Arcserve and StorageCraft have reached a definitive merger agreement aimed at turning the two firms into a global data protection leader with end-to-end offerings for MSPs and solution providers serving everything from SMBs to Fortune 50 enterprises.
Terms of the deal, which is expected to close within the next several weeks pending regulatory approval, were not revealed. Once the transaction is final, the combined companies will adopt Arcserve’s name. StorageCraft will retain its brand but identify itself as “an Arcserve company.”
The merger will produce a company with comprehensive backup, disaster recovery, and archiving offerings for physical, virtual, on-premises, and cloud-based workloads at multiple scales and price points, according to Arcserve CEO Tom Signorello, who will remain in that role going forward.
“I challenge you or anyone to find a global provider with a broader solution set to compete with,” he says. “We live in a hybrid world. Everything won’t be on premise, everything won’t all be public cloud, everything won’t be physical or virtual or private cloud, and we have all of those use cases handled.”
Arcserve and StorageCraft plan to combine their support teams, partner programs, and R&D organizations. They will leave their existing solutions in place largely as is, however, partly because they serve complementary roles and partly to avoid inconveniencing partners and end users.
“If you’re a channel partner, you recognize the fact that whatever you install today you’re probably going to still be using in a couple of years, because you need to maintain backup history,” says StorageCraft President Douglas Brockett, who will be Arcserve’s president after the merger. “We have no interest in disrupting channel partners’ technology choices that they may have made to force them onto a new platform, so we’re going to continue to support all of the existing products going forward.”
The company will also continue to support existing integrations via open APIs with RMM and PSA software providers, Brockett continues, including vendors like Datto and Kaseya that offer BDR solutions.
“We do a stunning amount of business with partners that utilize those APIs and utilize us in a multi-vendor environment, and I think we’re just going to continue doing that,” he says.
Future plans following the merger include the creation of a consolidated management interface that will let technicians administer Arcserve and StorageCraft deployments through a single console.
The company will also eventually let partners migrate licenses across Arcserve and StorageCraft products as customer requirements shift, and switch between subscription-based and upfront licensing as well.
Complementary products aren’t the only synergy Arcserve and StorageCraft bring to their merger, the vendors say. Joining forces will enable the former company to widen its footprint in North America while enabling the latter one to reach deeper into European and Asian markets. At present, Arcserve collects roughly 20% to 25% of its revenue in North America, compared to 80% for StorageCraft.
“StorageCraft is largely a U.S.-based operation, so being able to go global is a fantastic opportunity for us,” Brockett says.
Merging will also help both companies diversify their channel. StorageCraft has over 5,000 MSP partners at present, versus “a few hundred” for Arcserve, which is stronger than StorageCraft among VARs.
Arcserve’s MSP and VAR partners will benefit from the two companies becoming one as well, according to Signorello, by having more data protection products to sell.
“We believe that the folks that are most likely to succeed and to continue to gain market share are those that provide the most solutions—secure solutions, credible solutions—at the right cost point under one roof,” he says. “That’s what the market and the channel will see from us moving forward.”
Partners looking to offer a complete range of data protection services to their clients will also have fewer supplier relationships to juggle now, according to Brockett.
“We know that channel partners want to minimize the amount of investment that they have to do in training and vendor management and integrating platforms,” he says. “We think that by coming together we’re going to help partners get more ROI on the investment they’re making into our companies and get more return from a shared partnership.”
There will be financial advantages to selling both Arcserve and StorageCraft solutions for partners as well, according to Signorello. “You’re going to see us get very aggressive providing incentives from a cross-selling perspective, not only internally to our sales force, but just as much if not more out into the channel,” he says.
Arcserve and StorageCraft have been informally discussing a merger for the last three years. Active negotiations began some six to nine months ago. That both companies are enjoying solid growth at present made that process easier, Signorello says. “We both bring very healthy businesses into this marriage.”
Arcserve grew revenue 12% in its 2020 fiscal year and is on track to record 7% growth in its current fiscal year despite economic headwinds and supply chain disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Sales of StorageCraft’s OneXafe Solo disaster recovery appliance for small businesses, which officially debuted last April, are doubling every quarter, adds Brockett, who says the company has been increasing sales of cloud-to-cloud backup services at a 25% CAGR in recent years and expanding disaster recovery-as-a-service revenue at a 20% CAGR.
Both companies see further room for growth, citing a forecast by Cybersecurity Ventures that the total global volume of data in potential need of protection will reach 200 zettabytes, or 200 trillion gigabytes, by 2025.
