Secure Backup - How It Works

Backup Software and Account

Our Secure Backup product is a combination of two things :

1. A business class backup software package that you install on your computer.
2. Space on our storage server equipment that is dedidacted to you for the storage of your important data.

Once the backup software is installed on your computer you can specify what files you want to back up and when you want them to be backed up. The amount of information you can back up is limited by the "storage quota" allocated to your account on our servers. Your storage quota is set by the plan you subscribe to and can be changed any time you like. Our plans start at 4 Gigabytes of storage space and can grow to accomodate any requirements you may have.

Backup Process

You can perform a backup manually or schedule your backup to occur automatically at a time convenient to you. It's common for people to schedule their backups to run during the night when their Internet connection is not being used for other purposes. At the scheduled time, our software will automatically perform a backup as long as your computer is turned on.

When you perform your first backup, a complete copy of all your information must be sent from your computer to our storage servers. The initial backup can take quite some time depending on the amount of information you want to backup and the size of your Internet connection. Once your initial backup has been completed, the subsequent daily backups scan your data looking for changes. Only the changes are transmitted to the server, ensuring that your backup is completed as quickly as possible. All backup data is compressed before it is transmitted which further reduces the time required to transfer your data to our servers.

Reporting

Everytime a backup is run, a report is emailed to you. The report will tell you if the backup completed properly or if it encountered an error. Our servers know your backup schedule and will email you if a scheduled backup is missed (your computer was turned off for example). You are always informed of the status of your backup.