IBackup also logged in as the least expensive service we tested, with our test server costing only $14.94 per month for up to 4 Gbytes of storage, based on a basic backup account with a 10-day retention scheme. There are other service and retention plans available, and technical support is offered via Web, e-mail and online chat, with telephone support on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Pacific.
IBackup for Windows 7.0.4. Pro-Softnet Corp., (800) 949-3555, (818) 594-5972. www.ibackup.com
A familiar name in the backup industry, Connected offers a variety of online backup service options for single computers, SMBs and servers. It also markets a fully licensed version of its DataProtector product, which provides the back-end tools necessary to support either an enterprise-level private or standalone public online backup service. For its own online services, Connected operates two pairs of mirrored data centers, one in the United States and one overseas, that are based on disk arrays of the company's own design, with each pair currently capable of storing more than 1.8 petabytes of data.
We found the DataProtector agent easy to install, and the user interface was very navigable. Download and installation took only a few minutes; as part of the information-gathering process we entered a key string for the encryption process and provided contact information for support. After installing the agent, our system automatically connected to the remote server to confirm the account and then proceeded into a configuration wizard, which walked us through the initial file-selection and scheduling process.
The default file-selection rules did a good job of choosing relevant data files and excluding swap, temp and other unimportant transient files. We could manually request backups or schedule them to run automatically on a daily basis, with the option to black out specific days or times. The DataProtector agent provided us with tools to manage backup of open files, but no support for open database backups--we would have to use application-level backup methods independently for databases or mail services and then archive those flat files online. Another limitation was its lack of support for OSs other than Windows. The service provider says it will address these issues in future versions.
Connected uses two proprietary techniques for reducing the amount of data that must be sent after the initial full backup: Its Delta Block technology examined our files and selected only those blocks of data that had changed, while the SendOnce technology logged a pool of common files across multiple agents by file name, size and date, and stored only one copy of identical files. After initially populating the pool with a full backup, all future backups use a pointer to reference the existing pool copy rather than storing a new copy--much better than paying to store multiple iterations of identical application and system files as well as duplicate data files.
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