Cheap UNLIMITED, FULLY AUTOMATED, Cloud backup & Storage

[Richwill15]

Hi all,

bit of shameless self promotion here. Some of you will know the story but I was made redundant a while ago and have been building out a new cloud based online backup and storage service. Well, it's ready to go. So, here's some details.

If you use a computer and you don't protect the only unique part of it (the information), then this service is exactly for you. Based in UK datacentres - there are 3 of them (so unlike Google, Microsoft, Dropbox or the myriad of other services) it is not subject to the USA Patriot ACT 2001.

There is NO FREE storage.

These are just loss leaders to entice you to use a service. What there is, is lots of space and unlimited (yes as much as you can throw at it) backup.

If you purchase just backup, you can backup your PC or MAC and any hard disks attached to it, as long as each physical drive is 2TB or less. What that means is if you have 10x2TB drives attached to your computer (an interesting amount of kit) you can back the whole lot up without a problem.

There is no restriction in file sizes (so entire dvd's worth of stuff if you want) and all your information is available to you online anywhere you're connected to the internet. Naturally, there are iOS and android apps so you can use mobile devices to access your stuff too.

If you're into archiving, sharing? Then the CloudShare service is for you. No messing with 1 or 2 GB of free space. The basic plan starts at 500GB and you can go as big as you need to.

Again, you can choose to share whatever you want with whoever you want. Naturally, the mobile apps mean you can get to your data, stream your music etc via any internet connection.

There's a natural trepidation with putting information online, but as we are getting more and more comfortable with the idea of doing it, there is still the question of security. We are using 256 AES encryption which, is effectively military grade. It's as secure as any transaction you would make with a bank or online shop.

The entire site is secure and has a SSL certificate covering the website through to the cloud portal.

A Common question i've been asked is, why should i pay for this when i can get free storage from google, microsoft or dropbox? The answer is pretty simple. There's no such thing as free. The infrastructure costs quite a bit of money. What they do is simply spread the costs across everyone who does pay. And believe me when I say they are A LOT more expensive than I am. Additionally, they rely on the fact that once you're using the service you will naturally just grow into it. Let's face it, the average PC has a damn sight more than 5GB of unique and important data on it. They also hope that in the same way mobile phone companies do, that you will be less likely to move service because of the perceived inconvenience.

By the way, none of them are offering fully automated backup as well as synchronisation across devices and sharing.

The site is still evolving and there are some changes that will take place over the coming weeks but the core of it is there and ready to use. Service payments are taken by PayPal (and no, you don't need a paypal account) because, this is more cost effective to set up and use than build one from scratch.

Support is via email (again to minimise costs).

A bit of background. I used to run a very large IT security company and have been in the trade for best part of 30 years. I have built entire infrastructures for investment banks, government departments and small businesses alike. And I can tell you that the ONLY unique aspect is the information you create and use. Everything else is commodity and can be obtained from a myriad of places.

What's more, I can guarantee that on any one of your computer systems there is at least ONE file that is worth more to you than your entire computer. It might be a photograph, a document a video. For the kids it might be a dissertation or piece of work. The peace of mind knowing that your information is protected is worth something.

If you're not backing up your stuff then you should. If you're relying on usb sticks, then you need to think security. If you think the external hard disk is enough, then good for you at least you have a copy. But if that goes at the same time as the computer? then what??

Data should exist in at least 3 places. They should be separated by a good distance and those places need to be secure.

Anyhow, feel free to bombard me with questions (Please use the email address on the site and not on here).

By way of a thank you I've arranged for a 50% discount for all PMC forum members (again, paid or unpaid). This is agressive pricing on an already good value product but I'm passionate about information management and security. I also understand its importance.

Have a look at the site, comment, feedback, ask questions. Purchase, you seriously won't find a better deal.

https://www.excipere.com/pmcforum.html

[Guest]

Good effort mate!

And good luck with the new business.

SW

[Richwill15]

Cheers Simon appreciate the support and encouragement.

As with all new ventures it's an uphill struggle. It's British, it's better than the others and doesn't rely on US equipment. So the Feds just can't wander in and have a look without so much as a by your leave.

Imagine the earache you'd get off your kids if they lost their dissertation or their music? That's gotta be worth the cost just to avoid that

Have a great day all.

[bholleran]

Hi,

This is something I am very interested in having tried most of your competitors, I will happily switch to your service.

Can I make some feature request \ suggestions that I would really like. They may already exist but I have not tried your software yet.

1. I would like the ability that in a disaster i.e. total failure at my end to be able to pay extra and have all my data transfered to a hard disk and sent to me via post \ courier etc. As I dont like the idea of waiting for days \ weeks \ months to get it all back.

2. Bandwidth management that I can control. i.e. I am quite often on other customers sites, and I would not want to hammer their network performing a backup, also there are time when I am at home and want to continue surging but allow the backup to continue without hogging all the resources. There are times when I do want it to use all available bandwidth i.e. 01:00 - 07:00, so a schedule for bandwidth would be useful.

3. Upload management allowances. i.e. If I pay to have a 10gb upload limit per month I would want to limit the toatal amount backed up in a month to 8gb and then upload the rest in the following months.

4. Incremental file level backup. i.e. I run quite a few virtual machines, and the virtual hard drive can be many gb in size, if I change just a single file in the VM it would be nice to only send the difference.

I am sure there are a few more but this is my wish list to start with.

Good luck with the business, I will try it out later this evening and let you know how I get on.

Thanks

Barry

[Richwill15]

Hi,

This is something I am very interested in having tried most of your competitors, I will happily switch to your service.

Can I make some feature request \ suggestions that I would really like. They may already exist but I have not tried your software yet.

1. I would like the ability that in a disaster i.e. total failure at my end to be able to pay extra and have all my data transfered to a hard disk and sent to me via post \ courier etc. As I dont like the idea of waiting for days \ weeks \ months to get it all back.

FAB idea Barry, already working on a data valet service to provide this facility during initial backup (it costs more money but would give you an additional hard drive to act as another repository). Wouldn't be a problem to to provide an alternate service to download to an external drive and courier over to you. I'd have to figure out the costs, but it's an excellent idea. I'll try and get something referenced on the site by the end of the week.

2. Bandwidth management that I can control. i.e. I am quite often on other customers sites, and I would not want to hammer their network performing a backup, also there are time when I am at home and want to continue surging but allow the backup to continue without hogging all the resources. There are times when I do want it to use all available bandwidth i.e. 01:00 - 07:00, so a schedule for bandwidth would be useful.

Bandwidth throttling is already part of the control panel setup. You can therefore decide how much or how little you want to use for both upload AND download. fully configurable out of the box. One of the advisories is to figure out how fast your connection is and throttle accordingly so you can still use it during the day, whack it up at night when your circuit is quiet.

3. Upload management allowances. i.e. If I pay to have a 10gb upload limit per month I would want to limit the toatal amount backed up in a month to 8gb and then upload the rest in the following months.

There are NO bandwith or allocation caps. Unlimited means exactly that. You pay for capacity. I have a guy who's just bought 10 Terabytes and he's planning on filling it all, it will take him some time because his upload speed is controlled by his ISP, but he just wants his stuff secure and protected. if you bought backup you have an unlimited amount of space. Simple as that. No if's no but's no messing around. just an assurance that it's safe, secure and accessible.

4. Incremental file level backup. i.e. I run quite a few virtual machines, and the virtual hard drive can be many gb in size, if I change just a single file in the VM it would be nice to only send the difference.

I've not tried this one. interesting. in theory files are already backed up at file level so any changes in a particular file will only be backed up. but if you're backing up the vm upon which the files live then what? hmmm. I'll have to go away and think on this one. I can't promise the outcome you want, but i'll certainly look at seeing what I can do.

I am sure there are a few more but this is my wish list to start with.

Good luck with the business, I will try it out later this evening and let you know how I get on.

Thanks

Barry

cheers Barry, all feedback really helpful. it's a heavy lift pulling this all together.

[bholleran]

Also is there an easy way to add more PC's to the account after it is started, and is it possible to get it cheaper if you order a 10 Pc license.

i.e. I have no desire for the cloud storage or sync, so I would be better off with cloudstor service but for more PC's rather than paying more for the cloud central service.

Or better still do you do a site license, as this would allow me to backup the individual virtual PC's.

Thanks

Barry

[bholleran]

Hi,

I did not make my self clear with thsi point.

3. Upload management allowances. i.e. If I pay to have a 10gb upload limit per month I would want to limit the toatal amount backed up in a month to 8gb and then upload the rest in the following months.

I understand that you have no upload limits, what I mean is that if my adsl line / isp provider has upload limits, I may be charged £xx per mb/gb that I go over so I would want to limit the amount that I back up each month.

4. Incremental file level backup. i.e. I run quite a few virtual machines, and the virtual hard drive can be many gb in size, if I change just a single file in the VM it would be nice to only send the difference.

I've not tried this one. interesting. in theory files are already backed up at file level so any changes in a particular file will only be backed up. but if you're backing up the vm upon which the files live then what? hmmm. I'll have to go away and think on this one. I can't promise the outcome you want, but i'll certainly look at seeing what I can do.

Again this is how tha competition do it, What I am suggesting is different. Let me give you an example.

If I had a Vm configured as follows. 2 Virtual Hard drives (1 for the os c:, 1 for Data d:)

So lets assume that the D: is 2TB in size (Dynamically sized) and I have used 1TB of data on it, made up of thousands of word documents.

In the begining I back up the 1TB to the server (1 Single file), I than start the VM and change 1 document, and stop the VM. Most companies will try to upload the entire VM hard drive again, but in reality they only need to send the small section of the file that has changed. (I think it is called delta syncing, Although I suspect that it would need a local copy of the file to compare with - but for me it would be perfect.)

[bholleran]

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Edited November 20, 2012 by Guest

[Richwill15]

Also is there an easy way to add more PC's to the account after it is started, and is it possible to get it cheaper if you order a 10 Pc license.

i.e. I have no desire for the cloud storage or sync, so I would be better off with cloudstor service but for more PC's rather than paying more for the cloud central service.

Or better still do you do a site license, as this would allow me to backup the individual virtual PC's.

Thanks

Barry

Hi Barry,

the short answer is yes we can scale up as required. I'd need to understand the requirement a bit more such as the numbers of vm's involved. But I'm sure I can do you a deal.

ping me an email with the numbers you're thinking of. Btw, i think this would offer far more granularity regarding individual VM backup rather than trying to backup the entire VM

hope this helps

[Richwill15]

Ok, I have hit my first problem. Sorry

I have two physical SSD Drives one for my os (c:) and one for Data (d:)

I want to backup the whole of my data drive, but I cannot do that at the first screen. This would then force me to individually add each folder that I have at the root of the data drive. This means that if I add a new folder I have to manually remember to add it before it is backed up.

This is the same as some of your competition and the very reason they did not get the business.

Regards

Barry

hi Barry,

can you email me a screenshot of the problem etc? i'm trying to visualise it.

[Richwill15]

Hi,

I did not make my self clear with thsi point.

3. Upload management allowances. i.e. If I pay to have a 10gb upload limit per month I would want to limit the toatal amount backed up in a month to 8gb and then upload the rest in the following months.

I understand that you have no upload limits, what I mean is that if my adsl line / isp provider has upload limits, I may be charged £xx per mb/gb that I go over so I would want to limit the amount that I back up each month.

ahh ok, not sure that's possible due to the issue with the upload limitations being placed by the ISP. It's a nightmare having conversations with them about this. Believe me, when I tell you that I have had numerous meetings with many ISP's to discuss the rationale about increasing upload bandwidth due to the number of people now sharing stuff. It's happening, albeit slowly. Unfortunately, ISP's (typically those providing mobile access) aren't interested in their customers being digitally responsible, they're more interested in bleeding customers dry for using their existing infrastructure (sorry, bit of a rant there )

4. Incremental file level backup. i.e. I run quite a few virtual machines, and the virtual hard drive can be many gb in size, if I change just a single file in the VM it would be nice to only send the difference.

I've not tried this one. interesting. in theory files are already backed up at file level so any changes in a particular file will only be backed up. but if you're backing up the vm upon which the files live then what? hmmm. I'll have to go away and think on this one. I can't promise the outcome you want, but i'll certainly look at seeing what I can do.

Again this is how tha competition do it, What I am suggesting is different. Let me give you an example.

If I had a Vm configured as follows. 2 Virtual Hard drives (1 for the os c:, 1 for Data d:)

So lets assume that the D: is 2TB in size (Dynamically sized) and I have used 1TB of data on it, made up of thousands of word documents.

In the begining I back up the 1TB to the server (1 Single file), I than start the VM and change 1 document, and stop the VM. Most companies will try to upload the entire VM hard drive again, but in reality they only need to send the small section of the file that has changed. (I think it is called delta syncing, Although I suspect that it would need a local copy of the file to compare with - but for me it would be perfect.)

I think you'd be better off adding each VM as part of your CloudStor account to achieve a granular level of backup. Be an interesting test at the very least.

[Richwill15]

Ok, I have hit my first problem. Sorry

I have two physical SSD Drives one for my os (c:) and one for Data (d:)

I want to backup the whole of my data drive, but I cannot do that at the first screen. This would then force me to individually add each folder that I have at the root of the data drive. This means that if I add a new folder I have to manually remember to add it before it is backed up.

This is the same as some of your competition and the very reason they did not get the business.

Regards

Barry

Barry, sent you an email with what I believe the fix to be. Can you let me know when you get it

[bholleran]

It is often said no news is good news, and whilst this is quite often true, we then never hear about the people who go above and beyond in delivering a service.

With that in mind I thought I should post about the excellent service that I have had from Excipere, I have used most online backup systems out there and I am familiar with most of the quirks in them. I am what most people would consider to be a power user with many machines that I need to back up. And most of the other software on the market is simply not good enough for my complex requirments.

After some lenghty conversations with Al he has explained how to achieve almost all of my requirments (way more than the average user) and now I am a very very happy customer

I will be recomending them to all of my customers who need online storage, as the service was second to none in my opinion.

So if you are looking for a good backup solution at a VERY resonable cost this should be your very first port of call.

If it works for me it will work for you.

Well done and good luck with the new business.

[Guest]

Result!

When I get a moment we can talk about my 8TB (and growing quickly!) of footage.

SW

[Richwill15]

It is often said no news is good news, and whilst this is quite often true, we then never hear about the people who go above and beyond in delivering a service.

With that in mind I thought I should post about the excellent service that I have had from Excipere, I have used most online backup systems out there and I am familiar with most of the quirks in them. I am what most people would consider to be a power user with many machines that I need to back up. And most of the other software on the market is simply not good enough for my complex requirments.

After some lenghty conversations with Al he has explained how to achieve almost all of my requirments (way more than the average user) and now I am a very very happy customer

I will be recomending them to all of my customers who need online storage, as the service was second to none in my opinion.

So if you are looking for a good backup solution at a VERY resonable cost this should be your very first port of call.

If it works for me it will work for you.

Well done and good luck with the new business.

Cheers Barry, happy to help. We'll hopefully address some of your more unique requirements in future releases. You do realise though that you'll have to tell folk we did not pay you for your endorsement

Thanks again.

[Richwill15]

Result!

When I get a moment we can talk about my 8TB (and growing quickly!) of footage.

SW

Sure dude, just give me a shout when you're ready.

Thanks for all the help and encouragement. You know how long I've been building this.

[Richwill15]

just to let you guys know, if you've more than a couple of pc's you want to protect? our 5 for £40 deal will end this week. they're going fast so don't miss out.

https://www.excipere.com/cloudstor.html

have a great week. If only the weather would let up

[Richwill15]

if you're wondering if we can support people outside the UK? (i've been asked) the answer is absolutely! USA PATRIOT ACT does not apply to us. You may however need to be aware of any legislation that is applicable to you.

[Richwill15]

Just to remind you that our offer of unlimited backup of 5 SYSTEMS for £40 ends on Friday. That's right if you have Terabytes of data on physically attached drives you can protect them all and gain access to them on any browser from anywhere in the world.

Or of course you can save £40, lose your kids pictures and have the benefit of having your missus remind you every 30 seconds

[rob_jones]

Just thought I would pen a few words to give my view on this "too good to be true" offer. Like most I guess I am fairly sceptical when I see what is a blatant punt for business on a forum site, but of course it just so happens that I have an ever growing library of Go-Pro footage and images that I cannot seem to contain. I have various 2TB seagate drives that I keep saving data to and no matter how regimented I try to be in backing them up I just cannot keep up with the volume of data generated.

After a little research of Excipere and a chat with them I thought why not give it a shot, you dont have anything to loose and £20 for a year of unlimited storage isnt something to be turned away.

I signed up and was given a portal link with a username and password, all very straight forward. A quick download of the plugin and I am ready to start. You can select the files and folders you wish to back up and trigger the scan, it really couldnt be any simpler and I have been watching my files copy onto the portal site.

Downside - well I hadnt realised how poor the upload speed is from my ISP and its taken 3 days for 18GB to migrate, on the flip side this is forcing me to priorities the items that I must backup versus those that I might like to backup.

The utility seems to be chugging away in the background and even as I type this I can see 2 more files just completed.

I really couldnt recommend this solution and I consider it to be a critical step in anyones workflow, you will only realise how much you miss those photos once its too late and anyone whom believes there hard drive will realise the truth one day.

Great product and service

[Guest]

Awesome news! BUT

Did you miss the word 'enough' in the sentence below? lol

"I really couldnt recommend this solution and I consider it to be a critical step in anyones workflow, you will only realise how much you miss those photos once its too late and anyone whom believes there hard drive will realise the truth one day."

SW

[rob_jones]

HAHA - I think I actually missed off "....hard drive never crash", I actually wrote a longer write up after hitting post it vanished and I couldnt be assed writing the whole thing again.

[Richwill15]

Thanks for the recommendation (i think) Rob

upload speed is a pain for everyone, to put it into some context though. Every provider is subject to the same problem as it's the ISP's who control it and they are focussing on download speeds as of now.

an average internet connection will upload a 450K file in about 5 seconds. People's data use is only going to increase and we need to do something to protect it. If folk don't care, that's fine. a second hard disk is something, but we've already had folks telling us that our solution has actually saved them from significant financial and emotional cost.

Some of the stories are hillarious.

safe skies

[Richwill15]

Morning all,

hope you're all recovering from yesterday's celebrations. Just want to thank those of you that have taken us up on the offer and remind those that are thinking about it that it finishes next week. So, don't think too long. If you have any questions please just email me.

https://www.excipere.com/pmcforum.html

[Richwill15]

Last couple of days folks. The PMC Forum special deal will finish on Friday 4th Jan 2013. If you still have questions just email me.

Thanks to all those that have taken up the offer. All those still thinking about it? The service will still be excellent value but you've got a couple of days to take advantage of 50% discount by way of a thank you.

Have a great new year and a fantastic 2013

Safe skies to all