Cloud Data Protection Fuels Explosive Growth for Acronis in Asia Pacific Region

Singapore - May 17, 2016 - Acronis, a global leader in hybrid cloud data protection, today reported strong momentum in its global cloud data protection business as it broadens its market reach and expands its partner ecosystem across the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. Following the launch of its new cloud architecture and data protection platform and the roll-out of its world-class partner program in 2015, Acronis achieved impressive 800 percent year-over-year growth globally in bookings for Acronis Backup Cloud, its leading backup solution for service providers and cloud resellers. This included 10x growth in managed Cloud storage and a more than 800% increase in the number of devices protected compared to the previous year. In APAC, Acronis Backup Cloud bookings grew by more than 200 percent year-over-year in 2015, and in the first quarter of 2016 the cloud business doubled comparing to the second half of 2015.

Acronis is poised to build on this strong momentum in the APAC region as it carries out aggressive efforts to sign-up new partners and continue the expansion of its product portfolio in the region.

Today's businesses in APAC face new challenges when it comes to data protection, including huge increases in data volume, man-made and natural disasters, and cyber-threats like ransomware. The market started to recognize the benefits of adopting cloud data proctection services, making data protection a modern day IT requirement that every business needs.

According to IDC, the global Data Protection & Disaster Recovery software market will grow to $8.1 billion by 2019, with the APAC market (excluding Japan) projected to grow to $1.2 billion during this time.* Cloud services present a new paradigm for the delivery of data protection to businesses to help meet this demand and open up this huge market opportunity for service providers and cloud resellers with easy to deploy, easy to sell solutions.

Data sovereignty regulations, roll-out of national broadband networks and commoditization of cloud services increase the use of cloud services and generate high demand for hybrid cloud data protection technology provided by Acronis. With many cloud storage partners across the region and the ability to run Acronis software-defined storage on local infrastructure, Acronis enables service providers to comply with data storage regulations and offer low-latency cloud connection to their customers.

Acronis has made aggressive investments in cloud data protection and focuses its research and development efforts on developing cloud services solutions for service providers. Acronis differs from other data protection vendors in that it delivers a complete cloud architecture and its solutions easily plug into existing service provider environments, while seamlessly supporting their management and business support systems - either in pure cloud or hybrid cloud environments. Acronis solutions also feature automation of services that significantly reduces the total cost of ownership for data protection, and a scale-out architecture that can support millions of end users.

"Acronis' goal is to become a global technology leader in hybrid cloud data protection can only be achieved through close relationships with our distributors, partners, and services providers. We will continue to strive to be market leader by going the extra miles to understand our customers needs and through strong channel model scale and accelerate our reach to provide the most comprehensive Cloud Data Management solution." - said Steve Goh, Vice President APAC & Emerging Markets at Acronis.

Acronis launched a new Global Partner Program in 2015, followed by an extension of the program designed especially for service providers and cloud reseller partners in the first quarter of 2016. The program provides leading data protection solutions, resources, programs and incentives to help Acronis partners profit from selling cloud data protection services, which include backup, disaster recovery and file sync and share. Since the launch of the new partner program, Acronis has added more than 300 new service provider partners with a goal to bring more than 2,000 on board in 2016 - this includes 200 new partners in 2016 in the APAC (excluding Japan).

To support this rapid growth, Acronis recently expanded its global distribution agreement with Ingram Micro into the APAC region, making Acronis backup and disaster recovery solutions available on the Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace in Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Singapore.

Australia's Rhipe recently kicked of a partnership to distribute Acronis data protection solutions to its channel of service providers in Australia and New Zealand, with plans to expand across the Asia Pacific Region.

"Data protection and data migration to the cloud are top-of-mind for our customers and partners across the Asia Pacific region," said Chris Sharp, Chief Strategy Officer at Rhipe. "We're excited about our new partnership with Acronis and pleased to be able to support our active and growing cloud channel with the leading Acronis cloud data protection solutions."

In Singapore, local service provider and web hosting company Vodien is using Acronis to back up its entire customer infrastructure, relying on Acronis to protect data for private companies, financial institutions, and various Singapore government organisations.

"We're seeing huge growth potential for data protection solutions in the Singapore market with Acronis Backup Cloud being our fastest growing solution over the past year," said Alvin Poh, Co-Founder and CEO at Vodien. "With Acronis we are able to provide our clients with a powerful, highly flexible backup solution from an industry leader that is easy to manage and easily plugs into our existing infrastructure."

Hong Kong's Accord Technologies, the only Microsoft SPLA Reseller in the Hong Kong region, recently added Acronis data protection solutions to its channel of service providers.

"Cloud Data protection is booming in the Hong Kong region, and we foresee to see a huge demand in the market," said Brendan Tan, Chief Executive Office at Accord Technologies. "We are very excited about the new partnership with Acronis and we are looking forward to growing our business together in with cloud services."

Thailand's The Value System (TVS, aka ECS) also recently started a partnership to distribute Acronis data protection solutions to its channel of service providers in Thailand, with plans to expand to Myanmar and Cambodia in the future.

"Cloud Data protection is still very new in the region, but we foresee more and more of our customers moving towards this new deployment model," said Manopat Narthasilp, Cloud Product Lead at TVS. "We are expanding our cloud product portfolio with the leading Acronis cloud data protection solutions, as well as rapidly growing team to meet this demand in the region."

Service providers and cloud resellers interested in becoming an Acronis partner can learn more here.

Acronis Backup Cloud equips service providers to quickly solve customer data protection problems with a proven, comprehensive local and cloud backup and recovery service. Acronis Backup Cloud is part of the complete set of Acronis data protection solutions, which includes backup, cloud storage, disaster recovery, and file sync and share.

Acronis Backup Cloud features an extremely easy-to-use and intuitive interface and management console, and creates the next generation user experience for Acronis Cloud solutions. Acronis Backup Cloud makes it easier than ever for service providers and SMBs to manage protected devices, no matter where they are located or where the business wants the backup stored - either locally, in the cloud or both.

Service providers and cloud resellers that are interested in learning how easy the Acronis Backup Cloud solution is can sign up for a free trial here.

"The Asia Pacific region represents one of the largest market growth opportunities for Acronis and its partners across the globe," said Serg Bell, co-founder and CEO of Acronis. "The market is ready for cloud data protection and together with our partners we are prepared to bring our solutions to every business and organization in the region."

* IDC, Worldwide Data Protection and Recovery Software Forecast, 2015-2019, Doc #258493, Sept 2015