Hosted Backup-as-a-Service Offering by Acronis

Acronis International GmbH announced the availability of its Hosted Backup as a Service offering.

After beta testing and reviews, the offering is available in the U.S. for VARs, service providers and telcos to expand their data protection offerings, localize an automated backup service, grow recurring revenue, and kill churn.

“We like the Acronis BaaS service product because it’s gives us a great product for our customers and provides us an affordable entry into this market,” said Greg Blakely, director of business development, MIDCON Data Services, LLC “We are really looking forward to it because it will provide our customers the BC they are looking for in case they ever face any type of outage or other major disaster.“

Hosted BaaS enables VARs, service providers and telcos to add revenue streams with zero entry cost. Powered by the AnyData Engine, it provides protection by backing up at both the image- and file-level for Windows, Linux, and VMs to the cloud. The offering operates on a pay-per-use model, can be white labeled, and is managed from a central, web-enabled control panel.

“Acronis is known for its advanced technology and deep knowledge of Data Protection,” said John Zanni, CMO, Parallels, Inc. “They’ve recently incorporated the advanced capabilities of APS 2 in their solution, presenting Backup as a Service as an easy and complete way for customers of all sizes to backup to the cloud.“

“With Acronis Hosted Backup as a Service, we’re chopping down the business risks and traditional limitations of cloud backup by delivering a turnkey SaaS business model powered by Acronis’ mature and proven backup and recovery technology,” said Rene Oldenbeuving, GM, cloud business, Acronis. “Our usage-based service eliminates upfront investments, so costs only increase when revenue increases, giving service providers a competitive solution that puts them on equal footing with the biggest cloud businesses. Add in our proven image technology and you have one of the only combined file-based recovery and bare-metal recovery offerings in a single cloud solution.“

In July, it will incorporate a hybrid backup as a service model. In this scenario, VARs, service providers, telcos and large enterprises can manage storage themselves and/or provide localized storage to their customers. End-users will also be dually protected in all version by having the opportunity to backup locally.

Soon after that, the company plans to include on-premise BaaS, an offering directed toward telcos and large service providers, so customers can backup to their cloud.

Beta Testing
During beta testing, the product received an overall rating of 8.0 out of 10 with partners highlighting the offering’s ease of use, user interface and business model.

Beta Testing Comments:

“Great product. This is going to save my clients ass if they burn down and that’s why we’re excited to move to it. This thing will be awesome.“

“It’s really easy to use and to configure the service, even people with no technical knowledge know to use the service.“

“Acronis Hosted Backup as a Service gives us the most comprehensive solution to backup customers’ data from any environment with the right mix of features and easy of use.“

“The stability of the current feature set is quite impressive.“

“This is nothing short of amazing.“

Additional features include:

• Re-brandable, localized cloud service hosted by Acronis from tier-3 and tier-4 data centers in Europe and the U.S.;

• Support for Windows, Linux, workstations, physical and virtual servers, VMware, Hyper-V and other hypervisors and applications;

• Usage and billing reporting integratable into billing systems;

• 24/7 dedicated technical support;

• Service provider training, marketing and go-to-market support;

• Service provider license agreement requires no minimum revenue commitments or minimum term.