Storage software vendor Acronis has released its True Image Virtual Edition product to the local market which can used to backup and restore more than four virtual servers on a single physical server.

Acronis True Image Virtual Edition is available now for $2999 per physical server and includes Acronis Universal Restore for recovery of server images.

The company claims the more virtual machines (VMs) running on a host, the lower the price per VM for disaster recovery protection as there are no limits or additional charges for backing up and restoring new VMs.

Customers can backup five or 500 VMs, as long as they all reside on the same physical server.

Burton Group senior analyst Chris Wolf said vendors that offer flexible licensing terms which allow organizations to run unlimited virtual instances of an application per physical server instance - or offer the option to license per VM when few application instances are needed - understand the management challenges faced by their customers.

Bill Taylor-Mountford, general manager of Acronis Australia and New Zealand, said there is a better way to license software other than charging the customer every time a new VM is created.

"Straightforward pricing based on the number of physical servers is easily understood and can be budgeted and measured," Taylor-Mountford said.