[geemc]

I've had my disasters with backup software. You know how it goes. The backup is running fine and you know because you check it. Your busy season hits. Time passes. Then, when you need your backup, you find out it stopped working a while ago because of something rediculous in the system. I just downloaded the free trial version of Universe Point's, ION Backup and it looks like its got the answer considering its graphically friendly features that allow full, incremental and system state choices for local and LAN. Add to that....ION backs up your file structure EXACTLY in compression and to restore, you just drag them back! ! Finally, the 24/7 Monitoring service completes the picture for me! I think with monitoring, the whole system looks like a gem. Has any one else taken a look at Universe Point's ION? Geemc

[mphenterprises]

Hi Geemc. First, I have moved your Discussion into the "Other Software & Services" Community. Now, if I am not mistaken, you do not have an actual concern with this application. You just want to know if anyone has had any experience with this program, correct?

If I have misread your post, please clarify so we can all try to help you.

[geemc]

That is correct. I have just started my own business and while still very small, I know I will need a reliable BackUp System that is very user friendly and very reliable. My business experiences allowed me to witness multiple backup failures always discovered when we needed them to work! So, I was blogging to see if my opinion of UniversePoint's ION was shared by others. I thought it looked like my solution when I downloaded the free trial. It was really user friendly, multiple backup features, but the features that I liked the most were, it copies the HD exactly, compresses it and to restore from the backup is just a click and drag back to you HD...Then they offer remote monitoring of the sucess of the BackUp process and they call you to notify of a failure. Meanwhile, they have no access to the data itself. Long story short, I was looking for a professional review and opinions. Thanks! Geemc

[mphenterprises]

Okay, great. Now, as a small business owner myself, I have never used this application. However, anything that one can use to minimize potential lose of valuable data is a plus. Since you are a new member, you may not have the ability to post any hyperlinks.

I am going to try this application myself and give my opinion. If anyone else either has an opinion of this application or would like to try it, here is the link:

http://www.universep...p-software.aspx

Thank you Geemc.

[geemc]

Thanks. I look forward to reading your thoughts on it. Geemc

[DanUniversePoint]

Hi,

Thanks for the kind words about our software, ION. We look forward to reading the review from PCWorld. We have had nothing but positive reviews from our customers so far but I realize you're looking for other feedback. The only other review I'm currently aware of is at the FileSlinger backup blog. I'm probably not allowed to post links either, but you can just google it.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Dan Heckman
CIO, Universe Point

[mphenterprises]

Hi Dan. I noticed by the signature in your email to me that you are local to my area. I reside about 20 minutes from your corporate office in Upper Darby, PA. I didn't notice from your website but how long has UniversePoint been in existence?

I'll give your application a thorough run through and will give my opinion soon.

[DanUniversePoint]

We have been in business for just over 2 years now. We spent the first
year researching the backup needs of small businesses. Our goal was to
find the major problem areas and backup was the big one (close second
is printer problems). Our second year was spent designing and
developing ION to tackle the problems geemc alluded to earlier.
ION was officially released for public consumption on August 1st.
We moved to Upper Darby (from Bensalem, PA) back in January. Our CEO,
Jeff Snader, and Managing Partner, Larry Dillon, have been meeting with
local IT companies and related small businesses for the past two
months, and the response has been outstanding. I'm sure they would
really like to meet with you. I'll leave my number below, give me a
call and we'll set something up.
Dan
610-352-1150 ext 228

[mphenterprises]

Hi Geemc & Dan. I didn't want to split this post into two parts. Okay, I installed the trial version of ION and tested it. I am impressed with the ease in which a person can use this application. I am very impressed with the flexibility of the application and the way that a person is basically guided along each step. I like the fact that the backup can be encrypted; however, I would have preferred a higher encryption rate. That being said, I do not believe this application is for me. Let me explain.

I do weekly backups of all of my personal and business data. I am religious about backups. I have several back up options that I use on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis:

- DVDs
- Secondary Internal Hard Drives
- External Hard Drives
- Online Storage

I started the ION backup process expecting to have an option to backup to their online server. However, my only options were local or LAN locations. I went back to the UniversePoint website and discovered that the ION Box for Workstation - Package comes with an external hard drive. I have over 2TBs (Terabytes) of local hard drive space. So, for me to get another 250GB External Hard Drive just to do what I already do now is redundant.






Dan, for individuals such as myself, who already do external backups, this service may still be appealing. I think this service is geared more toward people, professional as well as regular individuals, who do not have the space or the time to do regular backups. I think if there was an option to backup to an ION server, you would reel in a much larger demographic.

I would be more than happy to discuss online possibilities. I currently use another service to store my files online. Even though I am satisfied with that service, it would be nice to know that the company I use for electronic storage is not more than a short drive away. If electronic storage is not available at this time, please email me when that process is in the works. You can check my profile and click on my url for contact information.

[DanUniversePoint]

Hi,
I appreciate you taking the time to review ION. We agree that a good backup policy includes both on-site and off-site backups on regular intervals. You are welcome to use your internal hard drive or any external hard drive you may already have, and, as you mentioned, we also offer an external hard drive with ION pre-installed. If you're interested in a larger external hard drive, you may use your own or you can give us a call and we would be happy to get one for you. Through our research of small- and medium-sized businesses we found that business owners preferred to have their data in their possession, as opposed to an unknown data farm. This led us to develop ION's Site-to-Site backup feature. You can use ION to backup to an off-site location of your choosing, whether another office location, your home computer, or anywhere else where you feel comfortable storing your data. Then, if there ever is a problem, you can just drive home and pick up your data, transfer it back to the original machine, or just go to the other office and work with the files there.
We realize some people may prefer other solutions, however we know, through our research, that this is the desired method for small- and medium-sized businesses.
If you are interested in reviewing our Site-to-Site transfer capabilities, I would be happy to provide you with another ION license to install on an additional computer.
Warm Regards,
Dan

[mphenterprises]

Hi Dan. Thank you for that offer. However, I pride myself on being an "outside the box" type of business owner. A site-to-site backup option is good, but not something that would benefit my needs. For example, if something happens to all of my internal and external drives,and if I happen to lose all of my DVDs, I would still have my online backup of everything. All I would have to do is access my online data from any computer with internet access.

This being said, I will definitely keep it in mind for future possibility. For now, I will stick with what I have but I can definitely see a niche for your application.


Thanks again and Good Luck

[smax013]

DanUniversePoint said:

Hi,

I appreciate you taking the time to review ION. We agree that a good backup policy includes both on-site and off-site backups on regular intervals. You are welcome to use your internal hard drive or any external hard drive you may already have, and, as you mentioned, we also offer an external hard drive with ION pre-installed. If you're interested in a larger external hard drive, you may use your own or you can give us a call and we would be happy to get one for you. Through our research of small- and medium-sized businesses we found that business owners preferred to have their data in their possession, as opposed to an unknown data farm. This led us to develop ION's Site-to-Site backup feature. You can use ION to backup to an off-site location of your choosing, whether another office location, your home computer, or anywhere else where you feel comfortable storing your data. Then, if there ever is a problem, you can just drive home and pick up your data, transfer it back to the original machine, or just go to the other office and work with the files there.

We realize some people may prefer other solutions, however we know, through our research, that this is the desired method for small- and medium-sized businesses.

If you are interested in reviewing our Site-to-Site transfer capabilities, I would be happy to provide you with another ION license to install on an additional computer.

Warm Regards,

Dan

Dan:



You might want to poke your head into this discussion: [t-20785]. The original poster is looking to a backup option for his sister to backup data from her laptop (while at school, I believe) to a home location. This would appear to be a prime application for the site-to-site functionality of your ION backup software. How does the site-to-site feature deal with dynamic IP addresses that most home broadband connections use? What ports would have to be opened on a router? And what type of security/encryption does the connection have?

[DanUniversePoint]

Thanks for the heads up. I'll head over to that forum and look into it.

We found that the ISPs only change your home IP on a semi-monthly or quarterly basis. ION, from the user end, pings the central server with the updated IP Address on a regular interval. When a user is looking to do a Site-to-Site transfer, ION checks with the central server for the most up-to-date IP address for the receiving computer. For backup operations there are no router configurations necessary. When a user is looking to do a Site-to-Site transfer the program is configurable to allow the user to select the port that must be opened on the receiving end. As for security, 128 Bit encryption exists on all transfers, but additional encryption, including password protection, can be added on to that at the file level.

Thanks again for the referral to the other discussion. If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me.

All the best,
Dan

[smax013]

DanUniversePoint said:

Thanks for the heads up. I'll head over to that forum and look into it.

We found that the ISPs only change your home IP on a semi-monthly or quarterly basis. ION, from the user end, pings the central server with the updated IP Address on a regular interval. When a user is looking to do a Site-to-Site transfer, ION checks with the central server for the most up-to-date IP address for the receiving computer. For backup operations there are no router configurations necessary. When a user is looking to do a Site-to-Site transfer the program is configurable to allow the user to select the port that must be opened on the receiving end. As for security, 128 Bit encryption exists on all transfers, but additional encryption, including password protection, can be added on to that at the file level.


Thanks again for the referral to the other discussion. If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me.


All the best,
Dan

Very true...my dynamic IP address more than likely RARELY changes (it helps that I am connected basically 24/7). But, it can still happen.



Does the ION software work purely by IP address or can it work also be domain name? In otherwords, would a domain name and dynamic DNS help with ION?

[DanUniversePoint]

Absolutely. ION allows you to specify domain names or any dynamic dns service for your transfers. In fact, I use dyndns to connect to my home computer and transfer backups from the office. As long as there is a port setup on the receiving router to redirect to the right machine, you can do the transfer.

Dan

[geemc]

Hi MPH and Dan,

I have enjoyed the discussion of UniversePoint's ION and I have learned even more about it's excellent features, but now I have more questions! If I can backup locally, and via LAN and Internet; Can my backup schedule include two locations for each backup? One on site backup and one offsite location for each backup both which would be monitored for completion by ION? Geemc

[DanUniversePoint]

Absolutely. This is exactly where our Site-to-Site transfer would be applied. Transfers to an off-site location can be scheduled to immediately follow a backup. Your backup can be run on the schedule of your choosing, then you would set up a Site-to-Site transfer to run immediately afterwards and copy that backup to a location of your choosing. The result would be two backups, one on-site and one off-site.

Dan

[geemc]

Well, after looking at every backup system out there, I've made up my mind to go with ION. I think UniversePoint has developed the total backup solution with ION!

An awesome product -- at a price that fits into my budget with the security and peace of mind I was looking for and...... it will grow with me!

Here's to Growth

Thanks Dan and good luck with ION!

geemc

[mphenterprises]

Hi Geemc. I definitely agree with you. This product may not be for me; however, I can definitely see a market for this application. Please keep us posted and ask any questions you may have.