Acronis Delivers Broad Data Protection for Apps and Data in Microsoft Environments

Acronis®, a global leader in hybrid cloud data protection, today announced its new Acronis Backup Cloud Extension for Microsoft Azure and Azure Stack at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto. The new offerings enable Microsoft Cloud Services Providers (CSPs) to easily provision and manage a highly flexible range of backup services across physical and virtual environments, while supporting the broad range of devices in use by businesses today. By plugging Acronis Backup Cloud into Azure or Azure Stack environments, Microsoft CSPs have a new and simple option to add increased value to their offerings by selling more complete backup and data protection services to customers.

Today's small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) face new challenges when it comes to data protection, including massive increases in data volume, complex computing environments, more digital business processes and mobile workers, as well as man-made and natural disasters and cyber-threats. In addition, SMBs struggle to protect data in virtual, physical, and mobile IT environments, with 48 percent of SMBs running both virtual and physical systems, and almost 60 percent of SMBs using mobile devices for work-related activities.

With the new Acronis Backup Cloud Extension for Azure, Microsoft CSPs can sell a unique hybrid cloud backup service from Acronis that provides broad protection in Microsoft environments, including across cloud and on-premises datacenters, physical and virtual machines, and mobile devices, all while utilizing their investments in Azure. Acronis protects data across a wide section of the Microsoft ecosystem, including Microsoft Exchange, Office365, SQL Server, SharePoint, Active Directory, as well as workstations, servers, Hyper-V hosts, and mobile computing platforms.

Acronis also enables Microsoft CSPs to backup Azure virtual machines (Linux or Windows), and protect new Azure virtual machines, in addition to backing up physical or virtual machines on premises, and migrating to an Azure virtual machine.

Additional benefits of Acronis Backup Cloud Extension for Microsoft Azure include:

Manage backup and data protection for all Acronis Backup Cloud customers from a single management console

The Acronis Storage Gateway for Microsoft Azure enables backing up directly to Microsoft Azure storage containers, creating a true hybrid backup storage solution

Migrate on-premises servers running Windows or Linux to Azure

Migrate workloads from other public clouds, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), to Azure virtual machines

"Our partners and their customers demand aggressive RTOs and RPOs, and need a complete data protection solution, especially as we migrate more workloads to the cloud," said Craig Joseph, Chief Operating Officer, intY, a Microsoft Multi-Channel CSP. "Having an easy and complete hybrid data protection service that backs up data from any system and device, and recovers to any system and device, provides a unique and differentiated offering for our Microsoft Azure end users."

"Our customers value flexibility and control when it comes to using cloud services, especially for data protection," said Carolina Losada, CEO at at Licencias OnLine, a Microsoft CSP and an Acronis partner. "With the Acronis Backup Cloud Extension for Microsoft Azure, we can now offer our customers a wide range of options for backup, storage and recovery of servers running in Microsoft Azure environments."

Microsoft Azure is a growing collection of integrated cloud services, including analytics, computing, database, mobile, networking, storage, and web, for moving faster, achieving more, and saving money. Acronis provides complete hybrid cloud data protection solutions, including backup, cloud storage, disaster recovery, and file sync and share to small businesses and mid-sized companies, which are delivered by Service Providers and Cloud Resellers worldwide.

As a result of the integration, Acronis and Microsoft now offer CSPs fast, easy access to incremental revenues for backup and data protection with the speed and simplicity of Azure.

"Nobody is better positioned than Microsoft when it comes to helping companies modernize their business with cloud solutions," said John Zanni, CMO and SVP Channel and Cloud Strategy at Acronis. "Our new integrations with Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Azure Stack make it extremely fast - a matter of minutes - for Microsoft CSPs to sell and provision Acronis backup to Microsoft end users with more flexible storage options than any other vendor."

"With Microsoft Azure, we are working to bring customers the most agile cloud platform available," said Venkat Gattamneni, Director, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Corp. "We're excited about the capabilities that Acronis is bringing to Azure to offer additional options for data migration and protection for our mutual customers using the hybrid cloud."

Acronis Backup Cloud is an affordable, secure, and highly scalable hybrid cloud backup service that makes it easy for SMBs to manage device protection no matter where they are located or where the business wants the backup stored - either locally, in the cloud, or both. The latest version of Acronis Backup Cloud is based upon a pure cloud architecture and designed to fit any service provider technology environment and business model.

Acronis Backup Cloud is part of the company's complete set of hybrid cloud data protection solutions, which also include cloud storage, disaster recovery and file sync and share solutions. Powered by the Acronis AnyData Engine, a set of unique, reliable, and powerful data protection technologies that capture, store, recover, and manage data in physical, virtual, hybrid, and cloud environments, Acronis protects all customer data in all locations on all devices with the ability to recover anywhere.

For more information and to sign up for a 30-day free trial the new Acronis Backup Cloud Extension for Microsoft Azure, click here.

The Acronis Backup Cloud Extension for Azure is available now. The Acronis Backup Cloud Extension for Microsoft Azure Stack will be available when Microsoft Azure Stack is released by Microsoft.