Acronis announced Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server, an application that enables IT managers in small businesses running Microsoft SBS to backup and restore both physical and virtual servers. Acronis will market its Small Business Server backup application bundled with Acronis Universal Restore, a program that allows users to restore an image to entirely different hardware.

Acronis True Image for Microsoft Small Business Server, the latest addition to Acronis' portfolio of business-class backup and recovery, migration and virtualization products, is designed specifically for small businesses that might not have full-time IT staff. In order to ensure a successful implementation and customer experience, the first year of Acronis Maintenance and Priority Support is required. This service provides 24x7 access to support personnel who can advise users on backup and disaster recovery best practices, as well as fixing problems when they occur.

The combination of Acronis True Image with Microsoft Windows Small Business Server delivers a powerful disaster recovery and system migration tool that is simple to use, fast, security-centric, reliable and very affordable.

Utilizing the Acronis Virtual Live Data Format to separate hard disk contents from the underlying file format and platform dependency, Acronis True Image creates a transportable image, independent of the hardware platform that can be restored directly to and from any virtual or physical environment.

"We use Acronis True Image on all our customers' servers and require that they install it on each server," said Scott Hart, president of 3L Partners Corp., a Dana Point, CA-based Internet solutions company and systems integrator that specializes in the SMB market. "It comes down to an expeditious recovery and a more comfortable recovery on the technician. You can actually take the image from the bad server, mount in on another piece of hardware and boot. Your users will be able to logon and start using their network quickly. When you need a rock solid, simple to use, disaster recovery solution, we have found Acronis True Image to be our tool of choice."

"Although Acronis does not offer consulting services, we recognize that small business owners might not have full-time IT staff to create backup and disaster recovery plans," said Walter Scott, CEO of Acronis. "For that reason, Acronis is making its support team accessible to advise in preparing best practices plans. Acronis wants its Priority Maintenance and Support team to be more than just a break-fix organization; it's a small business' partner that can provide a transfer of technology information and augment the services of a value-added reseller."