Acronis is expanding its cyber platform to help MSPs automate more of their technical and business work. The company introduced the next phase of its AI strategy at the
Acronis Accelerate event, and introduced Acronis Cyber Console - a unified technician console, Acronis Cyber Intelligence - an operational intelligence layer, and Acronis Service Desk - an autonomous service desk, and a workspace for building automated and agent-driven workflows.
Acronis builds AI workflows on a shared platform
Many MSP software companies are introducing similar AI-assisted tools. But Acronis argues that its advantage comes from having security, data protection, operations, and service management built into the same underlying platform.
Rick Hebly, senior director of platform marketing and education at Acronis, told ChannelE2E, “Most so-called MSP platforms aren’t actually platforms in the technical or operational meaning of the word, but rather vendors offering a portfolio of disparate and often acquired tools."
“The unique Acronis advantage really starts with native integration of data protection, cybersecurity, operations, and service management in one platform to protect, manage, and automate endpoints, applications, and infrastructure in the cloud or on premises,” Hebly said.
That integration allows Acronis to build automation around data and actions that already exist inside the platform. MSPs using separate RMM, PSA, security, and infrastructure systems often have to move data between products before an automated workflow can make a decision or take action.
“The conventional alternative is to connect many different systems to collect data and execute actions, with all the integration, maintenance, and security obstacles that hold MSPs back,” Hebly said. “With the Acronis Cyber Platform, MSPs can focus on their workflows on the front end rather than their systems on the back end.”
Constructor Fabric extends the Acronis platform
Acronis also joined Constructor Group and Virtuozzo in announcing
Constructor Fabric, an open-source software delivery project released under the Apache 2.0 license.
Constructor Fabric is designed to help developers define, build, and operate software using reusable components, automated infrastructure, and built-in governance controls. Acronis is using the project to develop and run parts of its own Cyber Platform, while also making it available to partners and outside developers.
According to Hebly, Constructor Fabric is aimed primarily at partners building applications and services at scale.
“Managed service providers are frequently and increasingly also independent software vendors,” Hebly said. “Constructor Fabric enables those technology and service partners to integrate development, infrastructure, and operations on the Acronis Cyber Platform to deliver customer outcomes with governance and agility.”
MSPs that do not need to build full software applications can use Acronis’ existing integration and automation tools instead.
“Many MSPs that do not need to build scalable software applications, but still need to deliver scalable service operations, will only need the Acronis Cyber Platform with its Cyber App integration framework and Cyber Studio automation toolset,” Hebly said.
Acronis plans to use APIs to give applications and services access to platform data and functions based on approved privileges. The practical value for partners will depend on the range of available APIs, the depth of access to product components, and how Acronis handles permissions for applications that operate across multiple customers.
Cyber Frame adds VMware and Azure migration options
Acronis is also expanding
Cyber Frame with migration workflows for VMware and Microsoft Azure environments. The tools are designed to support staged migrations and controlled cutovers into either Cyber Frame Cloud or Cyber Frame Local.
Cyber Frame Cloud runs from Acronis data centers. Cyber Frame Local allows partners to deploy the infrastructure on their own hardware and inside their own facilities. The two options give MSPs a way to choose how much infrastructure they want to own and operate. Partners that already run data centers can use Cyber Frame Local to provide infrastructure as a service from their own hardware stack. Others can resell infrastructure hosted by Acronis.
Hebly said partners using Cyber Frame Local will retain control of customer relationships, billing, and pricing.
“Acronis Cyber Frame Local provides partners with hyperconverged infrastructure purpose-built for delivering infrastructure as a service from their own data center and hardware stack,” he said.
Acronis charges partners based on allocated resources. Partners can then determine whether to package and price services by resource, virtual instance, application, or user.
“Partners can freely determine how to package and price by resource, instance, application, or user, while maintaining full customer ownership and billing controls,” Hebly said.
The same channel model applies to Cyber Frame Cloud, although Acronis operates the underlying infrastructure.
“Partners retain full control over the customer relationship, unit economics and pricing,” Hebly said. “The question is whether a partner has the need or desire to buy, build, and operate the physical data center infrastructure itself, or resell Acronis-hosted data center infrastructure.”
As MSPs assess alternatives to VMware and hyperscale cloud providers, Cyber Frame could support migration projects, managed private cloud services, backup, disaster recovery, security, and ongoing infrastructure operations under one partner contract.
Targeting more predictable infrastructure costs
The Cyber Frame expansion comes as infrastructure expenses continue to rise. Acronis said its own infrastructure costs increased 60% over the past year, reflecting higher spending on servers, storage, data centers, power, and AI workloads.
Hebly said that while Acronis cannot control broader market pricing for physical infrastructure, its response is to give MSPs more predictable pricing, higher hardware utilization, and include management and protection services.
“Global infrastructure costs are near-commoditized factors that Acronis cannot influence any more than other parties in the market,” Hebly said.
Cyber Frame does not use spot pricing, which Acronis said should give partners more stability when selling longer-term services. The platform is also hardware-agnostic and includes backup, management, security, and automation capabilities.
“Acronis Cyber Frame provides services without spot pricing for longer-term stability, as well as improved utilization rates of hardware-agnostic infrastructure,” Hebly said.
Acronis wants partners to package those capabilities as managed cloud services rather than compete primarily on compute and storage prices. Potential use cases include infrastructure for legacy applications, private cloud deployments, and isolated environments for AI data and applications.
“Integrated and included abilities to protect, manage, and automate help partners escape infrastructure commoditization with sovereign managed cloud outcomes,” Hebly said.
For MSPs, the margin impact will depend on customer demand, utilization rates, and how much operational work the platform can remove. Predictable infrastructure pricing may help, but partners will still have to account for hardware refreshes, technical staffing, data center costs and customer support.
Partner program moves into the Acronis Console
Acronis is also changing its partner program to connect benefits, training, and sales resources more directly to the platform partners use. The
Acronis Cyber Partner Program will include access to platform capabilities such as intelligence, automation, and service desk functions. Users will also receive role-based technical training, marketing automation, and sales materials.
“The new Acronis Cyber Partner Program integrates program requirements, benefits, and interfaces with the actual platform partners operate in on a daily basis,” Hebly said.
Acronis also plans to introduce a credit system based on partner consumption. Those credits can be redeemed for services and program benefits, including AI capabilities.
“Through consumption, partners accrue benefits in the form of credits that can be redeemed across an array of benefits and services,” Hebly said. “Those benefits are chosen based on specific partner requirements.”
That model gives Acronis a way to encourage partners to adopt more parts of its platform while allowing MSPs to select the support and capabilities they use. Details around certification requirements, market development funds, credit values, and eligibility will determine how accessible the program is to smaller service providers.
Acronis expands its role in MSP operations
The latest announcements follow four Acronis launches since January: Acronis Archival Storage, Acronis MDR by Acronis TRU, Acronis GenAI Protection, and Acronis Cyber Frame. Together, those products extend Acronis beyond backup and endpoint security into managed detection and response, AI governance, infrastructure, service management, and business operations.
Acronis is now connecting those services through a shared console, intelligence layer, and automation framework, and these could reduce the number of separate products MSPs need to operate, although it also increases the amount of their service delivery tied to one vendor.
