Configuration (Back To Top)

When you subscribe to SmartPick's offsite backup service you will receive a username, password and instructions to download the SmartPick Backup client software. The client software is preconfigured with default values that works for most users. Once downloaded, it can be installed in less than 2 minutes, following the instructions on the screen. Configuration involves the following steps:

1. Configure the username, password, and a secret key for securing your data with encryption.
2. Select the files and directories to be backed up.
3. Set up a schedule for backup.
4. Configure the email notification with your email address.
5. Done.

You can backup multiple computers from your network by accessing other computers as Network Drives or you can install the SmartPick Client software on multiple computers. You can have one schedule or multiple schedules. Schedules can be daily, multiple times every day, weekly, monthly, etc. You can have multiple Backup Sets that contain different files scheduled to backup at different times. SmartPick client is a very powerful and flexible software that allows numerous options for customization, yet can be configured in less than five minutes for a typical office network. Once configured, it does not require you do anything, except monitoring the backup via the email notifications sent to you automatically after each backup.

Backup (Back To Top)

To perform the backup, SmartPick client software will do the following:

1. Scan the selected files and build a list of changed files.
2. Compress the changed files or prepare a Byte Patch for the files with the changed data only.
3. Compress the data.
4. Encrypt the data using 448-bit blowfish encryption.
5. Transmit the data to the SmartPick data center.
6. Write a log and send an email to configured recipients.

The initial backup will compress and transmit all the selected files. Subsequently, only changed files will be selected for backup. Even from the changed files, only the data that changed (using our unique Byte Patching technology) will be transmitted. This technology reduces the bandwidth requirement by over 90%, making SmartPick's incremental backup the most efficient system today.

If you delete a file from your sever (intentionally or accidentally), the file will remain on the SmartPick server for 10 days. (optionally longer, even indefinitely). To delete a file from the SmartPick server, the user must explicitly delete the file from the SmartPick server using the Backup Client software.

SmartPick will maintain revisions of your changed files for a period of 10 days. After 10 days, the oldest version will be merged with the full backup, keeping the last 10 days backup as revisions. The 10-day window can be increased or decreased based on user requirements.

Security (Back To Top)

Data security and availability are our top most priority. Your data is encrypted using the most advanced encryption algorithm (448-bit blow fish) on your server, using a secret encryption key provided by you (a word or a phrase, using letters, numbers, spaces, etc.). The Encryption key is never transmitted to the SmartPick Server or anywhere on the internet. Only you have the secret key. The data CANNOT be restored without this encryption key. Even SmartPick administrators cannot access your data. IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT THAT YOU KEEP THE SECRET KEY IN A SAFE PLACE. Your data remains compressed and encrypted on SmartPick servers. It is restored to readable data only on your computer, after you provide the secret encryption key. (Read more about SmartPick's data security)

SmartPick stores your data in a class-A data center and uses state-of-the-art systems:

• Redundant power generators.
• High availability RAID5 storage systems (over 99.9% availability).
• Redundant internet backbone connections.
• Gigabit network connections.
• Secure firewalls.
• 24 hour security monitoring and security cameras.
• Authorized physical access only.
• Climate control with redundant cooling systems.

Restore (Back To Top)

Restoring data from SmartPick backup is a snap. You can restore data on to the same server that backed up from or on to any other system. You can restore your server data on your laptop, while you are travelling. All you need is the SmartPick Backup client (that can be downloaded from SmartPick website), your username, password, and secret encryption key.

You select the files for restore using the Restore tab. Click on Restore Now button. That's it. (See our support page for details).

Service Value (Back To Top)

SmartPick's offsite backup service offers significant cost savings, in addition to providing several technical and operational advantages. By using advanced encryption technology it also enables compliance with federal regulations -- which is very hard to achieve using tape backups. A typical small or medium business pays $40 to $70 per hour to a network administrator or an IT consultant, compared to $1 to $2 per hour for SmartPick's offsite backup!

	In-house Tape/USB disk backup	SmartPick Offsite Backup Service
HW/SW costs and maintenance	Additional HW (tape drive/juke box) and software to be purchased and maintained. Routine purchase of backup media. Requires SW maintenance - upgrade, bugs, license costs, and administration.	No additional HW to be purchased. Nothing to maintain. No software to buy or maintain.
Reliability	Requires discipline and regularity to do effective daily backup. Tapes need to rotated and cataloged daily.	Fully automated for you. No handling of tapes/CDs. Reliable daily backup. SmartPick will monitor your daily backup.
Offsite	Need to carry/send the tapes to offsite for safe storage. Additional costs. Added inconvenience.	No need to transport anything. Your data is safely stored at a high security Data Center with redundant copies.
Restoration time and costs	Single file minimum restore time < 30 minutes. More restoration time = more down time, more costs and lost productivity. Often needs special IT services to restore data from tapess.	Single file minimum restore time <30 seconds. Restore as often as you need at no additional costs.
Security	With a simple tape backup, anyone can steal the tape and restore your files on another computer.	SmartPick offsite backup is secure. Encrypted using the same technology used by US government for most classified information. The data cannot be retrieved by anyone except you.
Technology	Tape drive model are always becoming obsolete. Need to replace tapes every 2 years with newer technology. Same story with backup software.	Current technology and internet infrastructure enables most advanced backup solution for you at an affordable cost. As you don't buy any HW or SW, technology does not concern you either.
Bottom line	Self-service with onsite IT help. Higher risk and cost.	Full-service with offsite backup. Peace of mind and lower costs.