to Platinum Partner status.

Channel relationships remain central to the company's route to market. The increase in partner activity suggests resellers and distributors are seeing stronger customer interest in backup products designed to prevent stored data from being altered or deleted.

Customer wins

The company highlighted customer and partner comments indicating operational concerns and security risks. Those comments focused on backup recovery times, administrative workload and deployments across multiple sites.

"Object First is optimal for organisations with constrained IT teams and high requirements for data security, ransomware protection, and easy scalability," said Dawid Macierzynski, Deputy IT Manager and Administrator, Schomburg.

"Our backup and restore processes have become significantly faster, especially when dealing with large volumes of data. Administrative overhead has noticeably decreased since there is no longer an additional server layer or complex storage management required. Maintenance effort is minimal and maintenance intervals are very short," Macierzynski said.

A partner involved in customer deployments described demand from businesses with more complex estates.

"Our recent multi-site deployment with Object First and Veeam for a large regional engineering firm in the Mid-Atlantic is a strong example of what the combined solutions can deliver," said Pete Mastrogiacomo, Market Development Executive, Insight.

"For customers with complex, multi-location environments, having two best-in-class solutions working together makes all the difference," Mastrogiacomo said.

Security backdrop

The market for backup and recovery tools has drawn greater attention as ransomware attacks have become more disruptive and costly. For many companies, backup storage has shifted from a routine IT purchase to a core part of cyber recovery planning, especially where production systems could be encrypted, corrupted or taken offline.

Object First framed its latest quarter against that backdrop, arguing that immutable storage is becoming a basic requirement rather than an optional safeguard. Pressure around data sovereignty is also adding to demand in Europe.

"Ransomware isn't slowing down, and organisations are responding by making immutable backup storage a non-negotiable part of their security strategy," said David Bennett, Chief Executive Officer, Object First.

"In Europe, data sovereignty pressures are adding more urgency as organisations want their data on-premises and fully under their control. The momentum we are seeing from our joint go-to-market with Veeam shows the value we offer customers together," Bennett said.

The company also pointed to industry recognition during the year, including a Global InfoSec Award from Cyber Defence Magazine and three CRN honours covering its partner programme, cloud ranking and channel leadership.