Data Backup and Online Backup, Data Rebound Frequently Asked Questions

Question:	What is online backup?
Answer	Online Backup allows you to automatically back up computers via an internet connection to our secure data centers where your data is off site and secure in case of emergency or accidental deletion ready for immediate restore.

Question:

What are the advantages of online backup?

Answer

Online backup, eliminates the hassles and the worries of traditional backup. Online backup is easy to use, automatic, secure, scalable and affordable. Moreover, online backup requires nothing more than a computer and an Internet connection. No need to buy extra hard drives or expensive tape backup systems.

While backing up your data to tapes, CDs, DVDs, ZIP disks or other removable storage devices is certainly better than not backing up at all, these methods are inferior to online backup. First, there is the inconvenience of having to store these types of storage devices offsite. Otherwise, your backups may be destroyed along with your computer(s) in the event of a fire, flood or theft. On site backup does not provide the security you need in case of emergency.

Second, if you back up only to removable storage devices, you run the risk of losing your data because tapes, hard drives, even CDs and DVDs all eventually fail. Third, recovering files can be a tedious and difficult process not to mention reliability problems with restore.

Question:

I have a home computer. Why do I need to backup my data?

Answer

Nearly everyone has valuable information on their computers such as personal financial information, important documents, emails and contact information. Your computer may also store irreplaceable files such as family pictures. Unfortunately, as computers have become more useful, they have also become more vulnerable to data loss from viruses, hard drive and equipment failures, accidental deletions and theft. Properly backing up ensures that you will never lose your important files.

Question:

Is online backup secure?

Answer

GUARANTEED. Security and reliability are our highest priorities. When backing up, your data is first secured with 128-bit encryption, which is typically used by banks, military and governmental agencies, before transmission to our off-site storage locations. Your data is then safely stored on our servers while remaining encrypted and can only be unlocked with your password (secret key). Only you have access to unlock the data. If you lose the secret key, Data Rebound employees or administrators do not have the ability to retrieve your data and your data cannot be unlocked. This is real security.

Question:	What is the secret key?
Answer	The secret key is a "password" made up by you and is used to encrypt all data that is stored on our servers. The secret key can be changed at any time. If the secret key is forgotten or lost, Data Rebound administrators will not be able to recover the data that is stored on our server.

Question:	If I change my secret key, can I still restore old data?
Answer	Yes. When you change the secret key (password), the previous secret keys are encrypted together using the latest secret key so you can retrieve all your data at any time.

Question:

How does your Secure Online Backup work?

Answer

Our system automatically performs a backup of all files you select through our easy-to-use interface (files can be added to or removed from the backup set any time with this interface). Your initial backup securely copies your selected files to our state-of-the-art data center. This first backup may run for hours in the background depending on the size of your backup and speed of your Internet connection. The initial backup and all subsequent backups run in the background and will not interfere with your work. After the first backup is completed, each subsequent backup looks for any new files and the changed portions of previously backed-up files are added to the backup set. Backups are kept for a pre-determine period of time depending on the plan selected.

Question:

What if I have a slow Internet connection?

Answer

No problem, it still works well. Once the initial backup is completed, each subsequent backup is usually very small. Our software works out which files have changed. Only the changed files are uploaded to the backup servers. Most of our clients' scheduled backups are performed in the evenings. Cancelled backups are resumed, so time is never wasted backing up data already backed up. All backups run in the background and will not affect daily work.

Question:	What files should I backup?
Answer	Important data that changes regularly, data that is valuable and cannot be quickly reproduced, any data that is required to be stored off-site due to regulatory requirements.

Question:

Why not backup all files on my hard drive?

Answer

It's not cost effective to backup programs and operating systems since you can restore those from your program cds. System restore functions are also part of your operating system and should be restored from there for best reliability. On-line backup is geared towards data files. Focus on critical files such as accounting files, project files, My Documents, contact management, patient data, client data and other data critical to your business.

Question:	Can I backup more than one computer to my account?
Answer	Absolutely, you may add as many computers to your account as you like. This is what makes our service so special. You can back any computer and restore that same data to any other computer.

Question:	How often should I run my online backup?
Answer	Most users backup their data daily. If you have mission critical applications you may choose to back them up twice a day. Each "backup set" will have its own schedule. With Data Rebound your have the ability to perform online backups on an hourly, daily, weekly or monthly schedule.

Question:

What if I have a tape or other in office backup system?

Answer

The two systems can actually compliment each other. Critical files can be backed up to the online backup system, while the tape or hard drive system can be used to create a full backup of the entire computer including critical and relatively static operating system files. Although this is not required. The remote backup system provides a quick and easy way to retrieve critical files and databases anywhere, any time.

Question:	Can I restore data to a different computer than the one that was backed up?
Answer	Yes, data can be restored to any computer connected to the internet. This is an excellent way to move data to new computers, clone data for new employees or test the restore process.

Question:

How is my data protected?

Answer

We are a leader and an innovator in the Online Backup industry. We are a reputable company with many years of experience. You should know that Online Backup is all we do.

We understand that your data is very sensitive and confidential and we take extreme measures to protect and secure it. As a matter of fact, your data is much more secure on our system than it is on yours. Here is what we do to protect your data.

Encryption

Your data is encrypted on your computer before it ever leaves your hard drive. You select the encryption key and can change it at any time. We use 256-AES encryption, which was accepted by NIST in 2001 after a 5-year standardization process. It was approved by NSA for protection of US Government's TOP SECRET information. This standard meets or exceeds the level of security used by major banks.

In addition, while in transit through the internet your data travels inside a SSL (Secure Socket Layer) tunnel providing an additional level of security during transfer. SSL encryption is used by most online retailers and banks to secure your transactions in cyberspace.

When the data is at rest at our data center facilities it remains encrypted at all times. Since you select the encryption key only you can unlock it during a restore.

The end result is that your data is absolutely secure – not just hackers, even datacenter operators or the Government can't decrypt your data, not even if they wanted to.

Data Storage Facilities

Because we are an Amazon Web Services partner all of our customers’ data is stored on Amazon’s own data centers. We use the same highly scalable, reliable and fast data storage infrastructure that Amazon uses to run its own global network of web sites.

Amazon uses multiple geo-distributed data centers and your data is replicated throughout this system. This means that even if one of the data centers will be swept off the surface of the Earth by a tornado your data would still be intact in multiple other locations.

Remember, your data resides on the same infrastructure that Amazon, a Fortune 500 company, uses to run its own business-critical operations. This guarantees the durability of your data.

Guaranteed Availability of your Data

Amazon Web Services guarantees access to their infrastructure 99.9% of the time. This means that at virtually any time when you want to retrieve your data it will be there waiting for you.

Question:

How does the restore process work?

Answer

In order to restore data your account needs to have Restore Credit. Restore Credit comes with the Silver and Gold plans and/or can be purchased seperately. Once data is restored the size of the actual restored data is subtracted from the total amount of Restore Credit available on the account and the balance remains in the account. The purchased Restore Credit does not expire and can be used at any time.