The History of Remote Backup

The consulting company, Newell & Associates had a disk drive crash six months after it began operations. And, even with a fully backed up system on a tape drive, it took over five days to get a critical computer system restored. Newell & Associates spent several months investigating all the alternatives to manual backup systems. And, finally decided that the best backup system is the one used by Fortune 500 companies. Companies like IBM, GE, and Amoco.

Most fortune 500 companies use the same basic techniques to protect their data:

1. All their systems are completely automated.
2. The data is copied to a central location.
3. Highly skilled technicians implement and monitor the process.

Newell & Associates then spent several months searching for the right hardware and software to enable this backup system to work for a typical company. Without the high overhead.

In the middle of 1999, Quantum Tech, a leading backup software company, released a remote online backup system that would allow Newell & Associates to set up a centralized backup server so that its customers could lease a highly effective backup system with no overhead.

The advantages to a typical business are enormous:

1. All files are protected by state of the art encryption, only the customer can retrieve their files.
2. Completely automated off-site protection.
3. Fast online recovery of any version of any protected file.
4. Easy installation and setup.
5. Only an internet connection is required, eliminating the need for expensive backup equipment and media.
6. The backup server is monitored by highly skilled technicians whose job is to make sure the backups are performed properly.

This is how it works....

Remote Backup Services operates an off-site storage facility for the user's data. At the facility, an account is maintained for each user. Each account is protected by a password known only to the user!

The electronic vault system is set up so that at a preset time, usually late at night the clients computer automatically wakes up and prepares its data for backup, it determines which files have been modified since the last backup, compresses them, encrypts them for security. When the data is ready the computer uses its internet connection to contact Remote Backup Services data server and transmit the data.