The i in Team: Acronis #TeamUp Program partners Inter Miami with MSP iPower Technologies, boosting provider’s brand recognition and protecting team’s edge
A healthy sports team requires more than just strong athletic talent and exceptional tactics; it takes an equally skilled partner working behind the scenes to keep the team safe and stable. Sports teams are just like any other business — requiring dedicated staff and a functioning and well-protected digital infrastructure. The Acronis #TeamUp Program enables the leading cyber protection company to partner with managed service providers (MSPs) and professional sports teams — securing the team’s backend while offering a far reach of exposure for all parties involved.
Representatives from Acronis spoke with Tery Howard, head of technologies at Inter Miami CF since 2019, and Alexis Farres, Director of IT who’s been with the team since 2021. Acronis also spoke with Brett Aks, chief revenue officer at MSP iPower Technologies. Aks has worked in the managed service industry for 24 years and at iPower for a year and a half. They discussed their experiences with the #TeamUp Program and shared testimonials about how Acronis has benefited their organizations.
Protecting the next generation of sports
Inter Miami CF, established in 2018, is a very dataheavy organization, as most sports teams are. This data includes player information, marketing engagement, revenue information, accounting, legal information, fan metrics and much more. Additionally, as a professional sports team, thousands of hours of video are recorded and stored on the team’s infrastructure. Sports are a lot different than they were 20 years ago, Howard explained, with the way teams interact with their fans and even players evolving significantly in the past few years — and it all requires a lot of data. With Acronis, the team can protect its edge and data with a centralized platform that keeps everything safe — from its desktops to mobile devices to servers, Farres said.
The team conducted its own research into what data protection solution to use and ultimately settled on Acronis after learning from iPower of its comprehensive product catalog, continuous innovations and single pane of glass interface. “It almost felt like we had another individual working for the team,” Farres said. The simple onboarding and remarkable customer service Acronis offers impressed the team as it integrated the solution into its system.
Inter Miami is host to over 74 servers, with 11 protected by Acronis on the cloud. Its users are mostly on-premises, but with many users scouting around the world and working remotely, having a solution and MSP that cater to remote devices was vital to the dynamic team. Inter Miami uses Acronis Cyber Cloud, taking advantage of its URL filtering, full cloud backups, replicating Microsoft 365 data, advanced email systems and desktop backups. “Given the increase in threats and accelerated growth in cyber intelligence, we trust that Acronis is ahead of the curve,” Howard said.
With the #TeamUp Program, Inter Miami can take advantage of iPower’s offerings and services, which have been “critical” to the team’s performance and operations, according to Farres. The MSP assists the team with configuring and utilizing Acronis to its fullest extent, giving the team peace of mind that their data and IT infrastructure are well protected. Inter Miami has a “zero-tolerance” policy for data loss, and as a smaller company, having no downtime is critical to its operation, due to its lack of resources. Because of this, having cloud and on-premises backups is crucial to its functionality, as well as day-to-day system monitoring. “It’s critical that Acronis supplies us with resources and confidence,” Farres said. Currently, the team has an on-premises backup server, with all its critical servers backed up on Acronis’ cloud platform.
iPower chose Acronis, Aks explained, because of its reputation for continuously pushing for innovation and its exceptional customer support. Acronis’ dedication to pushing out updated modules and products was a huge draw for the MSP, Aks said. The MSP began its partnership with Acronis almost a decade ago, with its partnership with Inter Miami going back four years. Aks praised Acronis’ ability to help the service provider scale, with Acronis helping with training, onboarding, webinars and more to help the company’s growth. “Education is the first step towards growth, and [Acronis is] a big part of that.” With the Acronis partnership, Aks said, iPower was able to solidify an already growing relationship the MSP had with Inter Miami.
The #TeamUp Program supplies iPower with several opportunities, including an exclusive suite to view games — a perk Aks praised for its high engagement with clients, and how it allows the MSP to extend exceptional hospitality to its guests and strengthen connections. One of the greatest attributes of the partnership, Aks said, is the increased visibility. When potential clients see iPower’s name on the field, they know the MSP has the ability to manage an extensive, large infrastructure. Aks observed that while other vendors might offer their own programs, iPower has never encountered a program of the same caliber as the #TeamUp Program, or offering as many growth opportunities as Acronis does. “People want to be connected with Inter Miami, and people want to be connected to Acronis when we bring it to the table.” Aks concluded the conversation by explaining how Acronis is the MSP’s “bread and butter,” with the private cloud giving its prospects and customers comfort and peace of mind while allowing seamless migration to various cloud providers.