New Acronis CEO Prakash Panjwani, who joined the company this month, outlined his plans in an exclusive meeting with CRN to expand its cyber protection platform, deepen its MSP focus, balance security and data protection investments, and guide future growth.
Acronis’ new CEO, Prakash Panjwani, is taking charge of a company best known for backup and recovery but now positioned more broadly as a cyber protection platform for MSPs.
The former SafeNet and WatchGuard CEO, who Thursday took over as CEO of Acronis, told CRN in an exclusive conversation that the company’s mix of data protection, security and an MSP-focused platform, along with its growth, investors and partner base, drew him to the job.
“Every time I spoke to their investor group and how they thought about the company and where it could be, I would leave that call so energized,” he said. “I told my wife that it’s not about actually doing another CEO gig. I want this CEO gig.”
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Panjwani succeeds Jan-Jaap “JJ” Jager, whose second stint at Acronis was designed as a short transition after Swedish private equity firm EQT took a majority stake. Jager provided stability, advanced AI innovation and prepared Acronis for a permanent successor, Panjwani said.
“EQT took a very organized approach to have somebody who understands the company, who could provide the transition from where they were to handing over to a new CEO,” he said. “That was exactly the plan. And he did an amazing job of driving innovation while providing that stability as well.”
Panjwani said his first priority is listening to employees, MSPs and customers while learning how partners use the platform. He then plans to identify natural extensions while continuing to invest in the products MSPs value.
“You don’t get the license to do more things until you’re the best at what you’re supposed to do, so we’re making sure we’re also investing enough in what MSPs love about Acronis to begin with,” he said.
That work will feed a three- to five-year vision intended to give each investment and product decision a clear direction, Panjwani said.
“It’s not just about next year,” he said. “It’s about a three- to five-year view knowing what you know today so that each step we take is towards that grand vision.”
There’s a lot going on at Acronis and its work to serve the dynamic needs of MSPs. To learn more, here is more of CRN’s conversation with Panjwani.
What was your journey to Acronis?
This is my third CEO stint. The previous times were at SafeNet and the last 10 years at WatchGuard. You can call me a cybersecurity nerd, but I just love this space. But the other part was building the channel. WatchGuard was a great story because it was a firewall company. In the last 10 years, we turned it in into a cybersecurity platform for MSPs by integrating a lot of different components together. I’ve always loved the MSP space. … When I left WatchGuard, I wanted to take a year off, and I did. And along the way, some companies popped up, but it was always back to Acronis because every time I spoke to their investor group and how they thought about the company and where it could be, I would leave that call so energized. I told my wife that it’s not about actually doing another CEO gig. I want this CEO gig. And the reason for this specific one was an amazing platform. If you look at companies at scale in this space, there are not that many who have basically built a platform with MSPs in mind, with a lot of different ways to grow the company. Highly motivated investors. This company has almost doubled in size in three or four years. They want to double it again in the same time frame. And there’s an energized partner base around it. The combination of all those things just clicked for me ultimately. And so that’s why I’m here.
How do you define Acronis?
I have to admit that I looked at it from the outside in. I knew it initially, to be very candid, as obviously a dominant player in the backup and recovery space. But its overall cyber protection suite for the MSPs that I learned about over the last several months as we talked about this assignment was a revelation to me in terms of how much had been done, not because it wasn’t out there. I just was not looking for it. But coming from the WatchGuard side, I love the cyber protection element of it because it is an adjacency to building everything around the back-end recovery, which in itself is a is a big space. But how do you actually protect and help MSPs do a lot more in terms of what’s adjacent to what they’re already doing? So to me, that was a wonderful revelation as I dug deeper into the broadness of the Acronis platform.
When you look at Acronis’ development plans, road maps and so on, is the focus equally on the data protection and cybersecurity sides, or is one of them going a little faster than the other?
I have to dig deep as to what the current status is. But I would argue that at this point, it’s more about what’s the right thing moving forward because there are so many vectors to grow. That’s the exciting part. It’s about making sure we define both the ideal partner profile for Acronis today, but also the ideal MSP persona we’re working with. I feel like any additions to the platform have to be natural to MSPs. There’s enough companies, you could argue, and I won’t mention them by name, who have flirted with security that started as a PSA or RMM player who said, ‘Let’s go do security,’ and it doesn’t click for them. I think Acronis is in a great spot because it’s already touching security to begin with, so that’s why security makes sense. But before I get to just defining the strategy, it’s really just me digging deep with the team to see what are MSPs really using the platform for, and what’s the most natural extension. That will define what we do. But as I told the team [the day I started], you don’t get the license to do more things until you’re the best at what you’re supposed to do, so we’re making sure we’re also investing enough in what MSPs love about Acronis to begin with. We combine those two things with a balanced investment between the two, the extension to the platform, and the core business.
You mentioned the ideal partner profile. What is the ideal partner profile for Acronis?
The MSPs range dramatically And so when I think of, in my opinion, the platform itself, obviously large MSPs can always use the feature and services. But to me, it’s the mid-tier MSPs, the ones who don’t have the bandwidth or the people to make the investments in terms of automation and all the things they have to do around protection. And by the way, as you go further into cybersecurity, that gets even worse. They don’t even have the knowledge base to do that. To me, that’s the partner profile of those who are looking for a vendor like Acronis to take over some of that functionality from them and bring them automation that’s built for them to deploy and manage quickly. They don’t have the bandwidth to figure out if something happened. To me, that’s the sweet spot for a platform like what Acronis has.
Is Acronis exclusively sold through MSPs, or do you have other types of channel partners?
That’s the primary channel by far. I would say that’s the dominant source of revenue in general.
You’ve only been in this role a few days. What are some of your big plans for Acronis, or maybe we should say first steps?
I find people like a company of this significant scale. You always start with employees first. That’s No. 1 because ultimately the DNA of a company helps define what can you really be good at, the passion that people have. So my initial focus has been to get to know that part, and that will remain the focus for next week as well. But to me, the ultimate thing in the next 30 days is listening. It’s listening and learning, and I listen and learn from partners, their customers who are using our products, their employees, their opinions. In today’s world, you don’t have the luxury to listen forever. So it’s a combination of listening and learning as I go, but also validating my assumptions and preconceived notions along the way or changing them. To me, that’s really the most important thing for the next 30 days for me—to get as much of that information as possible—and then it’s getting to work on the strategy.
One of the things we’re definitely going to do, and this is the right time for where the company is now, is to build a longer-term vision for the company. It’s not just about next year. It’s about a three- to five-year view knowing what you know today so that each step we take is towards that grand vision. And so to me, that’s really the next big step as soon as some of the learning is behind me.
Who are the primary owners of Acronis? Is it private equity-backed?
Yes, we are private equity backed. Just over a year ago, [Stockholm, Sweden-based] EQT, the third-largest private equity firm in the world, they took the majority stake at that time in the company.
When EQT took a stake in Acronis, did they have any mandates in terms of where they want to see the company go? Maybe growth by acquisition? Anything like that?
I think so. That’s one of the reasons this role clicked for me. My initial calls, let’s call it ‘initial flirtations,’ were with the investment group there. And what they said to me that really just clicked as a CEO was that they wanted to build an amazing company. It’s already a great company. They just want to make it even better. It’s less about exits and things of that nature to them. It was just like, ‘Let’s build it the right way.’ By definition, growth was everything. That’s what they got Acronis for. The company has already doubled in revenues in the last three or four years as EQT got into it. To them, it is about continuing that, but obviously in a structured way. They are not just thinking about next year, but how to do that on a sustained basis. They’re highly motivated folks.
Why did former CEO Jan-Jaap Jager leave Acronis?
He stayed on with me as an adviser for a bit. … And JJ is an amazing person. This was JJ’s second stint at Acronis. So he knew Acronis inside out. And when EQT acquired the company, they brought JJ in exactly to provide stability under new ownership, have somebody who understands the company to provide not just stability but also innovation because he could do it quickly because of his knowledge. And he did a great job of expanding the AI innovation into the platform, building more success for MSPs along the way and building the infrastructure necessary for at least me to come in. So it was a very structured approach that EQT took, and JJ has been amazing for what he’s achieved in the last year here.
Was JJ originally scheduled for such a short term?
Yes. He was here 18 years, but in his last position for less than a year. And that was the plan. … EQT took a very organized approach to have somebody who understands the company, who could provide the transition from where they were to handing over to a new CEO. That was exactly the plan. And he did an amazing job of driving innovation while providing that stability as well.
Acronis is a private company, but is the company profitable?
Yes.
Are there any other changes in the executive suite? Do you plan to make any changes?
We have a great management team already in place. I’m going to get to know people first, and part of it is to build relationships but also think about how I can supplement and complement different things along the way. It’s obvious a lot of things are changing in this world very fast, and I told the employees it’s probably the most dynamic environment marketwise for tech companies ever. You have to think very quickly about what needs to change. I don’t think my focus is necessarily just on the C-suite. It’s more about building a plan and then trying to figure out what we need to succeed. Because that’s what you are building your skill sets for. So that’s kind of my focus at this point.
When you left WatchGuard, was that a planned departure?
Yes. I was there for 10 years. We exited to a private equity firm in 2022, and then I stuck around. I wanted to do just a couple of years, but it was very hard to find a new CEO. So I stuck around for another year after, and then we transitioned to a new CEO there, but I stayed on the WatchGuard board literally through this month. It was a planned condition. I had great relationships there. I’m still a shareholder there.
How soon do you think you’ll be on the road talking to MSPs?
Actually, this week. I’m in Europe. There’s a big event called MSP Global Barcelona. First I’ll visit there, and then hit many of our employee sites. November will be more of a dead month because of planning and Thanksgiving. But in early December I’m back out to meet some more of our customers.
