Computers are the default storage medium for most businesses and virtually all home users. Because portable media is quickly becoming an outdated and expensive method for safeguarding important data it is essential to secure critical business assets and personal information with an easy-to-use, automated, online backup service. The PC Backups backup, archiving and recovery service is a powerful, yet simple to use solution. PC Backups comes equipped with encryption backup tools previously available only to Fortune

500 companies, but with an interface designed to be used by anyone in any size organization. This proven technology is user-friendly, reliable, secure and cost-effective. In this white paper you will learn about product features and how the solution can help protect your important data.

Simple Installation

Forget installing drives and changing tapes! Those methods are labor-intensive and can take hours or even days to complete, depending upon the size of the business. Setting up our solution is an easy, one-time event. Within minutes, you are backing up files automatically on a schedule of your choice. After the initial backup, subsequent backups take mere minutes to complete because only new or modified files are uploaded.

Automatic Backup

With PC Backups, data backups are completely automatic and you can also manually initiate a backup at any time. Once the software is installed, you will create a backup set.

The backup set is the list of files that you want to backup along with the schedule of when you want the backups to occur. You do not have to select each and every file that you wish to backup because the software includes wizards that make it effortless to choose the files for your backup set.

You have two options for selecting files. You can choose files according to the folders that they reside in or by their file types. You would choose to select files by folder if, for example, you wanted to backup every file in My Documents. You would simply select the My Documents folder from a Windows Explorer-like view of your hard drive. The software allows you to select multiple folders, to exclude certain folders and to choose individual files to backup.

When selecting files by type, PC Backups provides a list of commonly used application programs to choose from. For example, you could create a backup set that backed up all of the Microsoft Word and Excel data files on your hard drive, by simply clicking on two boxes (Word and Excel). Every time a backup occurs, the online backup software will automatically find all of your Word and Excel documents. To offer you even more power for managing your data backup sets, you have the option of including or excluding specific folders or even excluding specific types of files.

Once you finish selecting what to backup, the online backup software can calculate how much data you have chosen.

Setting up your secure online data backup service schedule is also very easy. The online backup software gives you the option of setting a different start time for each day of the week. You also can choose not to run backups on certain days. Or, you may want to keep the default schedule, which is to backup each night Monday through Friday.

In addition to being able to edit or change a data backup set, the software also allows you to set up multiple backup sets. Multiple backup sets are useful, for example, if you want to backup the same files more than once a day or backup certain files daily and other files weekly.

Off-Site Storage

With PC Backups, all backed up data is automatically transmitted to two off-site, geographically dispersed, data centers via a secure Internet channel. If you are currently storing backups on portable media, such as tapes or disks, at your home or business, this online method would prevent the loss of data in the event of a natural or man-made disaster such as fire or theft. If you do bring portable media backups off-site, our solution eliminates the hassle of having to physically transport backup media to a facility.

Scalability

Have you had to catalog endless CD’s or change tapes in the middle of a backup when space runs out? Now you will never need to worry about purchasing more hardware to support your personal or business data growth. With this solution, you can never run out of storage space. We make it possible for your online storage account to grow with your needs.

File Restoration 24/7

Let’s face it - you could have the most powerful and most secure backup method around, but it is useless if you can’t easily recover your files when you need them. That is why we have made restoring files with the PC Backups online backup service simple and reliable. In fact, you can start restoring your files in seconds with just a few clicks of your mouse.

Restore files when you want, as often as you want. You have the ability to retrieve individual files, revisions of files, entire folders or backup sets. Or you can recover all of your data files in the event you experience a complete system failure or data loss.

To restore individual items, you can log in to the software, enter the encryption key and choose the files, folders or revisions you would like to retrieve by clicking on the file name. The data will then be downloaded to your computer, decrypted and then restored to the original location or another specified location on the system.

In the event of a complete system failure, a full data recovery can be initiated in just minutes. The recovery procedure can be performed on any Windows-based computer – not just the computer where the data was originally backed up. You can simply download and reinstall the software, enter the username and password, and then enter the encryption key. Once the software installation is complete, the file catalog can be accessed (the list of all of the files backed up) which will allow the user full control to restore their data.

To restore certain data, the user can log in to software, enter the encryption key the user simply chooses the files, folders or revisions that he/she wants to retrieve by clicking on the file name. The data will then be downloaded to the user’s computer, decrypted and then restored to their original location or another specified location on the user’s system. A password is required to restore any files, thus, preventing unauthorized restores, as per the HIPAA Security Rule.

In the event of a complete system failure, a full recovery of the user’s backed up data can be initiated in just minutes. The recovery procedure can be performed on any Windows based computer - not just the computer where the data was originally backed up. The user can simply download and reinstall the PC Backups software, enter his/her username and password, and then enter the encryption key. Once the software installation is complete, the file catalog can be accessed (the list of all of the files backed up) which will allow the user full control to restore their data.

Encryption

PC Backups is a secure online data backup which encrypts each file using 256 bit AES encryption technology. When you first install and configure the online backup service software, you will choose a 48 character string that will then be converted into a 256 bit encryption key. Only you will have access to this encryption key. It will never be transmitted over the Internet and it is never stored on our servers. This means that only you can access your online backup files. Each file that you backup is encrypted using this key and remains encrypted until you restore it and it returns to your computer.

How strong is 256 bit AES encryption? Well, let’s put it this way. In June 2003, 256-AES was approved by the United State’s National Security Agency (NSA) for use encrypting the U.S. government’s documents classified “TOP SECRET.”

Transmission

In addition, the software communicates with the backup servers using SSL (Secure Socket Layers) technology. This is the same encryption technology used by Internet browsers when a user enters a secured site such as an online bank. As a result, the online backup of data is encrypted twice. It is encrypted at all times using the 256 bit AES encryption, and it is encrypted again while it’s being sent over the Internet.

Storage

Exchange and SQL Plugins

PC Backups gives you the power to backup your Microsoft Exchange Exchange 2000, Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007 databases as well as Microsoft SQL Server databases. With Exchange, you can perform both full and incremental backups and with SQL, you can run full and differential backups. Plus, you can customize your backup schedule.

Microsoft Exchange Plugin

The PC Backups Microsoft Exchange plugin is the perfect tool for performing live, secure Exchange backups. It takes minutes to install and configure the Exchange plugin, and once configured, backups will run automatically. You have the power to schedule full and incremental backups throughout any interval of the day, week, or month. The Exchange plugin runs seamlessly in the background as a service, never interrupting email flow.

Microsoft SQL Server Plugin

With the PC Backups SQL Server Plugin, your server will never experience any downtime during a backup. The plugin runs seamlessly in the background as a service, never interrupting or shutting down the SQL databases. It takes minutes to configure the SQL plugin and once completed, backups will run automatically.

Setting up the plugin is effortless: simply download, select the databases you wish to backup, schedule times to run your full and differential backups, and then set the retention level. You can have a backup running in just moments. Restoring SQL data is just as easy as setting up the backup - select the item you wish to retrieve and start the restore.

Multiple Revisions

With our online backup service, you can store an unlimited number of versions of the same file (by default, the software stores the last 10 versions of each file). So, if you have certain files or databases that you update everyday or every week, you can always go back to a previous version if you need to. Go back to yesterday. Go back to last year. Plus, you never again have to worry about accidentally deleting the information in a file or overwriting a file by mistake.

Logs and Reports

How do you know your backups actually worked? PC Backups’s logs and reports show you what was backed up and when. With detailed statistics and information about each file that is backed up or restored, you never have to wonder if your backups really worked. Did a specific file get backed up? Just check the log.

Receive email notifications

If you want even more assurance that your backups are functioning, you have the option of receiving automatic email notifications following every successful backup. You can turn this option on and off whenever you want from the software.