Acronis has introduced
Acronis Archival Storage as a new cold storage tier within Cyber Protect Cloud, aimed at MSPs managing long-term data retention for SMB customers. The problem it targets is familiar. Data has to be kept longer for compliance, legal, and business reasons, but storing it affordably and predictably has been hard to do.
Archival storage is not the same as backup
One of the first things Acronis wants MSPs to be clear about is where archival storage fits.
Gaidar Magdanurov, President of Acronis, explained to ChannelE2E, “Archival storage is a natural lifecycle stage of data due to long-term retention for compliance, legal requirements, or future data use. Backups are optimized for fast incremental updates and fast recovery, while archival storage is used for long-term retention.”
That distinction helps partners position archival storage as a continuation of data protection, not a replacement for backup or another overlapping service.
Built into the platform MSPs already use
Archival Storage is not a separate product that requires new tools or new workflows. It is built directly into Cyber Protect Cloud. Magdanurov says, “Acronis Archival Storage is natively integrated with Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud, so MSPs don’t need to introduce new tools. Customer data is protected end-to-end, from daily backup through long-term compliance retention, all within one platform.”
For MSPs, this keeps archival storage from becoming yet another system to manage and support.
Predictable costs matter more than low list prices
Long-term storage often looks affordable until data has to be retrieved. That is where many public cloud archive services create problems for MSPs. According to Magdanurov, “Selling a service for which you cannot predict the cost is difficult, and a gamble for customers if they cannot budget the cost of data retention.”
He adds that “Acronis Archival Storage removes the biggest source of MSP margin risk with long-term data storage, which includes unpredictable egress costs.” With zero egress fees, MSPs can set prices knowing what their costs will look like over time.
Less billing complexity, less overhead
Storage costs are not the only operational challenge. Managing multiple cloud invoices also adds friction. Magdanurov points out that “unified billing reduces operational overhead. Instead of going through multiple cloud vendor invoices, figuring out complex cost structures, MSPs manage and sell archival storage like any other service on the Acronis platform.”
That simplicity makes it easier to scale archival services without adding back-office strain.
Compliance without adding another vendor
In regulated environments, long-term retention is unavoidable. The real question is how many systems it takes to deliver it. “For customers that need affordable storage for compliance, the question isn’t if they need another storage tier, they do need another storage tier,” Magdanurov says. “And if it requires yet another vendor, contract, portal, training, billing, overhead, it becomes more difficult to manage.”
He says the goal with Archival Storage is to remove that friction by keeping everything in one place.
Lower risk by keeping data in one system
Moving data between providers increases risk, especially for long-term retention. Magdanurov explains that “our archival data offering is immutable and managed through the same cyber protection platform MSPs already use to protect and manage the environments of their customers.”
He adds, “With data being managed by one solution, the risk to data retention is significantly lower than for the data that should be transferred between multiple providers. There is less room for human error and less room for data corruption on transfer.”
Archival storage is also about future use, not only compliance. As Magdanurov puts it, “In the era of AI, data is the most valuable asset. Customers want to store more data and keep it longer.” Archival storage provides a lower-cost way to preserve that data so it is available when it becomes useful later.
Acronis Archival Storage is available now through Cyber Protect Cloud. For MSPs under pressure to manage growing data volumes, compliance requirements, and margin predictability, it offers a straightforward way to add long-term retention without adding operational complexity.
