ACE training session in Cape Town.
At the end of February, Synapsys, the leading distributor of Acronis cyber protection in Africa, facilitated in-person Acronis Cyber Cloud training for its managed service provider (MSP) partners from Ghana, Malawi, Namibia and South Africa. Markus Bauer, Acronis partner technology evangelist, delivered the training, and was joined in South Africa by Maria Alexandrova, Acronis partner account manager.
The training covered Acronis Cyber Cloud functionality, an introduction to configuring Acronis Cyber Cloud and offering multi-tier, multi-tenant backup services, as well as tips, workarounds and best practice. The 85 MSP training attendees are now fully qualified Acronis Certified Engineers (ACE) Cyber Cloud, enabling them to set up, configure and troubleshoot backup using Acronis Cyber Cloud for their clients.
“Learning about a solution is great, but seeing it demonstrated brings the value much closer to home,” said Delali Tetteh, CEO of ITRUS in Ghana. “Having Markus, who clearly has had hundreds of hours of experience working with the platform, share his experiences was priceless.”
“Acronis Certified Engineer training is an absolute must. My understanding of the product, its capabilities and the roadmap for the future are abundantly clearer,” said Matthew Collison, senior technical manager at iStore Business in South Africa. “This is not only good for engineers, but a great source of valuable information for sales staff.”
ACE training session in Johannesburg.
“It is extremely valuable to have Acronis’ thought leaders visit and engage with the local ecosystem through training and other events. With Africa being a key growth area for Acronis and Synapsys, this heralds the start of regular ongoing partner enablement sessions in 2020,” said Peter French, managing director of Synapsys. “We anticipate more events throughout the continent, including The Acronis Cyber Foundation opening a school in South Africa.”
Introducing Acronis Cyber Protect
As well as running the ACE training, Bauer gave guests at Synapsys partner dinners in Cape Town and Johannesburg a preview of the game-changing Acronis Cyber Protect product. First announced at the Acronis Global Cyber Summit in October 2019, this is a revolutionary new approach to backup and cyber security, which acknowledges that these domains can no longer be considered separate if businesses truly want to protect their valuable data. Built around the five vectors of safety, accessibility, privacy, authenticity and security (SAPAS), Acronis’ Cyber Protect works across all environments: virtual, physical, cloud and mobile.
MSPs can now easily protect customers’ infrastructure and data beyond backup, improving their SLAs, increasing revenue per customer, controlling costs and decreasing customer churn.
“While patch management and malware protection were big attraction points of Acronis Cyber Protect, the highlight was the integrated approach. A single cost for a complete solution is an MSP’s dream,” said French.
Markus BAUER addresses Gold Partners.
Acronis Cyber Protect is currently in beta, and all the Synapsys MSPs who attended the training have been invited to test it. Commercial launch is expected at the end of March 2020.
Other comments from attendees of the training and partner dinners:
“The training was very interesting and I enjoyed the support the Synapsys team rendered throughout. The trainer was not only training, but also interactive, which made the training live.”
Michael Nyirenda, technical director at Dynamic IT Consultancy, Malawi
“The training covered details of the latest version of Acronis Cyber Cloud (8.0), complete with marketing tips and ideas to help grow our businesses. Synapsys played host to the experience and went out of their way to ensure complete comfort and satisfaction for all participants. We enjoyed two interactive days of training and insight into what is on the horizon for Acronis as far as new and exciting features go.”
Mike Edmunds, head of partner marketing at Bastion Backups, South Africa
“I found the training to be very informative and practical for our day-to-day use. I’m really looking forward to the release of the Acronis Cyber Cloud update, which will bring some great features.”
Stewart Chifamba, systems administrator at 1-grid, South Africa
“It’s evident that Synapsys and Acronis value strong relationships with their partners, which is something we at 1-grid also feel strongly about. I’m also excited to see some of the features of Acronis Cyber Cloud in action.”
Nico Visser, DevOps manager at 1-grid, South Africa
