Acronis attains APS 2 Certification

Acronis® and Parallels have announced that Acronis has released a certified APS 2 package for its Backup as a Service ‘pay-per-use’ offering and technology.
With the addition of Acronis’ Backup as a Service to the APS ecosystem, hundreds of the world’s leading service providers can utilise the new generation data protection, powered by the Acronis AnyData Engine. It can now be offered to over 3.1 million Parallels Automation customers to completely and quickly provide a backup and recovery service of their infrastructure in case of a disaster. This first step in providing data management services opens the Parallels channel to what IHS estimates to be a $174.2 billion market for infrastructure and services related to the cloud.

Acronis Backup as a Service, powered by the Acronis AnyData Engine, is a white-labeled, turnkey offering for value added resellers, hosting companies and service providers. With the offering, they can back up their customers’ files or entire system images from virtual or physical environments and recover to any hardware or virtual machine, ensuring a safer, complete and quick recovery.

Acronis Backup as a Service also directly enables service providers to add new revenue streams and customer retention. With zero entry costs, and pay-per-use scalability, service providers who have deployed the Parallels Automation platform can leverage their existing customers and assets to grow recurring revenues, increase customer stickiness and ensure large profits.

"Acronis is known for its advanced technology and deep knowledge of Data Protection," said Birger Steen, CEO at Parallels. “We are thrilled they worked so closely with us to incorporate the advanced capabilities of APS 2 in their solution. This gives service providers worldwide access to enterprise-grade cloud backup for customers of all sizes.”

“I am very excited to be back leading Acronis, which also helps me drive profitability for the Parallels channel,” said Serguei Beloussov, Acronis CEO. “Acronis Backup as a Service is the first in a series of offerings that will enable service providers supporting APS 2 to easily tap into the cloud infrastructure and service related market that according to IHS was approximately $145 billion in 2013. I’m looking forward to our continued partnership with Parallels and making it easy for companies to ensure the safety of their data.”

APS is the industry’s most popular free and open standard for cloud services. It continues to expand with over 10 times growth in end-users of APS certified service in 2013 alone. APS creates a simple and fast way for cloud service providers to offer new services. ISVs “package” their applications, such as Acronis Backup as a Service, and services according to the standard’s specifications that cover selling, provisioning, management, and integration of cloud-based services and applications. Cloud service providers can then quickly deploy applications that are APS-packaged and easily integrate them “off-the-shelf” into their offers.