Acronis looking to the future of IT arena

Could you shed some light on the plan to develop a research and development (R&D) centre in Vietnam?

Serg Bell, founder of Acronis as well as Schaffhausen Institute of Technology

The company intends to invest $50-100 million over the next few years into an R&D centre. For that, Acronis has signed an agreement for cooperation with FPT University to find, educate, train, and keep talents in the IT industry.

Working in close collaboration with its largest R&D centres in Bulgaria and Singapore, the local team in Vietnam would be developing cutting-edge cyber protection solutions for Acronis. The partnership is also aimed to bridging the cybersecurity talent gap further in Vietnam.

Acronis has R&D centres in 10 countries, and we believe Vietnam is the first place for medium-sized R&D centres in this region. We have been to Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Myanmar but we prefer Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh City is only around an hour away from Singapore, where our headquarters are located. But we are still examining whether our R&D centre will be placed in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City.

How does the partnership further grow the local talent pool for Vietnam’s IT industry?

Acronis is looking to open a science and research centre for Schaffhausen Institute of Technology (SIT). It is another MoU we signed between FPT University and Acronis/SIT, along with Jacobs University Bremen (JUB).

The MoU not only enables the exchange of information and students, but it also leads to the development of joint doctoral degree programmes, as well as joint educational, research, and engineering projects. Through joint seminars and workshops, internships, and academic meetings, it will help raise global awareness of modern educational programmes.

Introducing the exchange programmes in Vietnam will bring a great pool of talent for SIT and JUB, and develop more IT professionals in Vietnam. According to several national reports, there are currently only 10,000 IT jobs in Vietnam – in a job market that nourishes the economy while bringing better and safer technology to the general public.

Why did you choose FPT University to form the partnership?

We have been talking to multiple universities, but we have only signed an MoU with FPT at the moment. In every country where we have significant R&D centres, such as Bulgaria, we also cooperate with every good university, without exception.

I think we always want to choose projects which are in the right development. And for us, we are quite impressed with FPT Group, FPT Software, and FPT University’s progress, which they have achieved over the last five years. We believe they will progress even further in the next five years, and we’re always looking to the future.

Also, it is more important that they are training and educating talent similar to whom we need to hire. We begin to add value by bringing advanced knowledge and technologies to make them a developed scientific university.