Acronis’ new CEO wants balance in the MSP platform push

Acronis has a new boss, and the brief is clear: keep pushing deeper into cyber protection for managed service providers, but do not fumble the backup and recovery base that got the company here.

In a primary company announcement dated 15 October 2026, Acronis said Prakash Panjwani had been appointed chief executive officer, effective immediately. He succeeds Jan-Jaap “JJ” Jager, who Acronis said will remain a shareholder.

Acronis describes itself as a global provider of an AI-native cyber platform for MSPs and IT departments. Its leadership page now lists Panjwani as chief executive, alongside executives covering revenue, product, development, security, HR and corporate development.

The appointment puts a cybersecurity platform operator in charge of a company still strongly associated with data protection. Acronis said Panjwani previously served as CEO of WatchGuard Technologies and SafeNet. The company said that during his decade at WatchGuard, he guided its move from a firewall-focused business into a broader cybersecurity platform with AI-powered endpoint detection and response, extended detection and response, and managed detection and response.

Acronis chairman Warren Adelman said in the company’s announcement that Panjwani brings cybersecurity expertise, product and go-to-market experience, MSP market knowledge, and experience driving organic growth and M&A activity.

A secondary account from CRN, based on an exclusive conversation with Panjwani and published after the appointment, gives more colour on the strategy. CRN reported that Panjwani is taking over a company known for backup and recovery, but now positioned more broadly as a cyber protection platform for MSPs.

According to CRN, Panjwani said his first priority is listening to employees, MSPs and customers, then building a longer-term strategy. He said Acronis needed a three-to-five-year view so product and investment decisions point in the same direction.

The tension is familiar in the channel. Vendors want to become platforms. Partners want more automation and fewer tools. But MSPs also tend to punish suppliers that bolt on products too quickly or drift from what made them useful in the first place.

Panjwani appears to be leaning straight into that problem. CRN quoted him saying Acronis needs “balanced investment” between extensions to the platform and the core business. He also said the company must keep investing in “what MSPs love about Acronis to begin with”.

That fits with Acronis’ recent platform messaging. In a secondary report dated 31 July 2026, ChannelE2E said Acronis had introduced the next phase of its AI strategy at its Accelerate event, including Acronis Cyber Console, Acronis Cyber Intelligence, Acronis Service Desk, and tools for automated and agent-driven workflows.

ChannelE2E reported Acronis’ argument that its advantage comes from combining security, data protection, operations and service management in one underlying platform, rather than stitching together separate products.

For MSPs, the pitch is straightforward: less tool sprawl, more automation, and one platform spanning protection, management and service operations. The hard part is execution.

Acronis has now handed that job to Panjwani. His early message, as reported by CRN, is not a wild reset. It is a platform push with guardrails: grow the cyber protection story, define the right MSP partner profile, and keep the backup-and-recovery faithful onside.