Cyber protection company Acronis has appointed Prakash Panjwani as chief executive officer, effective immediately. He succeeds Jan-Jaap “JJ” Jager, who will remain an Acronis shareholder. The announcement does not say why Jager is leaving.

Panjwani previously served as CEO of WatchGuard Technologies and SafeNet. Over a decade at WatchGuard, he led the company’s shift from a firewall-focused business to a broader cybersecurity platform covering endpoint, extended and managed detection and response (EDR, XDR and MDR), according to Acronis.

Warren Adelman, Chairperson of the Acronis Board, thanked Jager for “advancing the product platform with AI-based innovations, driving partner growth, and positioning the company for future success.” He said Panjwani brings “deep cybersecurity expertise and a proven track record in scaling global security platforms,” along with experience in the managed service provider (MSP) market and in organic growth and acquisitions.

Panjwani said Acronis “has built a unique AI-native cyber platform with an MSP-focused approach that is highly scalable.” He added that MSPs have “an excellent opportunity to adopt platforms that are built from the ground up for cyber protection.” Acronis says his priority is to unite cybersecurity, data protection, infrastructure management and service automation in one integrated platform.

Acronis says more than 21,000 service providers use it to protect over 750,000 businesses in 150 countries.