Acronis sucks up another Red Hatter

Backup software outfit Acronis wants to break out of the backup ghetto, and has recruited a Red Hat cloud business exec to help it do this. Scott Crenshaw will become its chief marketing officer, with a focus on enterprise file sync 'n' share.

Crenshaw comes to the Franco-American outfit from a position as VP and general manager of Red Hat's cloud business unit. He ran Red Hat's Enterprise Linux business for six years before starting up the Linux firm's cloud business unit.

Acronis's Laurent Dedenis, who was president for global sales and marketing, retains the global sales responsibility but will hand over the marketing portfolio. The global marketing organisation will now be led by Crenshaw, who becomes an SVP and reports directly to CEO Alex Pinchev as does Dedenis. Crenshaw also has a corporate strategy role.

The background has a Red Hat tinge to it. Pinchev became Acronis CEO at the end of November 2011, after working as a sales boss at Red Hat. In May this year he created two new exec roles at Acronis looking after corporate development and global business development. Acronis then bought GroupLogic earlier this month for its secure enterprise file access, file sharing and syncing technology.

The idea is for Acronis to break out of the backup also-rans by adding capabilities for data availability from mobile users who want to access and modify their data from different places and different devices, and to have that data protected. The master data copies are held in the cloud with copies available on various devices, with any changes to local copies synced up to the cloud and out to other devices.

Pinchev's canned quote about this acquisition read: "The growth of big data, the drive for greater collaboration and the rise in mobile working have introduced new devices and unsecure file sharing practices into the enterprise. Confidential corporate content is regularly leaving the network on iPads, smartphones or via a public Cloud. With the acquisition of GroupLogic we are positioned to help organisations of all sizes realise the benefits of enterprise mobility and secure collaboration, while keeping corporate content and systems available and accessible at all times.”

Crenshaw plans to leverage this acquisition to help make Acronis a player in this emerging secure business file-sync-'n'-share market. Box, Dropbox and others need to watch their backs. ®