Acronis revolutionizes data security

With companies busy developing digitalization strategies, specialists at the Acronis headquarters in Schaffhausen in the Greater Zurich Area are working on reliable cyber protection for data. It is a field in which the global technology company plans to strengthen and invest.

Data are the backbone of all business processes in companies today and their storage and protection are becoming increasingly complicated. Simple, reliable solutions that can identify and ward off potential threats as quickly as possible have therefore never been more important.

Schaffhausen in the Greater Zurich Area lays claim to one of the world's biggest providers of such solutions - Acronis. Founded in Singapore in 2003, the global technology company has been headquartered in Schaffhausen since 2007. It now has big plans for expansion in the Swiss city, according to President John Zanni. He said: "We are going to triple our number of employees to 100 in the next 12 months."

Focus on the future

There is much appeal for Acronis in Schaffhausen, where the company employs intellectual property experts and teams working on artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain. "Schaffhausen is an ideal location for recruiting top specialists in these fields. The beautiful, centrally located city with an attractive tax structure and high quality of life is a big draw" said Zanni, highlighting that the Zurich economic region is also internationally renowned for innovation.

Because AI and blockchain are among areas of future focus for Acronis, there are plans to expand these fields at the company. "Our systems use AI to identify the symptoms of an attack by malware in real time" explained Zanni. Blockchain, meanwhile, helps guarantee data authenticity, archiving untraceable individual fingerprint datasets in the technology.

Interface between research and industry

It was largely thanks to support from the canton that Acronis was able to build an innovation hub in Schaffhausen, according to Zanni. The economic promotion department helps companies with questions about the location, local service providers or authorities. However, for Christoph Schärrer, Official Chief Representative Economic Promotion Canton of Schaffhausen, this cooperation goes beyond a company's establishment in the city.

He said: "With its work, Acronis is also supporting our efforts to establish the canton as an interface between research and industry in terms of the application of technologies of the future. It suits our dynamic environment, in which future-oriented ideas are already being implemented."

For all these reasons, Schaffhausen is now high on Acronis's list of potential locations for its new training and research centre, Singularity City. Set to open within two-and-a-half years, the centre will feature a training facility to purposefully attract talent and train them in special fields. "Singularity City will have global appeal, because it will be the site of our training and research. Partnerships with established companies and startups will also play an important role" said Zanni.