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Review of ElephantDrive Online Backup

By: Stephen McGovern

Company background
ElephantDrive was founded by a group of technologists who are passionate about developing first class software and intrigued by the challenges of storing, securing, and protecting massive amounts of data. They are based in Los Angeles and have worked together for many years designing and providing online applications.

Currently they provide one free version, two home versions, two SME accounts and large company options.

Security Abilities
Data being copied to and from their servers are secured with 128bit SSL encoding; which is the industry standard. Once on their servers your information is secured by 256 AEG encryption. You can use a personal encryption key to further secure your information.

Backup Options
Open and locked files can be backed up in the business editions only.
Plug-in media can be archived in all versions except the Home edition, yet network drives can be backed up in the Professional editions.
Backups can be continuous or scheduled, if continuous, then just files that are altered are backed up. Backups can be configured to archive by folder or by file type. There is a utility called TrunkManager that permits you to move files directly from your machine to the ElephantDrive by way of either drag-and-drop or by picking the files you wish to copy and click the upload or download buttons.

File versioning is automatically setup however the number of versions permitted depends on the edition used:
- home edition gives 3 file versions
- home pro edition allows up to 10 versions
- pro edition provides 20 versions
- pro plus edition gives unlimited versions

Restore Options
Files can be restored by way of either the 'TrunkManager' or the internet. Either way, navigate to the file you need to recover and drag-and-drop the data to your PC. If you need to retrieve a specific version, then click on the file and pick ‘Version History’. Then just select the version you wish to recover. Restores start almost instantly.

Control and Analysis
All backup 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. Processor and internet usage are worked out by the TrunkManager, yet you can configure throttling to on, off or scheduled for specific times.

Interface
The ElephantDrive can be setup as a logical drive letter using the program installed with the client software. The web portal gives access to your complete archived file set and you can view and retrieve different file versions from here.
The Pro Plus edition has centralized admin options and all versions provide support for Proxy servers.

Device Support
MAC OS X and higher
Windows 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000
Linux support is on the way

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 Amount of Devices: Home – 1; Home Pro – 4; Pro – 10; Pro Plus – 20

File Sharing and Collaboration
Any file held on your ElephantDrive can be privately shared by right-clicking on the item in Trunk Explorer and clicking share. Then just fill in the email addresses of the people you wish to share the file with and they will be sent a unique web location to the file. Public File sharing is not supported.
There are no collaboration tools within ElephantDrive.

Synchronization
PCs synchronize to the web portal but not directly to other clients.

Web 2.0 Integration
At the time of writing ElephantDrive does not have partnerships with any web services or social network sites.

Customer Support
Self-help support is very good: Available to you is a knowledge-base, forum and blog for interaction with other people using ElephantDrive and ElephantDrive staff. For reference there is a very good FAQ section and the user documentation is also very good. There are tutorials, testimonials, demos, webinars and case studies.
You may contact ElephantDrive privately: Either by email or by using the web form. There is telephone support however only by appointment. I found their customer support very helpful, knowledgeable and friendly.

Learning curve
Both the web portal and the client program are very straightforward to use. If you can use the file explorer in Microsoft Windows, then you can use ElephantDrive. Adding files to archive lists and retrieving information is intuitive and easy. Mapping ElephantDrive as a logical drive took some working out yet once setup it acts as 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 space: – n/a
- Cost of additional devices / PCs / users: n/a
- E-billing facility: Yes

To Sum Up
ElephantDrive is a slick and straightforward archive client. While it is extremely well made and does its job extremely well, it would be good to see some online service integration to facilitate modification of files directly from the internet site. At this point ElephantDrive is a solid, effective and reliable Online Backup Solution, however we cannot shift the feeling that there is so much more it could be doing. I would love to see ElephantDrive develop into a fully-developed Online Storage and Collaboration Service. We will have to wait and see what develops. At the moment, if you want a very reliable, speedy and easy Online Backup Solution then ElephantDrive is an excellent choice.

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