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| Source: Acronis. From left: Alexandre Lacazette, forward (Laca); forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Auba), and midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Micki). |
Acronis, a global player in cyberprotection and hybrid cloud storage, currently celebrating its 15-year anniversary, has formed a new technology partnership with Arsenal Football Club (FC). The partnership will see the Swiss-Singaporean company provide data protection to the club’s growing IT infrastructure.
Developing a winning game plan for football means recording and analysing the number of passes within certain areas of the pitch, the quality and quantity of 'touches' in the opponent’s box, goals scored off set pieces*, and more – factors that are meticulously studied before, during and after every match.
Arsenal FC is committed to using data for improving its performance both on and off the pitch. The club knows that data is extremely valuable and needs to be protected. In its role as the Official Data Backup Partner of Arsenal FC, Acronis will help the club deal with growing volumes of data while ensuring the continuity of their operations.
Acronis will deliver easy, efficient, and secure data protection for all of Arsenal’s data, applications and systems, such as the team’s Microsoft OneDrive and Office 365 accounts. Artificial intelligence (AI)-enhanced data protection technology from Acronis will protect Arsenal FC's data from loss, applications, and systems from downtime, detect and prevent ransomware strikes, and allow them to certify and validate data with a Blockchain-based digital notary technology. Acronis also will provide secure storage of every first-team and academy training session recorded at the club’s training ground in Colney, UK – amounting to 8 TB of data a year, or the equivalent of 875 matches.
According to Acronis, storing, digitising and protecting all of this data means that multiple systems and large computer capacities will be needed. Acronis has these resources. "Arsenal’s partnership with Acronis will allow the team to measure the highest number of required parameters, obtain the best solution for data storage, and integrate analytics with decision-making in the most effective way. This will give the club a competitive advantage and improve its financial results," the company said.
Acronis adds that it can be impossible to determine what to analyse and how much a factor could influence a result in sports. The current thinking is to collect all data possible, on every player and every game, for later analysis.
"If stored and protected properly, the data will help the team choose the right players, put together the most effective lineup, improve the game strategy, interact with fans, promote the club, and win matches. As competition in cyberspace becomes common, however, attacks aimed at altering, copying, or destroying this data may mean the end of a club," the company points out.
"We use AI in our Acronis Active Protection technology to protect information from extortion programs that try to encrypt files. This solution guarantees Arsenal security, privacy, authenticity and data protection."
According to a statement from Arsenal FC, Acronis will stage business-to-business events each year with the support of senior Arsenal executives. These events will take place across key Acronis markets with a view to developing relationships with potential partners, corporate customers, local providers and investors.
As part of the partnership agreement, Arsenal FC will also support the Acronis Foundation in its efforts to provide equitable education around the world through building schools in developing countries. Created in honour of Acronis’ 15-year anniversary and the company’s founding principle that all evils are caused by insufficient knowledge, the Foundation supports initiatives designed to stimulate education to gain and protect knowledge around the world.
“At the highest level of competition, data is a critical asset. The teams that understand its importance partner with Acronis to optimise their data management. Arsenal FC has been a leader in data use, which is why we are proud to be partnering with them. It shows that Acronis’ technology is perfectly suited to high-pressure, digitally intensive environments – even those that are always on the road. We are confident this partnership will benefit Arsenal, Acronis, and all our partners and customers,” said John Zanni, President of Acronis.
Vinai Venkatesham, Arsenal’s Chief Commercial Officer, said: “As we enjoy another hugely successful pre-season tour in Singapore, we’re delighted to welcome Acronis into our family of official partners. Acronis are world leaders in data backup services and their advanced technology will ensure the club’s data is safe and secure. We look forward to working with Acronis and supporting them in their business growth plans.”
An Acronis spokesperson noted that the partnership is ideal as Arsenal is one of the oldest soccer clubs with the immense global fan base and significant international presence which can provide additional Acronis brand visibility and business network of fans, partners, and sponsors of the club. Arsenal relies on data and analytics to improve the game and achieve better results.
The Acronis spokesperson said, "The partnership with Arsenal will improve data protection and artificial intelligence technologies used in Acronis products – and this will benefit all customers. However, as the advanced engineering team that is working with AI, Blockchain, and security is based in Singapore, we expect that businesses in Asia Pacific (APAC) will be the first to leverage new solutions from Acronis."
Many of these AI-based technologies were developed in Acronis’ research and development centre in Singapore. Acronis employs more than 50 top engineers, with plans to expand the base to 150 engineers in the next three years. The centre will continue to focus on advanced engineering, expanding AI, security, and privacy features of Acronis solutions.
Arsenal is a global sports phenomenon and a huge enterprise with all the characteristics of a large business. Arsenal has some 1,000 employees – this includes players, other team members, and stadium staff. The club has many fans, including 250,000 members of the official fan club. There are around 20,000 people on the waiting list for season tickets, and the average waiting time is 12 years. Arsenal has nearly 38 million followers on Facebook, 11.6 million on Instagram, and 13.7 million people follow the club’s news on Twitter. Its YouTube channel had almost 960,000 subscribers at the time of writing. One and a half million people have joined Arsenal’s digital fan club. The club’s official website has more than 4 million hits every month.
Sports analytics includes AI, computer vision, and big data analysis in its arsenal. The insights help to develop game strategies, identify new players, ensure security in stadiums, interact with fans, automate sports journalism, as well as store and protect data. In 2016, the market was worth US$764.3 million; by 2023, according to data from WinterGreen Research, it will have risen to US$15.5 billion.
Acronis is also the data protection partner of choice for multiple teams in the data-driven motorsports of Formula 1 and Formula E. "Over the last years, Acronis has become a data protection solution of choice for many data-intensive environments, including data-driven sports like motorsports and football. Thus, multiple sports team use Acronis solutions already, and we expect many more customers from various sports," said the Acronis spokesperson.
The company has also made major announcements about its business this year. In March Acronis unveiled details of a three-tier Partner Program to support resellers and distributors. The programme rewards partners with increased deal registration rates and offers marketing development funds (MDFs) to partners who are committed to growing together with Acronis. All partners receive free licences, have their brands displayed on a partner locator, and are eligible for exclusive channel promotions, free sales and technical training and phone/chat support.
*A set piece situation is when the ball is returned to play from a dead stop, such as when it is set on the ground before kicking.
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