Building Cyber Resilience
Arvind Nithrakashyap ’97 MS has used the knowledge he gained during his MS program at UMass to establish and shape a globally trusted data security company.
“To be honest, when you start on this journey, you don't know what it's going to entail. It’s a rollercoaster. You go through each stage of growth, and each one poses new challenges."
– Arvind Nithrakashyap '97 MS
The Changing Landscape of Data Security
Fifteen or 20 years ago, when businesses considered the biggest risks to their data, they often cited human error, hardware failures, or natural disasters. Today, their top concern is cyberattacks, and many IT and security leaders say they aren’t confident they could maintain business operations while recovering from one.
That’s where Rubrik comes in. Co-founded by Manning College of Information and Computer Science (CICS) alum Arvind Nithrakashyap ’97 MS, the company’s Zero Trust Data Security platform integrates backup, ransomware recovery, and cloud-native security solutions to keep data protected, monitor risk, and enable rapid recovery in the event of a leak or attack. Rubrik went public in April 2024 and now holds a market capitalization of about $15 billion, serving more than 7,000 customers, including Allstate Insurance, Home Depot, Gannett Media, and PepsiCo.
“There’s a lot of fear around unknowingly leaking sensitive information or company secrets,” Nithrakashyap says. “At the end of the day, the data is your most critical asset, and if your data is compromised, your entire business is at risk.”
Rubrik’s development began in 2014, when Nithrakashyap and his co-founders started building their core platform. They knew it would be an iterative process, but they saw an opportunity and jumped on it.
“To be honest, when you start on this journey, you don't know what it's going to entail. It’s a rollercoaster,” he says. “You go through each stage of growth, and each one poses new challenges. Then suddenly you hit these plateaus and think, ‘How do we break through this and get to the next level?’”
Lessons from Graduate School at UMass
Nithrakashyap says that his graduate school experience at UMass helped him prepare for the challenges inherent in entrepreneurship.
“Graduate school is kind of like a first job because you're interacting with new colleagues. You're working in a collaborative environment. I think I learned a lot about how to collaborate with people and how to work with different stakeholders.”
He also praises the flexible nature of Manning CICS graduate programs, where he worked alongside Professors Emeriti Lori Clarke and Leon Osterweil—faculty he credits as key guides and mentors for Nithrakashyap.
“It really gave me the chance to explore. I got a little bit of exposure to all the artificial intelligence stuff that was happening, which, looking back, I think UMass was way ahead of its time in terms of that kind of stuff,” he says. “The way I looked at it was as exposure to the art of being a researcher.”
Now serving as Rubrik’s chief technology officer, Nithrakashyap manages more than 1,000 people. He’s proud of the teams he has helped build and the growth he has witnessed firsthand.
“When we went public on the New York Stock Exchange, we invited the first 100 employees to join us,” he says. “When we rang the bell, there were 35 people who came. These are people who have grown with the company and become leaders in their own right.”
Evolving with Customers and Technology
As Rubrik expands to 22 global offices, Nithrakashyap says he no longer does as much hands-on technical work. But he continues to collaborate closely with teams to ensure the company is innovating in step with customer needs.
“It's never a static journey,” he says. “As our customers evolve, we are evolving along with them. Four years ago, nobody could have predicted where we are now with AI. This poses a new set of challenges, and again, we are working with our customers to provide solutions for that as they move forward.”
Although he didn’t initially plan for an entrepreneurial path, Nithkashyap says the experience has been deeply meaningful.
“I don't think there's a magic formula for entrepreneurship,” he says. “It’s not easy, and there are tons of sacrifices you’ll have to make. But when you build something that truly gives value and you build a team that works well together, it's very satisfying.”
