TAG Cyber names Acronis Distinguished Vendor in Q2 2021 Security Annual

Acronis has been named a TAG Cyber Distinguished Vendor in 2021, and part of the benefits of this designation include being featured in the firm’s flagship “Security Annual” quarterly reports. To this end, TAG Cyber’s Q2’21 report was recently published and the full report is available for download at the company’s website.

The report is, for a lack of a better word, a “beast.” It is over 100 pages long and includes 10 op-eds, 13 interviews with industry executives, and five technical whitepapers.

While we certainly recommend the entire thing, we also know your time may be limited. That’s why we made a summary of the report that streamlined the content that was most relevant to the Acronis community.

The slimmed-down version of this report can be downloaded here, and it includes three key sections.

The first section is an opinion piece entitled “5 Steps to turn your MSP into an MSSP”. This three-page article discusses these five steps in detail. Briefly, they are summarized as:

1. Strategy: Figure out the products/services that would be the best fit for your client base and do a build-partner-buy analysis to determine how to get to market.
2. Technology: Related to the strategy, what technology or technologies will you add to your stack to deliver these new services?
3. Staffing and Training: How can you accommodate 24/7 technical support at the appropriate skill level?
4. Integrations: How will you manage the new technology and can it integrate into your existing systems? You definitely want to avoid disparate systems and data streams.
5. Pricing: How will you price the new service(s) in a way that is palatable by your SMB customers?

Granted, entire whitepapers (and books even) could be written about each of these five steps. The article certainly doesn’t go into every detail but it frames a really big picture of items an MSP needs to consider in order to make the transition to an MSSP.

The second section is an interview with Candid Wuest, VP of Cyber Protection Research at Acronis, called “A holistic approach to infrastructure, data, and device protection.” As you may imagine, the discussion focuses heavily on our philosophy of cyber protection and how this enables MSPs to comprehensively protect data and systems.

Candid explains how and why IT organizations should not separate backup/recovery and cybersecurity in silos. He then goes on to explain how and why Acronis expanded its range of solutions with the launch of Acronis Cyber Protect, bringing the company’s unique perspective to the market given its roots in backup and recovery. Being at the forefront of cyber protection research, Candid also briefly discusses some of the most recent – and more significant – cyberthreats that he and his team of researchers are following.

For those who would prefer to listen rather than read, TAG Cyber also published a video interview with Candid, available here.

The third section includes the Distinguished Vendors featured in the report. Acronis is joined by a number of cybersecurity companies and startups, including 1Kosmos, Accurics, Agari, AttackIQ, Avanade, Axis Security, Axonius, Balbix, Cloud Range, CloudPassage, Constella Intelligence, Corelight, Cybereason, Eclypsium, Endace, IBM, Inky, Human, Kasada, Netskope, NowSecure, Okera, Prismo, SCYTHE, Security Risk Advisors, Semperis, Sepio Systems, ShardSecure, Siriux, and Trusona.

Acronis knows how competitive the cybersecurity space is, so gaining recognition from a trusted resource like TAG Cyber is an honor. We’re proud to add this to the list of 2021 awards we’ve earned.

To download our version of the report, go to the Acronis Resource Center.