Two companies merging in the technology sector occurs with some regularity. However, a merger that makes sense for both providers with everyone coming out a winner occurs less frequently. Today’s announced merger between StorageCraft Technology Corporation and Arcserve illustrates this rarer occurrence. Each company’s technologies address different organizational needs that, once merged, will create a new benchmark for data protection.
Same but Different
Storagecraft and Arcserve both provide backup software for organizations so, in that sense, they are the same. However, their respective solutions differ in many ways. These differences begin with the size of the organizations their respective software protects.

Arcserve’s customers primarily consist of small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) with the majority residing outside the United States (US). Conversely, StorageCraft’s customers largely consist of US-based managed service providers (MSPs) that service small and midsize businesses (SMBs).
The differences in the organizations to which they cater stems from the strengths of their respective backup solutions. Arcserve Unified Data Protection (UDP) addresses needs common to SMEs to include backing up multiple types of applications, databases, hypervisors, and operating systems. It may also store data on both cloud and local storage and delivers UDP on both physical and virtual appliances. This graphic illustrates the scope of UDP’s backup capabilities.
StorageCraft tailors its OneXafe and ShadowXafe solutions to meet the specific needs of SMBs. Its OneXafe solution provides a converged backup and storage solution for on-premises backup. Its ShadowXafe provides a software solution for SMBs. Its newer offering, OneXafe Solo, equips MSPs or organizations with multiple remote sites to centralize backup. StorageCraft also provides MSPs and organizations with its OneSystem cloud-based console for centralized backup management.

The Impetus for the Merger
The “same but different” backup solutions available from StorageCraft and Arcserve help explain the impetus behind this merger. By merging, they creates a new company more fully equipped to address a wider range of organizational backup and recovery needs. These include:
Meeting backup needs from the smallest office to the enterprise
The COVID-19 pandemic that forced more individuals to work remotely changed backup requirements, likely forever. These changes often forced organizations to use multiple different solutions to meet these different backup requirements. StorageCraft and Arcserve changes this. Combined, they provide a one-stop shop for backup and recovery ranging from the smallest office to the enterprise.
More powerful ransomware deterrent
Ransomware continues to negatively impact all companies regardless of size. While both StorageCraft’s and Arcserve’s solutions already offer anti-ransomware technologies, each one uses different techniques. Together, they create a more comprehensive and powerful means to detect and defeat the spread of ransomware.
Comprehensive disaster recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS) offerings
Each provider already had a DRaaS offering with its own purpose-built cloud for DR. By coming together, organizations of all sizes have access to a more comprehensive purpose-built DR solution. Their combined solutions will also offer more points of presence across the US.
Meets the emerging need for cloud-based and SaaS-based backup
Almost all organizations already host applications and data in the AWS, Azure, or Google clouds. Alternatively, they may use SaaS applications such as Microsoft Office 365. Once merged, these new single company will offer the means to protect applications and data hosted in any of these clouds.
Perhaps most notable about this merger, it brings together two award-winning backup solutions under one roof. Arcserve UDP was recognized as a TOP 5 solution in the DCIG 2020-21 SME AWS Cloud Backup and SME Anti-ransomware Backup reports.
Similarly, StorageCraft was recognized as a TOP 5 solution in the DCIG All-in-one DRaaS, Office 365 Online SaaS Backup, and SME Anti-ransomware Backup reports.
Now organizations will no longer have to choose between these two solutions. They will have access to the best technologies available to protect their applications and data regardless of where they host them.
Storagecraft and Arcserve: A New Benchmark for Data Protection
Events of the last year have turned many established organizational practices on their head. Data protection has not been immune from this upheaval. Organizations now, more than ever, need a backup solution that addresses everything. It needs to span from the enterprise to the remote office to the cloud.
The merger of StorageCraft and Arcserve bring together two award-winning, best-of-breed solutions under one roof. In so doing, it provides almost any size organization a solution to which they may turn to address almost any of their respective needs. Further, the solutions which this single company will offer represent some of the best that the market currently has to offer. In so doing, this new company and its suite of solutions will create a new benchmark for data protection by which all others should be measured.