AFC Ajax names Acronis as its official cyber protection partner

Menno Geelen, Commercial Director at AFC Ajax comments: "Acronis is a global market leader and a technology company that will contribute technology and content to support our growth ambition. We are also going to use their cyber protection solutions and artificial intelligence expertise at our training centre De Toekomst and see them prominently as a new shirt partner for the Ajax youth. A partner of which we can therefore say with complete dedication: for the future”.  

Edwin van der Sar, Managing Director at AFC Ajax adds: "Data and innovation are becoming more and more important, for us as a football club and as an organisation. Privacy and data security are therefore just as crucial. With Acronis we have a reliable and knowledgeable partner that stores, makes accessible, and secures our data. They will do this at De Toekomst - the cradle of our club where a lot of data is collected and processed, but also in the Johan Cruijff ArenA and in our football related and business activities elsewhere in the world. Acronis' expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) technology will further optimise our business operations".  

What makes Acronis solutions unique is that they are developed based on the Five Vectors of Cyber Protection: Safety, Accessibility, Privacy, Authenticity, and Security (SAPAS). This ensures that data that is protected and managed by Acronis solutions are not only secure and authentic, but also easily accessible causing no disruptions to an organisation's daily operations.

The AI/ML projects will help the club to process available data for the benefit of the game and business decisions. Acronis is highly involved in the areas of AI/ML R&D, and will be announcing more details of the project together with AFC Ajax at a later date.

With the recent increase in remote working brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, cybersecurity is an even bigger concern for many organisations due to many home users working out of unsecure networks or systems. Acronis provides support for these systems as well, with solutions including Acronis Cyber Protect that protects cloud storage locations and more with backup & recovery, anti-malware, and security & management. Acronis Cyber Protect's all-in-one solution makes it easy to manage all aspects of cyber protection, and also allows for workloads to be managed remotely.

Jan-Jaap Jager, the Board Advisor and Senior Vice President at Acronis says: "We believe in the importance of forming technology partnerships with sports teams. Ajax is ahead in the field of collecting data,  and together we plan on analysing said data so that they can make strategic sportive and commercial decisions that will enhance the performance of the teams and their organisation as a whole. We are therefore proud that to enter a Cyber Protection Technology partnership with Ajax, and help them under our credo to get #CyberFit. The opportunity to show Ajax what we are capable of, and to share this with their business network through Ajax, makes this collaboration optimal for us."