Williams has announced a new partnership with data protection firm Acronis. The company will provide its data backup, storage and synchronisation technologies to the team.
“Technical innovation is at the heart of everything we do at Williams and with that comes a crucial need to protect our data,” said deputy team principal Claire Williams.
“Acronis will protect Williams’ on-premise and cloud service data with backup, disaster recovery, and secure file sync and share solutions.”
Acronis was founded in 2003 by Russian-born businessman Serguei Beloussov. He is now a citizen of Singapore, where his company is based.
Acronis was previously a sponsor of Toro Rosso, who it joined in mid-2016. President John Zanni refuted any connection between the team’s move to Williams and the arrival of Russian driver Sergey Sirotkin, saying the two were “totally unrelated”.
“The reason we moved to Williams is the scope of the infrastructure that needed to be protected and Williams’ vision and willingness to work with us to protect that infrastructure,” Zanni explained.
Williams has a 2018 season launch event planned for this Thursday.
2018 F1 season
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Matt Schneider
13th February 2018, 12:13
Maybe this will help drag Williams back-up towards the front of the pack.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
13th February 2018, 12:30
Russian sponsor, surprise.
pastaman (@)
13th February 2018, 12:34
I’m sure it’s perfectly legit, but something about having your data protected by Russians makes me chuckle anyway.
nase
13th February 2018, 12:59
@pastaman
Most alternatives are American, so I really don’t see your point.
pastaman (@)
13th February 2018, 14:38
The point is… it’s a joke.
nase
13th February 2018, 15:59
@pastaman
I enjoy jokes, particularly funny ones with an unexpected twist.
What I don’t enjoy, is the lame perpetuation of overused stereotypes, disguised as jokes.
Nathan Builder (@nathanbuilder)
13th February 2018, 16:14
Oh come on, it’s fun to bash on the Chinese security companies anymore. Everyone knows what they’re up to. At least the Russians there’s always the possibility that they’re legit. From what I can tell, Acronis is certainly doing their best to be as trustworthy as possible, from what I can tell.
pastaman (@)
13th February 2018, 19:14
Sounds like your rear-end is very secure.
Baron (@baron)
14th February 2018, 9:42
Well I didn’t know they were Russian and they have all my stuff in their cloud. I just hope it’s not mushroom shaped..
(Now there’s a genuinely out-in-the-open undisguised joke based on a proper Russian stereotype Nase. Enjoy)
nase
14th February 2018, 15:34
@baron
Nice twist, made me chuckle.
Robbie (@robbie)
13th February 2018, 13:04
@peartree @pastaman A quick google and I discovered that Acronis was established in Singapore in 2003 and now have local offices in 18 countries with their main headquarters in Singapore and Switzerland. Yeah they have a location in Russia too, but to call this ‘Russian sponsorship’ or ‘data protected by Russians’ sounds completely Trump-like in it’s inaccuracy.
They already have the association with Williams on their site.
nase
13th February 2018, 13:37
@robbie
You do realise that an enterprise established in Singapore has about as much of a connection with Singapore as the Mercedes subsidiary that used to pay Rosberg’s salary had with the British Virgin Islands?
Robbie (@robbie)
13th February 2018, 13:51
@nase Right so perhaps you could explain then where that automatically means Russian ties?
nase
13th February 2018, 15:51
@robbie
There’s no ‘automatically’ in that, logical fallacy alert.
Acronis was founded by Serguei Beloussov (whose name translitteration seems to have French roots, his biography offers no clues as to why that might be the case), Max Tsypliaev, Ilya Zubarev, and Stanislav Protassov, and originated as a subisdiary of SWSoft, which was founded by Sergey Belousov, Ilya Zubarev, and Dmitry Chikhachev. All of the above are Russian citizens, with the exception of Beloussov, who acquired Singaporean citizenship in the nineties.
So much for the ‘Russian ties’.
Now for the ‘Russians’ who ‘protect data’:
According to the company’s website, Acronis has 1,000 employees in 19 different countries. Their headquarters in Switzerland (Rheinweg 9, Schaffhausen) are located in an avereage-sized office building that houses local branches of no less than 12 other companies (John Deere International, Obi, Ashland Switzerland Holdings, Citrix, Beckhoff Automation, Wüst Bauingenieure AG, OBT, meltwater Group, Astaro Internet Security, RECOMP, Bristlecone, Sapient).
Their headquarters in Singapore (8 Temasek Avenue) are located in a rather large busines complex that houses dozens, if not hundreds of other companies and stores. So many that it’s hard to tell if Acronis really holds more than a glorified letterbox there. In any case, the visibility of the company in Singapore is zero.
Now for the office in 70 Dolgoprudnenskoye Shosse (gotta love how Russian treats French loanwords): A 7-floor office building with 30,000 sqm, located next door to the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), Beloussov’s alma mater (and, according to a summary LinkedIn search, an important source of Acronis employees).
I didn’t find any sources on the exact number of Acronis employees that work in the outskirts of Moscow (out of 1,000 worldwide), but the size of office building implies that the answer might be: most, of not virtually all of them.
But I’ve found quite an insightful article on the company’s website: A day with Toro Rosso in Moscow.
One quote I found particularly interesting in this context were Beloussov’s “key reasons for sponsoring Toro Rosso”. Key reason number one, I’m not making this up:
Convinced yet?
Now, I’m not saying that the fact that Acronis is obviously a Russian company (whose headquarters are elsewhere mainly for tax/sales reasons) means ‘Acronis = evil’. That would indeed be Trump-like nonsense (even though comparing someone to Trump for equating Russia with Evil is amusingly inaccurate). But that’s not what I’m saying. In fact, I have absolutely no grudge against Acronis. But denying that Acronis is a Russian, that mostly employs Russians whose job consists in the protection of their customer’s data, is at best technically correct, but mostly wrong.
anon
13th February 2018, 17:48
@robbie, whilst the company may have been incorporated in Singapore (though now lists its headquarters as being in Switzerland), I believe that the founding members of the company were all Russian nationals (Serguei Beloussov, Ilya Zubarev, Stanislav Protassov and Max Tsyplyaev). Of those individuals, Serguei Beloussov is the current CEO of the company and Ilya Zubarev is also on the Board of Directors.
Robbie (@robbie)
14th February 2018, 0:12
@nase @anon Fair comment guys. I think what twigged me initially stems from the negativity towards Williams and Stroll for his Dad having money. Now with a Russian driver and the insinuation about Acronis being Russian in a negative tone, just had me a little on edge. As does the whole Trump-Russia thing.
I had read earlier today about half of what you two have relayed to me but not all. The company is obviously more Russian than I had thought and with no mention in the article of a tie in with Sirotkin, I just got a little defensive…mainly with Williams in mind on their behalf, like they’re down a notch in some people’s books for having Stroll, and now a Russian driver who also brings money, and now Acronis.
Damon (@damon)
13th February 2018, 12:41
“Williams is due to be the first team to launch its new car for 2018 on Thursday.”
Which will mark the beginning of the 2018 season for me :)
markp
13th February 2018, 13:00
Do Ferrari have a data protection sponsor after 2007….McLaren are still about, got to be careful.
nase
13th February 2018, 13:38
Yes.
Robbie (@robbie)
13th February 2018, 13:46
You mean for Ferrari to protect themselves from their own staff? After all it was Ferrari man Nigel Stepney that started the spy gate ball rolling, unless you think his role was simply to unlock the door for Mac’s Coughlan and stand there while he rifled through their computer room?
jim clark
13th February 2018, 15:35
That’s hilarious.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
14th February 2018, 1:53
@robbie You can’t deny that someone requested Ferrari information hence McLaren getting the blame. The Russian Olympic whistleblower revealed that Russia’s big anti-doping tactic was to smuggle samples through a hole in a wall…. Dennis downplayed what happened that year, so they won next….
regs (@regs)
14th February 2018, 19:54
The whistleblower that is mentally unstable, has been proven to lie in court and has been proven to make most of his claims.
At the same time some most of some national team, especially UK and Norway are openly faking asthma to legalize their drug addiction with exemptions. USA is the top of them all. Most USA athletes are either fake mentally unstable, asthmatics or accidental druggers, so USADA exempts them all. And most USA athletes are filled with proteins. But sure under controlled WADA will never do anything against american proteins.
regs (@regs)
14th February 2018, 19:55
make up*
time, most of some*
GeeMac (@geemac)
13th February 2018, 16:12
The Kaspersky Lab money comes in via Antonio Fuoco according to Peter Windsor.
IJW (@)
13th February 2018, 14:58
Yes, by Kaspersky which is also Russian owned. The company is currently barred from Government contracts in the U.S.. Surprise, surprise, not…
nase
13th February 2018, 15:57
@ijw1
Yeah, we all know the U.S. Government is about as good at making decisions as a rabid coyote.
– placeholder text added for technical reasons –
Robbie (@robbie)
13th February 2018, 16:09
Hey. Stop insulting rabid coyotes.
nase
13th February 2018, 16:24
@robbie
You’re right, I’m sorry.
Btw.: I’ve posted a lenghty reply to your comment on the ‘Russian’ subject, but it’s still mowaiting aderation (take that, word filter!). I promise I didn’t insult any wildlife with a penchant for poor life choices.
Robbie (@robbie)
13th February 2018, 17:43
Lol ok.
Sonics (@sonicslv)
13th February 2018, 15:40
Huh I never knew Williams air intake hole shaped like their logo. That’s a nice detail there.
GeeMac (@geemac)
13th February 2018, 16:16
The FW36 (the 2014 car) had that detail and until I checked to post this, I didn’t realise it made it onto the FW40!
The Last Pope (@the-last-pope)
13th February 2018, 21:17
Are you sure? I noticed it first when the FW38 got its front wing upgrade.
Lewisham Milton
13th February 2018, 17:41
Is there anyone at Acronis who can drive…?
dutchtreat (@dutchtreat)
13th February 2018, 18:43
Sirotkin is Russian + Acronis is Russian + Williams is Canadian what is the big mystery…?
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
13th February 2018, 20:23
@dutchtreat Zing! With the BEST Canadian driver with the most TREMENDOUS father ever.
anon
13th February 2018, 21:14
@dutchtreat, whilst, on the one hand, the founders of Acronis were Russian nationals and two of them still serve on the Board of Directors, on the other hand the company originally started as a subsidiary of the US company SWsoft (which is headquartered in Virginia).
The majority of those on the Board of Directors of Acronis are based in the US, and a number of the senior management are also from the US, whilst the company has two offices in the US as well (which arguably gives it a bigger presence in the US than it does in Russia), though the company does have a number of offices across the world and seems to have a fairly broad market reach across the globe.
Now, I am prepared to be corrected here, but it looks to me like the company is a somewhat wide ranging and slightly amorphous entity rather than being distinctly “Russian”.
nase
13th February 2018, 21:46
@ anon:
See here.
aj
13th February 2018, 19:29
this is the excitement F1 needs
Todfod (@todfod)
14th February 2018, 5:47
Lol