02 September 2014
Press release

Acronis acquires BackupAgent, strengthening cloud backup offering for service providers

With the acquisition of BackupAgent, Acronis enables service providers to offer the most complete cloud backup solution to customers of any size

Reading, UK - September 2, 2014 - Acronis, the global leader in new generation data protection, announces the acquisition of BackupAgent, the pioneering company in cloud backup.

One of the elements of Acronis's cloud strategy is to enable managed service providers, hosting companies and telecom operators to deliver complete data protection services to their customers, storing data in providers' or customers' datacenters, or in a public cloud. BackupAgent, founded in 2005 and once named by Deloitte as one of the fastest growing technology companies, brings on board years of cloud backup expertise, an existing network of hundreds of active partners and over 50 thousand customers across the world.

Japanese cloud provider Tsukaeru.net, has been a BackupAgent partner since 2010 with thousands of users of cloud backup. CEO of Tsukaeru.net Jason Frisch comments: "I am happy to hear that BackupAgent and Acronis are joining forces. We're excited to see what happens next, with the additional support, resources and technologies that Acronis can provide".

Service providers will also benefit from the long-standing partnership between Acronis and Parallels, leveraging the full integration of BackupAgent solutions with Parallels Automation, empowering Parallels-enabled service providers to quickly deploy a cloud backup offering to their customers at a very low cost of entry.

"According to Parallels SMB Cloud Insights™ research, data backup and recovery is one of the top three most demanded services", said Birger Steen, CEO of Parallels, - "With this acquisition, service providers using Parallels Automation for cloud service delivery will now have the most complete and reliable backup solution to offer their customers."

Over time, BackupAgent's solution will be powered by Acronis AnyData Engine technology, allowing service providers to deliver new generation data protection technologies via a cloud backup solutions to their customers:

· File-level and full-system backup for desktops and servers, for Windows, Mac and Linux platforms;

· Backup of physical and virtual servers, supporting all popular hypervisors: Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware vSphere, Citrix XenServer, RHEV/KVM, Oracle VM;

· Context-aware backup for business applications: Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, Active Directory, SQL Server;

· Support of multiple-destination for data storage: on-premises, in service provider cloud, in Acronis Cloud, in public cloud, as well as any mix of those destinations based on customer preference and sensitivity of data;

· Wide variety of backup and storage policies for data to ensure the required level of protection and compliance with local government requirements;

· Ability to do disaster recovery in the cloud, avoiding any downtime;

Service providers are able to deploy the cloud backup solution to their datacenters, to customer datacenters, or use Acronis datacenters and start selling the service with zero initial cost. This enables any managed service provider, hosting company or telecom operator to become a cloud backup provider.

"With over 15 years of experience helping service provider businesses in SWsoft and Parallels, I clearly understand the customer need and the Service Provider revenue opportunity with a cloud data protection solution", - said Serg Bell, CEO and co-founder of Acronis. "Using Acronis technology, BackupAgent cloud expertise and existing channel, plus our deep technology and business ties with Parallels, we are able to deliver the most complete and the most service provider-friendly solution on the market".

With this acquisition, existing Acronis and BackupAgent partners will receive the most complete data protection solution to offer to their customers, and the existing 50 thousand customers of BackupAgent will enjoy the most complete, flexible and user-friendly cloud backup service.

Roland Sars and Robbert van Geldrop, Founders of BackupAgent comment: "We are excited to join forces with Acronis; this acquisition fits perfectly within our expansion plans. Becoming part of Acronis supports BackupAgent's vision to become the world's leading cloud backup player. This acquisition will bring only good to our service providers, as they become part of a worldwide ecosystem of thousands of channel partners. We are extremely proud of the complete BackupAgent team".

According to a recent IDC study, 65% of SMB companies backup their data to cloud, avoiding necessity to purchase expensive backup systems and store the data on-site. This need creates an opportunity for service providers to add additional revenue stream offering cloud backup service. Acronis powered Backup-as-a-Service enables service providers, hosting providers and telecoms to build cloud backup offering with negligible entry costs. With the acquisition of BackupAgent, Acronis enables service providers to offer the most complete cloud backup solution to customers of any size.

About Acronis

Acronis sets the standard for New Generation Data Protection through its backup, disaster recovery, and secure access solutions. Powered by the AnyData Engine and set apart by its image technology, Acronis delivers easy, complete and safe backups of all files, applications and OS across any environment-virtual, physical, cloud and mobile.

Founded in 2002, Acronis protects the data of over 5 million consumers and 300,000 businesses in over 130 countries. With its more than 100 patents, Acronis' products have been named best product of the year by Network Computing, TechTarget and IT Professional and cover a range of features, including migration, cloning and replication.

About BackupAgent

BackupAgent is one of the first global cloud backup vendors on the market. Founded in 2005 in Delft, the Netherlands, the company quickly became an internationally recognized brand. BackupAgent managed to onboard over 900 service providers, and protects petabytes of data for more than 50 thousand small and medium business customers across the world.

For additional information, please visit www.acronis.co.uk

Follow Acronis on Twitter: http://twitter.com/acronis.




About Acronis:

Acronis is a global cyber protection company that provides natively integrated cybersecurity, data protection, and endpoint management for managed service providers (MSPs), small and medium businesses (SMBs), and enterprise IT departments. Acronis solutions are highly efficient and designed to identify, prevent, detect, respond, remediate, and recover from modern cyberthreats with minimal downtime, ensuring data integrity and business continuity. Acronis offers the most comprehensive security solution on the market for MSPs with its unique ability to meet the needs of diverse and distributed IT environments.

A Swiss company founded in Singapore in 2003, Acronis has 15 offices worldwide and employees in 50+ countries. Acronis Cyber Protect is available in 26 languages in 150 countries and is used by over 20,000 service providers to protect over 750,000 businesses. Learn more at www.acronis.com.
Press contacts:
Katya Turtseva
VP of Communications