Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud is evolving at a rapid pace: Acronis releases a new version practically every month, featuring capabilities for backup, cybersecurity, and IT management. The June 2026 release (Version 26.06) is one of the most comprehensive updates of the year—with a highlight that is particularly relevant for Microsoft 365 environments: backup for Microsoft Entra ID.
In this post, we summarize the most important new features—based on Acronis’ official release notes and announcements—and explain what they mean in practice for businesses using Microsoft 365.
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What is Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud?
Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud is an integrated platform that combines backup, disaster recovery, cybersecurity (including EDR, XDR, and MDR), and remote monitoring and management (RMM) into a single solution. The platform is delivered as a managed service through Acronis partners such as innobit—including protection for Microsoft 365, servers, clients, and virtual environments. To learn how to secure your Microsoft 365 data with this solution, visit our SmartProtection365 – Microsoft 365 Cloud Backup solution page.
The Most Important New Features in the June 2026 Release
1. Backup for Microsoft Entra ID
In our view, the most important new feature is that Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud can now back up entire Microsoft Entra ID organizations. This protects core identity data such as users, groups, and policies. Restoration is possible at a granular level—across the entire organization, individual objects, individual records, or even individual properties. Additionally, objects—including audit and login logs—can be downloaded directly from the backup.
Why this matters: Microsoft Entra ID is at the heart of every Microsoft 365 environment. Until now, misconfigurations, accidentally deleted groups, or compromised configurations could only be restored through a time-consuming process. A dedicated Entra ID backup closes a gap here that many companies underestimate under the shared responsibility model: Microsoft operates the service—but the customer remains responsible for backing up their own data and configurations.
2. Cyber Compliance: Compliance Status at a Glance
With its new “Cyber Compliance” section, Acronis maps security and compliance status based on CIS Controls v8.1. The solution provides compliance scoring at the customer and device levels, identifies gaps in the implemented security measures, and offers specific “how-to-fix” recommendations that directly assign appropriate actions to each control. This significantly simplifies the process of providing evidence to auditors, cyber insurers, and internal stakeholders.
3. Cloud Validation: Are Your Backups Really Recoverable?
A backup is only as good as its recoverability. Acronis now validates backups directly in its own data centers—without requiring local hypervisor infrastructure. Among other things, the service checks whether the backed-up systems can boot; the results are automatically delivered via email report, including a boot screenshot. According to the release notes, up to 10 archives can be validated per two-week period at no additional cost.
4. Faster Backups and Restores Thanks to Multistreaming
Backups to and restores from Acronis Cloud Storage now use multiple parallel data streams. This significantly reduces backup windows and restore times—especially when dealing with large amounts of data. The feature is applied automatically for suitable workloads; no manual configuration is required.
5. AI Features: From Incident Analysis to Automation
Acronis is steadily expanding AI support within its platform. The most important new features in the June release:
- AI Triage for EDR Incidents: Security incidents are automatically analyzed and presented with a clear summary, a mapping to MITRE ATT&CK techniques, and specific recommendations for action—including exportable PDF reports. According to Acronis, this is available at no additional cost.
- AI Assistant for Workflow Automation: Automation workflows can now be described using natural language; the AI creates, edits, and explains the workflows and suggests corrections.
- AI-powered remote remediation: Technicians receive AI-recommended troubleshooting commands—which are executed only after explicit human approval, and all steps are logged in the audit trail.
- GenAI Protection: Events related to the use of AI tools (such as prompt injection or potential data leaks) can now be searched in detail, filtered, and analyzed with enriched context.
6. Additional New Features in the June Release
- Automatic Agent Deployment via Active Directory: Once connected to AD, the platform automatically detects domain-joined Windows devices and installs the protection agents—even on newly added devices.
- Windows on ARM: Vulnerability scans and patch management now also support ARM-based Windows devices, such as modern Copilot+ laptops.
- EDR for Additional Linux Distributions: Threat detection now also covers Ubuntu 24.04, AlmaLinux, and Rocky Linux.
- VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0: Agentless backup and recovery fully support the current VCF/ESXi 9.0 platform.
- MDR Customer Communication Add-on: With Managed Detection & Response, incident notifications can now be sent directly to designated end-customer contacts.
A Look Back: More Highlights from the First Half of 2026
Previous releases have also significantly advanced the platform. Here is a selection of the most important new features from the spring releases:
- Acronis MDR by Acronis TRU (March): Managed Detection & Response, powered by the Acronis Threat Research Unit—directly integrated into the platform.
- Microsoft 365 Backup via the Graph API (March): Exchange mailboxes are now backed up using the Microsoft Graph API instead of the deprecated EWS interface; in addition, the Microsoft 365 onboarding process has been simplified.
- Custom Roles (March): Custom user roles with individual permission sets enable a clearer separation of duties.
- Workflow automation expanded (May): Time-based workflows, pre-built templates, and looping functionality for bulk remediation.
- Partner-Level Security Policies (May): EDR, anti-malware, firewall, and URL filtering policies can be managed centrally across all customers.
- STIX 2.1 Export for EDR/XDR Incidents (May): Incident data can be exported in the standardized STIX format—according to Acronis, this is intended, among other things, to support NIS 2 reporting requirements.
- Peer-to-Peer Distribution of Microsoft Updates (May): Updates are distributed between endpoints on the local network, thereby reducing Internet bandwidth usage.
The core information at a glance
Core benefits
Backup, disaster recovery, cybersecurity, and IT management all in one platform—now including backup for Microsoft Entra ID and a compliance overview based on CIS Controls v8.1
Target group
SMEs and companies that use Microsoft 365 and would like to obtain data, identity, and endpoint security as a managed service
Innovation
Entra-ID backup with granular recovery, AI-powered incident analysis and automation, and backup validation directly in the Acronis Cloud
Costs
These new features are part of the ongoing releases; according to the release notes, Acronis provides individual features such as AI Triage and cloud validation (up to 10 archives every 14 days) at no additional cost. The specific scope of services depends on the service package you choose—we’d be happy to advise you.
Conclusion
Acronis is consistently evolving Cyber Protect Cloud into an integrated, AI-powered platform for data protection and cybersecurity. For companies using Microsoft 365, the new Entra ID Backup is a particularly important step: It closes a real gap in identity-level protection that traditional Microsoft 365 backups have not covered until now. Together with cloud validation and compliance scoring, this not only enables backup but also provides proof that the backup is working.
innobit is your Acronis partner in Switzerland
As an Acronis partner and Microsoft 365 specialist, we can help you implement and operate Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud—from backing up your Microsoft 365 data with SmartProtection365 to providing comprehensive protection for your servers and endpoints through our managed services. Would you like to know which of the new features are relevant to your environment?
Request a consultation now – We’d be happy to show you the new features in action.
Sources: Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud – What’s New, Release Notes June 26
