For the past four years, Acronis has sponsored the annual National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) -- and 2008 is no exception. Acronis donated licenses valued at $100,000 of its Acronis True Image Echo Enterprise Server, Acronis True Image Echo Workstation, Acronis Universal Restore and Acronis Snap Deploy for use in both the national competition, as well as for regional competitions held across the country earlier this year.

The Acronis software provides a level playing field for contestants by ensuring all network systems and laptop settings look exactly the same before they begin, as well as providing disaster recovery and migration to virtual machines. Each team inherits a fictional operational business network with email, web sites, data files and computer users. Scoring is based on each team's ability to correct network problems, perform business tasks and defend their networks from hostile cyber attacks. Acronis True Image also provides contestants with the ability to perform their own backups and recover systems.

"This competition is like 'March Madness' with computers -- everyone is anxiously awaiting the final result and we can't afford any technical disruptions that could hold up a competitor," said Dwayne Williams, Competition Director, National CCDC. "Should a network disruption occur, Acronis True Image backup and disaster recovery software assures us we can get the competition going again within minutes. It's also a huge time saver for our small IT team of three -- we don't have to manually build out the servers, laptops, and workstation we use in each of these events."

"We've had the opportunity to witness the tremendous talent of these students since the outset of the competition," said Walter Scott, CEO of Acronis. "This isn't just a competition about running a fictional IT department; it's a real-life challenge that brings together the best practices of technology with the ingenuity of tomorrow's best and brightest student IT stars."