Acronis announced that the Small and Medium Business Technology Network has selected Acronis as a preferred provider of disaster recovery software for its national membership. Through this partnership, SMB Technology Network members will have direct access to the Acronis SMB Connect partners program and all of the program's extra benefits.

The group, with more than 500 members across the country that serve more than 4,300 SMBs, is made up of small IT consulting firms that focus on clients with fewer than 500 employees.

"A large number of our members already are recommending and installing Acronis corporate products in their clients' IT infrastructure," said Dave Seibert, director of the SMB Technology Network and president of IT Innovators, an IT consulting firm based in Irvine, CA. "Most IT consultants for the SMB market provide not only educational and consulting services to their clients, but are also provide break/fix services. We know from experience that having a reliable image of crucial servers and workstations can not only save a company considerable time and aggravation if a failure occurs, it can save the entire company by ensuring that its systems are operable."

"You don't need to be running a Fortune 500 company to require a bullet-proof disaster recovery solution," said Eric Dougherty, director of channel sales at Acronis. "Government regulations hold owners of SMBs to the same high level of compliance as any enterprise, so a reliable backup and disaster recovery policy is essential."