Acronis co-founder returns to storage

THE business of storage and back-up software isn't the sexiest, Acronis CEO Serguei Beloussov admits. But having found success in the IT industry, the Russian entrepreneur is betting on storage's upward track, and returned to the company he co-founded after being away for eight years.

Mr Beloussov was last CEO at Acronis in 2007. At the time, the company was turning over US$150 million in revenue annually, when he decided to focus on Acronis's sister company, virtualisation software vendor Parallels. Parallels and Acronis were born in 2003, when SWsoft, founded by Mr Beloussov in 1997, split into two separate businesses.

He explained his departure: "I had a disagreement with a professional board member that we hired to run (Acronis), so I disengaged."