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An Online Backup Service is an Internet-based service that allows computer users to routinely backup and recover their important data using a secure and trusted server on the Internet.

If you use your computer to create and save valuable data for business or personal reasons, you should make some type of backup of your important data to prevent a total loss in the event of any kind of system failure or human error. Simple data backup can be done by saving your data to multiple locations, copying the data from its original location to removable media, another hard drive, or another computers hard drive on the network.

To make this task easier, specialized programs known as Backup Software exist to aid users in regularly making a backup copy of their data. Since some users are not interested in managing the tasks necessary for maintaining their own backups, a new breed of backup software was created, known as Online Backup Software. Online Backup software is designed to routinely copy your important files to a private, secure location on the Internet by securely transmitting your data over your existing Internet connection.

If you have a working Internet connection on your computer, you can use NovaStor's Online Backup Service to keep your important files safe from disaster on a daily basis, or you can find one of our many certified partners around the world.

The exchange and sql plugins are actually included in the demo client when you download the client. There is nothing more to install on the client machine besides the NovaNet-Web client software. The plugins are initially installed with a 30 day demo license.

Depending on the speed of your connection and the size of your backup, your initial backup over the Internet may take several hours. Many people with large backup sizes and slower Internet connections will often run their first backup over the weekend. Once the first backup is completed, each subsequent backup is usually a small amount of data that can be backed up in just minutes over a slower dialup connection.

Our software can also resume a canceled backup, so you can start the backup during your slow times and cancel it during your busy times. The next time you start the backup, it will pick up from where it was canceled until the entire backup is complete.

Since your entire hard drive is likely to be much larger than the amount of storage you have purchased on the backup server, you should be selective in the files that you choose for backup. In general, you can avoid backing up any programs that you can reinstall from a purchased CD, such as Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc.). Why pay for storage for "stuff" you can easily re-install? Try to focus your selection on things like your "My Documents", "My Pictures" or "My Music" folders and data files of your important programs like accounting, income tax, contact management, etc. Your online backup software comes with predefined filters, which allow you to automatically select categories of files without knowing where all the files are located. See the software's Help section on Filters to learn how they can be used.

In order to control how much data is stored on the online backup server, your online backup software allows you to view all of the data stored on the server and selectively remove files from the server. To view the data stored under your account, run your online backup software and click on the folder tab labeled "Restore". In the left windowpane, Right-Click on the Desktop icon and select "Get Volume List from Server". This will show you each computer that has been backed up to your account. Now you can navigate the folders to see what data is stored on the server. To delete files, click on the button with the Red "X" to enable the Delete Files mode. Mark any files you wish to delete by clicking your mouse in the empty box next to the file(s) you wish to delete. Click the "Delete Files Now" to issue the command to delete the selected files from the server. WARNING: Once a file is deleted from the server, it can no longer be restored.

It's up to you. We encourage people to do both local and remote backup for absolute protection. Users that want an added level of protection will perform local backups in addition to their online backup. Local backups can allow you to backup ALL of your files, while the online backup is a great way to automatically store your critical files off-site. When it comes to your important data, you can never be too safe. Since everyone has different needs, NovaStor sells a wide variety of backup software and services to help you find the one that best fits your needs.

The Personal Recovery CD is a service that offers copies all of your data from our servers onto CD(s). This allows you to restore the archive of your data from a CD without requiring an Internet connection. This is great for keeping long-term archives of your data or restoring large amounts of data without connecting over a slow Internet connection. Inquire about the availability of Personal Recovery CDs with your Service Provider.

Contact your Service Provider's support department. If you are utilizing NovaStor's Online Backup Service, call our technical support group for assistance during normal business hours (7am - 7pm PST) or send an email using the Support Request Form.

In the case of many backup software programs, files and databases that are in use during the backup may not get backed up successfully because they are locked to prevent any other program from altering the data. To solve this problem, NovaStor's Online Backup can be used with the optional NovaStor SQL and Exchange Plug-ins to make sure that these open and locked database files get backed up successfully. Additionally, Online Backup now has Open File Backup protection which takes advantage of Microsoft's VSS Option ensuring open files are not skipped.

The FastBIT patching process is the core technology behind our speedy backup service. The patching process involves the comparison of two different versions of the same file and extracting the differences between the files. When the differences are extracted from the two files, they are saved into a new file and compressed into what is known as a Patch. The patch file is often 85% to 99.9% smaller than the file which the patch was extracted from originally.

Applying this technology to the backup process will reduce the use of communication lines, backup tapes, and physical storage, all leading to one thing... Cost Savings! Reduce your costs without sacrificing the integrity of your backups. Here's how our FastBIT patching technology is applied to your backup process.

When our backup program encounters a file for the first time, it compresses the file and sends it securely to the backup server. Once a file has been compressed and sent to the server, never again will we send that entire file to the server. All future changes to your files will result in only the changes within the files being sent to the server. When the changes are received by the server, they are applied to your backup files creating a complete up-to-date copy of your file system. As an optional service, your daily FastBIT Patch Backup files can be stored separately on the server allowing the flexibility of restoring any file(s) from your backup data as of any point in time.

If you're wondering about the reliability of the patching technology, there's no need to wonder anymore. This technology is not new. It has been the only choice for IBM, Microsoft, Novell, and many other hardware and software companies needing to update commercially distributed software. NovaStor is the first to tightly integrate this existing technology into a high performance backup application.

The FastBIT patching process manipulates files at the binary level. This means it can process any file type without error. Different types of files will yield different FastBIT patch sizes based on the binary organization of the file.

If you are an end-user, the efficiency of FastBIT will dramatically reduce the time required to backup your data from any network location, include slow dialup connections.

If you are the server administrator, FastBIT will minimize your overall bandwidth utilization for a large installed base. FastBIT will also provide the most cost-effective method of storing ongoing file histories for every user. FastBIT backups can be 15 times smaller than the nearest competitor. That means NovaNet-WEB will only need 10 Gigabytes for user data that would need up to 150 Gigabytes of storage using competitive software for the same amount of user data.

It's very difficult to analyze those requirements because of all the variables added by FastBIT. However, the basic formula is pretty simple:

Take the expected size, in MB's, of the data you might see in a day, divide it by the amount of seconds in the day and divide that number by 8 to obtain MB/Sec Bandwidth. This will result in the required bandwidth (MB/Sec) needed to sustain 100% load throughout the day.

Example: Let's say we have 500 users sending us an average of 600MB per month (this is about what we see at the NovaStor Online Center), then the formula follows:

600MB * 500Users = 300000MB (300GB) / 30days (per month) = 10000MB Per Day (10GB) / 86400seconds (1 day) = 115.74Kb/sec * 8 (to convert to MB/Sec) = .93MB/Sec or about 61% of a full T1.

Of course, this assumes that you have full saturation throughout the day, which isn't going to happen. It typically gets a bit peaky around noonish and around midnight, so to accommodate the mean, you should probably have a 30% overhead, which in the above case, would translate to just about a full T1 (1.5MB/Sec).

NovaNet-WEB includes client and server software. The client software can be installed on any Windows 98SE, Me, NT, 2000, 2003 (.NET), XP or Vista computer. The NovaNet-WEB Client software communicates to the NovaNet-WEB Server using the TCP/IP protocol. The NovaNet-WEB Server software must be installed on a Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 (.NET) Server, and it must be accessible by the NovaNet-WEB Clients.

NovaNet-WEB Client software will only run natively on Windows 98SE, Me, NT 4.0, 2000, 2003 (.NET), XP and Vista. If you want to backup computers with other operating systems, it is possible. Here's how... Since NovaNet-WEB Client supports mapped network drives and the Network Neighborhood, it can backup data from any computer that is accessible via the network. A single NovaNet-WEB Client can backup the local computer and any number of local or remote network computers using NovaNet-WEB's powerful user interface.

If you have questions on starting an online backup service or the market potential for a successful business opportunity, please contact our sales team.

Starting your own online backup service is easy, but you may have several questions. NovaStor is dedicated to providing you the resources you need to be successful as an Online Backup Service Provider. Please contact our Sales Team for further assistance.

NovaStor has a number of planning and marketing resources available to help you launch your online backup service. Our Technical, Marketing and Business Planning Packs are available to provide many of the practical materials you may need.

The client and server software are NOT sold separately. Since a NovaNet-WEB Client must communicate with a NovaNet-WEB Server, all of the licensing is controlled on the server. Licensing is managed on a "per computer" basis. This means a 10-user NovaNet-WEB license will allow 10 computers to backup to the NovaNet-WEB Server. These 10 licenses can be used in any combination, such as 10 users each backing up only their local system or 2 users backing up 5 computers each, etc.

Yes. You can increase the number of allowable users on your backup service by upgrading your NovaNet-WEB license. Upgrade packages are available in increments of 5, 10, 25, 50, 100 and 250 users. Contact a NovaStor representative for pricing and details.

Since the NovaNet-WEB Server manages all the licensing, any changes in licensing must be done on the system running the NovaNet-WEB software, in the Backup Server Configuration Manager.

Yes. With NovaStor's new Remote Manager you can manage all of your NovaNet-WEB Backup Servers from any central location. As an extension to NovaNet-WEB Backup Server Configuration Manager, you can remotely manage and communicate with more than one backup server to create centralized management from anywhere in the world. Configure user access, display server status, search for account, review server logs and more.

The secret key is a special text string used to encrypt all data that is stored on the server. The secret key can be changed at any time in between backups or restores. If the secret key is forgotten or lost, the Backup Server administrator may not be able to recover the data on the server.

When you change the secret key, the previous secret key (and all keys before it if any) are encrypted together using the latest secret key. This way, you need only remember the latest key and do not have to be troubled with remembering, potentially, many keys from past changes.

NovaStor's ACS allows service providers to create a simple customer sign-up form from a link on the web site. Online backup customer accounts are automatically created and their contact and billing information is captured and stored in any specified database. ACS virtually eliminates manual account set-up and management and let's you focus on helping customers manage their data continuity.

Yes. If you are a reseller, ISP or interested in starting an online backup service, NovaNet-WEB is the perfect platform. You can setup and manage the NovaNet-WEB Backup Server at your secured offices and allow your customers to connect via Dial-Up, Internet or direct network connection with the NovaNet-WEB Client software. If you sell hardware and/or storage solutions, you can also configure and manage a complete Intranet backup solution with NovaNet-WEB.