When it comes to data loss, the statistics are grim.  How can a business owner take adequate steps to protect their data yet not spend a dime more than they need to? Continue reading →

To better serve our customers we are happy to announce the release of how-to videos we call the Support Series. Continue reading →

You read that correctly. A hard drive fails or is taken offline worldwide at a rate of 3.7 per second. Continue reading →

We’re excited to present you a brand new keepvault.com! We freshened up the KeepVault brand and completely overhauled the web site inside and out. Continue reading →

KeepVault version 4.20 is now available from our download page: www.keepvault.com/software

This release adds much-requested operating system support for:

• Windows 8
• Windows Server 2012 Essentials
• Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials

Important and useful new features for all users:

– manage your devices from the web console

KeepVault version 4.15 is now available from our download site: www.keepvault.com/software

This release adds important and useful features for all users:

– the max file size increases from 20GB to 200GB

– backup of password protected network shares is now supported

– better handling for backup of hidden files and folders

AuthenTec (NASDAQ: AUTH), a leading provider of mobile and network security, announced that Western Digital® (WD®) has selected its KeepVault backup service to provide optional offsite data protection for the new WD Sentinel™ DX4000 series of small office storage servers.

”AuthenTec’s KeepVault adds important capabilities to the WD Sentinel small office storage server by providing offsite data storage for fast yet economical disaster recovery,” said Thomas Gallivan, vice president of marketing for WD’s SMB Solutions Group. ”The combination of WD Sentinel and AuthenTec’s KeepVault not only ensures automatic backup of PCs, laptops and Macs within the office network but additional peace of mind by providing businesses economical offsite backup as an insurance for their valuable data.”

Read the full press release here  http://tiny.cc/WDwithKeepVault

We are excited to announce the release of KeepVault v4.11!  We’ve made numerous improvements to the software to improve your overall experience. This is our best software and service ever, we think you’ll agree.

Cross Device Access & Restore
Access and restore the files from any of your protected computers using the ‘Selective Download’ feature in the KeepVault software interface. Previously reserved for KeepVault Pro users only, this feature makes it even easier to recover files to a new computer or share files between any computer on your account.

Daily Status Reports
KeepVault Pro & Business customers can opt-in to receive a daily summary email showing the backup status of each of their computers. Quickly check important backup statistics to ensure your data protection is operating smoothly.

Client Computer Backup/Restore (WHS & SBS Essentials 2011)
We’ve worked closely with Microsoft to enable a special mechanism for backing-up and restoring the Client Computer Backups created by WHS & SBS Essentials 2011. Now you can protect these online simply by selecting the ‘Client Computer Backups’ entry in the KeepVault interface and the software will do the rest.

San Luis Obispo, CA (PRWEB) July 12, 2011

Thousands of small businesses protecting their data using KeepVault.com Online Backup can take advantage of new flat fee pricing of just 15 cents per GB, with no per-computer or per-server fees. Web access has been enhanced for mobile devices like iPhones. A free trial is available.

Read the full press release here … http://www.prweb.com/releases/keepvault/online_backup/prweb8606718.htm

In our last blog post we compared the maximum upload speeds of some of the most popular online backup services. The results showed a distinct advantage in upload bandwidth to the pay-for-what-you-use services from Mozy and KeepVault vs. the ‘unlimited’ plans from iDrive and Carbonite (Carbonite took 575% longer to upload the same file as KeepVault).

But what does it mean to have a fast upload speed vs. a slow speed?

Risk Index

The whole point of offsite/online backup is to reduce the risk of data loss due to some unforeseen incident/disaster at your location. Now, consider this: during the time it takes to back-up a file, it is still unprotected, eg it is still at risk.  The larger the amount of data you have, and the slower your connection, the more at-risk your data.

We can express this as:

Risk Index = (amount of data to be protected x time to protect)/2

Visually, the Risk Index (Ri) is the area under a time-to-protect graph:

The table below shows the Ri values for KeepVault, KeepVault Pro, Mozy, Carbonite and iDrive (based on the results of the earlier test).  Indices were normalized against the leading solution (KeepVault Pro).

iDrive is five (5) times more risky that KeepVault Pro, while Carbonite is seven (7) times more risky!

Reduce Risk Further – A Hybrid Approach

The Ri values above are only part of the story, it actually gets worse for iDrive and Carbonite. Neither service offers hybrid local and online backup.  KeepVault Pro, KeepVault, and Mozy all allow the user to backup data to both a local hard drive (KeepVault Pro also supports network drives like a NAS). The main advantage of a local backup is speed; your data will be protected quickly, preventing loss due to things like accidental data deletion and equipment failure on the protected device.

If we were to compare Ri values and factor in local protection then KeepVault, KeepVault Pro and Mozy would be tens, if not hundreds of times LESS risky.  KeepVault also has true Continuous Data Protection (CDP), files are protected the moment they change. Some services batch-up changed files and protect them when it’s convenient for THEM.

Summary

Don’t be deceived, just because you slapped down some $$ and purchased ‘unlimited backup’, doesn’t mean you are magically and instantly protected.  Speed of backup is vital in reducing your exposure to data loss. Next time, choose a hybrid backup solution with fast upload speeds and CDP; otherwise you’re risking the very files you want to protect.