Review Of Elephantdrive Online Backup Service
Overview and History
ElephantDrive was setup by a group of techies who are passionate about developing world class programs and intrigued by the challenges of storing, securing, and protecting massive amounts of data. The company are based in LA and have worked together for years designing and providing web applications.
Currently they have 1 free account, a couple of home editions, two SME accounts and corporate options.
Feature Set
Security
Data being moved to and from the servers are protected with 128bit SSL encoding; which is the industry standard. Once on their servers your data is protected by 256 AEG encryption. You can use a personal encryption key to further protect your information.
Backup Features
Open and locked files can be backed up in the Pro editions but not in the home editions. Plug-in storage devices can be backed up except the Home edition, however network drives can be archived in the Pro and Pro Plus accounts.
Backups can be continuous or scheduled, if continuous, then only files that are changed are archived. Backups can be set to archive by folder or by file type. There is a utility called TrunkManager that lets you to upload files directly from your computer to the ElephantDrive by way of either drag-and-drop or by selecting the items you need to archive and select the upload or download buttons.
File versioning is setup however the amount of versions allowed is dependant on the edition used:
home edition provides 3 versions
home pro edition allows up to 10 versions
pro edition provides 20 versions
pro plus account gives unlimited versions
Restore Features
Files can be recovered by using either the 'TrunkManager' or the web. Either way, navigate to the data you would like to recover and drag-and-drop the data to your PC. If you wish to recover a particular version, then click on the item and choose 'Version History'. Then just select the version you need to restore. Restores start almost instantly.
Control and Analysis
All archive jobs can be stopped, paused or resumed at any time by using the desktop client Progress Report. This is also where you will find the error and transfer logs. Speed and bandwidth usage are determined by the program, but you can set throttling to on, off or scheduled for specific times.
Interface
The ElephantDrive can be configured as a logical drive letter using the utility installed at the same time as the client program. The web portal allows access to your entire backed up file list and you are able to view and recover different file versions from here.
The Pro Plus account has centralized admin functions and all versions support Proxy servers.
Device Support
MAC OS X and higher
Windows 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000
Linux support is in development
Limitations
Maximum individual file size: Home - 1Gb; Home Plus - 2Gb; Pro - 2.5Gb; Pro Plus - 5Gb
Maximum Monthly Transfer Limit: Home and Home Plus - 100Gb; Pro - 1Tb; Pro Plus - 2Tb
Maximum Number of Computers: Home - 1; Home Pro - 4; Pro - 10; Pro Plus - 20
File Sharing and Collaboration
Any file uploaded to your ElephantDrive can be privately shared by right-clicking on the item in Trunk Explorer and clicking share. Then simply add the email addresses of the people you need to share the file with and they will get a unique web location to the file. Public File sharing is not supported.
ElephantDrive does not support collaboration.
Synchronization
Computers synchronize to the internet portal but not directly to other clients.
Web 2.0 Integration
Currently ElephantDrive does not link with any web services or social network sites.
Customer Support
Self-help support is good: Options are a knowledgebase, forum and blog for interaction with other people using ElephantDrive and ElephantDrive staff. For reference there is a thorough FAQ section and the user documentation is very good. There are tutorials, testimonials, demos, webinars and case studies.
You may contact ElephantDrive privately: Either using email or by filling in the web form. There is phone support however only by appointment. I found their customer support helpful, knowledgeable and friendly.
Ease of Use
Both the online site and the client utility are very simply to use. If you are able to use windows, then you can use ElephantDrive. Adding files to archive sets and recovering data is intuitive and easy. setting up ElephantDrive as a logical drive took a bit of working out but once setup it acts like any other network drive.
Cost Initial setup cost: free
Monthly Cost: Home - $4.95/mth; Home Plus - $9.95/mth; Pro - $34.95/mth; Pro Plus - $99.95/mth
Yearly Cost: Home - $49.95/yr; Home Plus - $99.50/yr; Pro - $349.95/yr; Pro Plus - $999.95/yr
Initial allowed storage limit: Home, Home Plus - unlimited; Pro - 1Tb; Pro Plus - 2Tb
Cost of additional storage: - n/a
Cost of additional devices / PCs / users: n/a
E-billing facility: Yes
Conclusion
ElephantDrive is a stylish and streamlined archive client. While it is very well done and does its job extremely well, it would be ever better to see some web 2.0 integration to allow alteration of files directly from the internet portal. At this point ElephantDrive is a solid, effective and reliable Online Backup Solution, yet I can't avoid the feeling that there is so much more the service could be offering. We would love to see ElephantDrive explode into a full-blown Online Storage and Collaboration Tool. We will have to wait and see what happens. For the moment, if you require a very reliable, fast and straightforward Online Backup Solution then ElephantDrive is an very good choice.
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