Jungle Disk Expands Data Protection Business With Three Acquisitions

Jungle Disk, a developer of cloud-based data protection and cybersecurity technologies, has acquired three of its peers with the goal of providing a range of data protection and disaster recovery products and services to customers ranging from small businesses to businesses.

Jungle Disk, which until 2016 was owned by Rackspace before being acquired by current Jungle Disk CEO Bret Piatt (pictured), acquired the KeepItSafe, LiveVault and OffsiteDataSync assets from J2 Global.

J2 Global, which owns internet information and cloud services companies such as Spiceworks, Mashable and publisher Ziff Davis, earlier this month unveiled a plan to split into two publicly traded companies.

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J2 Global, which has built its business through multiple acquisitions, including the three data protection providers, has not always been successful in pursuing its acquisitions. The company in 2012 and 2014 failed in offers to acquire Carbonite, which would have been its largest data protection acquisition.

Dry Line Partners, a private equity firm, which counts Piatt as a partner, and Porthcawl Holdings, an investment firm co-founded by Piatt, both supported San Antonio, Texas-based Jungle Disk in its acquisition of the three companies.

“Combined, the revenues of the four companies make up one of the largest stand-alone backup and disaster recovery organizations in the market, especially when it comes to backup as a service,” Piatt told CRN. “There aren’t many independent data protection providers out there anymore. “

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

While the four companies are all involved in data protection and disaster recovery, they have their own market approaches that leave very little customer overlap between them, Piatt said.

Jungle Disk focuses on small businesses that need protected backups with encryption in Windows, Macintosh, and Linux environments, while OffsiteDataSync is Veeam’s premier cloud data protection partner, he said. Between them, there isn’t a single overlapping client, he said.

KeepItSafe provides data and cloud backup services, while LiveVault provides enterprise server backup and archive technologies, he said.

Bringing the four companies together into one organization makes sense because they all approach data protection and disaster recovery, but from different angles, Piatt said.

“We can implement data protection from smaller customers to businesses,” he said. “The four can share certain processes and technologies in the field. There is a lot that everyone can learn from our institutional knowledge. And today, clients can be a large American business with a small business in Ireland. In Ireland, we can work with them as if it were a small business, while still providing business capabilities in the United States. We can provide small business services to businesses around the world. Few companies in the market today can do this.

For now, all four companies will continue to operate as before, including with their existing brands, with the biggest change being that Piatt is now the president and CEO of the four.

That may or may not change, Piatt said. “The decision to merge into one brand should not be taken lightly,” he said.

The four currently have a mix of direct and indirect channel activities, with some having partnership programs and others not, Piatt said.

“On the marketing side, we’ve had a bunch of internal discussions about whether it’s better to keep some direct channels or move to all channels,” he said. “We need more conversations to find the most efficient route to better serve customers. “

Piatt also does not rule out further acquisitions in the future. “We are still looking at the market,” he said. “We are backup and disaster recovery specialists. Any future acquisition must have the right team, the right product, and the right person.