Acronis, a global leader in hybrid cloud data protection and storage is commencing the implementation of the world’s fastest and most innovative data protection technology into Scuderia Toro Rosso’s IT infrastructure. Acronis and Scuderia Toro Rosso celebrated the occasion with over one hundred partners and IT service providers at the last race of the 2016 Formula 1 racing season in Abu Dhabi.

Scuderia Toro Rosso is currently building a new racing car, the STR12, in order to comply with the new set of technical regulations issued by the Formula 1 governing body, the FIA, earlier this year. While Toro Rosso’s factory has the capacity to design and manufacture most of the new car parts in its factory in Faenza, Italy, time constraints force the production team to outsource some of the manufacturing process to third party providers. This forces Toro Rosso to release parts of its intellectual property to outside vendors, exposing the need for a robust file sharing technology.

Scuderia Toro Rosso will address this need with Acronis Access Advanced. The new way of sharing sensitive data comes with advanced data security and user management features, which includes tracking user behavior and keeping comprehensive file access history.

The process of designing and testing the new car is entirely data driven. Scuderia Toro Rosso generates over 15TB of new data every day — 50 percent more compared to the volume generated only a year ago. This data needs to be stored and protected from tampering. Scuderia Toro Rosso will gradually optimize data storage by deploying Acronis Storage with Acronis Notary blockchain data watermarking mechanism, which will enable the Formula 1 racing team to validate the authenticity of important data in the future.

Scuderia also plans to deploy other data protection technology powered by Acronis Hybrid Cloud architecture. These include Acronis Backup to achieve the world’s fastest backup and restore speed, Acronis Disaster Recovery Service to guarantee business continuity in case of a natural disaster, such as earthquakes, which are frequent in the region where the factory is located, and Acronis Monitoring Service for comprehensive monitoring and rapid resolution of IT incidents.

Scuderia Toro Rosso Team Principal Franz Tost, says, “Acronis came on board in the middle of the season and it didn’t take long for their presence to make itself felt, as far as our IT department is concerned. Not only do we have to ensure that our data is protected and safe, we also want to access any part of it almost immediately in some situations, for example, when it comes to making a snap decision relating to race strategy. As leaders in hybrid cloud data protection, Acronis is able to meet both those requirements and we have already seen the benefits during the second half of the season.”

The partnership also promotes innovation and the delivery of new technologies through Acronis R&D centers in the U.S., Singapore, and Russia. This year Acronis released a number of innovative technologies to support the needs or motorsport teams and always-on businesses. These include Acronis Notary data notarization, Acronis CloudRAID software-define storage redundancy, Acronis Instant Restore data recovery technology, and much more.

“Acronis is delighted so far with the results that the Toro Rosso partnership has generated — it is becoming a win-win situation for both sides. Racing teams are extremely efficient in using the collected data for rapid innovation and developing new technology. Here at Acronis we do the same. This partnership has created a synergy that is beneficial not only for the racing industry, but for the entire business world that depends on data,” said Serguei Beloussov, Acronis’ Founder and CEO.

Acronis Technology has had some significant successes in the region’s market of late, providing simplified data storage and data protection for all businesses, which, like Scuderia Toro Rosso, rely on data availability.
For example, Belhasa, Dubai-based international consortium that has over 8,000 employees in 40 different locations in the Middle East, selected Acronis technology to protect a vast network of Windows servers and workstations.

“Acronis has cleverly solved the major pain points of managing our valuable, complex and distributed volume of data,” said Syed Abbas, Group Senior Systems Engineer with Belhasa International Company. “We can say with confidence that this backup solution gave us the best flexibility, with the lowest cost footprint on our existing platforms,” he added.

Acronis has embraced the Formula 1 values through its entire portfolio of solutions, which include the following products for consumers and service providers:
• Acronis True Image — #1 Personal Backup
• Acronis Backup 12 — #1 SMB Backup
• Acronis Backup Cloud — #1 Cloud Backup
• Acronis Storage — #1 Software Defined Storage

According to the vendor, the partnership with Scuderia Toro Rosso has already proved to be beneficial for partners and service providers using these products. In just five months since the beginning of this partnership, Acronis has hosted over 1,000 guests at the Acronis Racing Weekends with Scuderia Toro Rosso around the world. Following the races, Acronis partners reported increased interest in Acronis products, and improved sales.

This has also resulted in 50% Acronis partner growth globally, compared to the same period prior to the sponsorship. This includes new partnerships with Synapsys Systems and Innovix Distribution, key Cloud Service Providers in the African Region and Southeast Asia respectively.
In the APAC region, Acronis Cloud Business has grown over 50% YoY in 2016, currently amounting for over 20% of total revenue. From a Middle East and Africa regional standpoint, Acronis has seen its Cloud Business grow by 50% YoY in 2016 with consistent growth of enterprise and consumer backup products.

According to Gartner, public cloud services in the Middle East and North Africa region is forecasted to reach $880 million in 2016, an 18.3% growth compared to the year before.

According to the vendor, its new Hybrid Cloud Architecture is specifically designed to help partners and customer take control over their data, and Acronis has allocated sufficient local resources in every region, to support the market growth.