Interview with Acronis’ Anders Lofgren, VP of Product Marketing, Mobility Business Unit

I wanted to know more about their Acronis Access solution, as well as their place in the Channel, and I was able to meet with Acronis VP of Product Marketing, Mobility Business Unit, Anders Lofgren, late last week.

Lofgren started our call with a very interesting point around the phenomenon that is BYOD. According to Lofgren, BYOD is changing to BYOApps. This means that, although users are still bringing their own devices into the workspace, organizations are focusing more on protecting the applications on these devices, as opposed to the devices themselves.

This new method for securing corporate data is two-fold. It allows IT departments to have approved applications through which they can control data flow, and end-users don’t have to worry about their personal photos, documents, etc. being wiped in the event of device theft or loss, or if they leave the organization.

To manage this shift in security thinking, Acronis developed Acronis Access to be easy to use for the end-user, and rich for the IT Department staff. In fact, all application information is self-contained, and the application itself can be accessed via the Apple App Store.

I asked Lofgren how Acronis approached customers with this solution, and he said that they go directly to IT Departments, but that they also provide reseller support through their VAR Channel. Lofgren explained that the VAR channel, which is now comprised of over 30,000 global members, allows Acronis’ reseller partners access to sell mobility. Processing and licensing are simple, and allows resellers to propose solutions to all sizes of organization.

The question still on the top of my mind after the recent Parallels Summit was this: “What do you think about the current reseller environment and do you think these resellers will be edged out by larger organizations?”

Lofgren was optimistic about the reseller model overall, saying that there are still plenty of opportunities for resellers, and that we are still very early in the game for any changing models. “I would expect that all resellers will see more opportunities,” he said during our interview.

I would like to thank Mr. Lofgren for taking time out of his afternoon in Sweden to speak with me about Acronis’ interesting solution.