Rhipe adds cloud backup from Acronis

Rhipe will distribute Acronis' suite of cloud backup and recovery, disaster recovery, file sync and share solutions to its channel of service providers.

Chris Sharp, chief strategy officer of Rhipe, said: "We're excited to announce this new partnership with Acronis; data protection and data migration to the cloud are top-of-mind big trends across Asia-Pacific customers and partners, and we're pleased to be able to support our active and growing cloud channel with Acronis’ data-protection solutions."

Rhipe is the second distributor to sign with the Singaporean data protection company, a partnership with Ingram Micro was announced in February this year.

Acronis has registered 30 percent business growth in Australia and New Zealand in 2015. The company had 20 percent of its worldwide revenue from cloud alone.

Acronis vice president for APAC and emerging markets Steve Goh said: "Cloud is a big thing for us. We see the growth of mobile users as a strong market for Acronis. We backup across different platforms (iOS, Android and Windows), virtual and non-virtual, on premise and cloud. Our customers have choices."

Acronis launched the Cloud Partner Program last February as an extension of its Global Partner program rolled out in 2015.

The program aims to accelerate cloud data protection services revenue with a subscription model for service providers, distributors and cloud resellers, according to Acronis. The program also features simplified partner on-boarding, free web-based sales tools and enablement programs, technical training, marketing programs and demand generation support, as well as co-op and market development fund programs.

"We are building up a strong inside sales engine. We invest a lot into marketing programs and events and we just want to make sure that we have an engine that help customers convert their leads," added Goh.

Acronis is looking for partners locally and internationally and said new partnerships will be announced soon.

Goh said the company does not want to "flood the market". Acronis wants to make sure it has enough partners that understand how to sell its solution and grow together. The company vice president also said that it is selecting partners by their commitment to Acronis and not by size.

Goh announced the company wants to venture in new markets and it's looking for OEM partners.

"Our strategy is to draw new muscles with OEM, continue with cloud, start working with our managing retailer to offer bundling and we want to start targeting few key accounts as well. We want to go deeper, together with our sales team and partners, to understand customer requirements and offer them a solution," added Goh.