The Arcserve-StorageCraft merger, announced this morning, has an expansive data protection product portfolio for channel partners and MSPs to leverage.
Still, entrenched and emerging rivals also loom. Here's a sampling of the data protection, backup and disaster recovery (BDR) market, and the channel-oriented storage and technology companies within.
1. MSP-SMB Sector: Here, companies like StorageCraft and Zenith Infotech were the early market leaders. Zenith ultimately imploded after a debt default. StorageCraft continues to have a strong following of about 5,000 MSPs or so. But the company was leapfrogged by Datto roughly five to seven years ago, mostly because of Datto's pure-play, fanatical focus on MSPs. Ironically, some early Datto solutions leveraged StorageCraft's technology. Fast forward to Datto's October 2020 IPO, and the company said it had grown to serve 17,000 MSPs -- or roughly three times the StorageCraft base.
Meanwhile, most of the major MSP platform providers -- names like Barracuda MSP, ConnectWise, Kaseya, NinjaRMM and SolarWinds MSP (rebranding as N-able soon) -- also offer data protection platforms. And Axcient has a pure-play MSP partner effort that now features direct-to-cloud capabilities. Plus, Asigra and MSP360 are well-known in the sector.
2. Converged Data Protection-Security Solutions: Here, names like Acronis, OpenText (owner of Carbonite and Webroot) and Zix (owner of CloudAlly) come to mind. Acronis, backed by Goldman Sachs, has been particularly aggressive in the service provider market lately while also acquiring multiple companies. (Side note: Arcserve has a growing partnership with Sophos in this area.)
3. Entrenched Turnaround Plays: Here, legacy players like Veritas and Commvault come to mind. After a lost decade under Symantec's former ownership, Veritas is back making acquisitions. Similarly, Commvault is showing signs of a business turnaround and evolution. New Commvault SaaS backup services, c-suite leadership and executive channel management appear to be aligning to boost Commvault’s financial performance.
4. Midmarket and Enterprise Sector: Here, names like Veeam come to mind. Veeam, backed by private equity firm Insight Partners, continues to grow organically and via acquisition.
5. Cloud-Scale Startups and Venture-Backed Firms: Here, names like Cohesity, Druva and Rubrik come to mind. More recently, OwnBackup has turned heads with Salesforce-centric backup.
6. Public Cloud Providers: Amazon Web Services (AWS) acquired CloudEndure for cloud BDR services in 2019. And Google Cloud acquired Actifio in 2020.
That's a formidable list of competitors. But Arcserve has been growing even ahead of the StorageCraft merger. And the Arcserve-StorageCraft deal features multiple synergies that may benefit partners, as ChannelE2E reported this morning.
