TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Depositit's self-contained Java based solution ensures complete data protection, effectively minimising all risks at all levels, with no single point of failure.

System Requirements

The Depositit service is currently compatible with individual computers or servers running Windows 95/98/ME/XP (Home and Professional), Windows NT/2000/2003, Windows Vista or Apple Macintosh OSX which meet the minimum requirements as listed below.

These are the minimum requirements needed to run the Depositit application.

Secure Server Architecture

Depositit store each users data to a minimum of three geographically separate and commercially independant data centres each served by an independent IP provider (providing bandwidth connectivity). This assures that not only is data loss not an option but data integrity, service availability and consistency can be guaranteed even if two data centres are unavailable.

The data centres are connected to each other by way of a VPN (Virtual Private Network). This offers fastest transfer rates and further security as it is not accessible to the general Internet using public.

All storage servers within each location are fully redundant in their own right - running RAID5, which allow for immediate hot swappable hard drives in the event of drive failure.

Firewalls are used to protect any data sensitive components of the Depositit servers from unauthorized access over the public Internet. These act as virtual security guards.

All user data stored on the Depositit servers is maintained in an encrypted format (see below) with the filenames further encrypted to prevent any data identification.

Data Encryption

The security measures integrated into Depositit use highly regarded processes and algorithms researched, tested and accredited by academic institutions and industry.

All data is transferred to our servers using SSL (Secure Sockets Layers), which has been universally accepted on the World Wide Web for authenticated and encrypted communication between clients and servers. Encryption is a method of scrambling information within a file so as to make it completely unintelligible. All data sent over an encrypted SSL connection is protected with a mechanism for detecting tampering - that is, for automatically determining whether the data has been altered in transit.

All data stored at Depositit is retained in an encrypted format (448-bit) so that there is no possibility of unauthorized access. The mode of encryption employed by Depositit is called Blowfish, one of the most sophisticated algorithms available. It is endorsed by the military and widely used by the banking and telecommunications industries. Additonal information on blowfish technologies can be found at www.counterpane.com/blowfish.html.

All encryption occurs "on the fly" which means that it happens automatically as a file is transferred with no additional input from the user. In this way the user can be assured that all data being transmitted to and from Depositit is totally secure.

Login to the servers is based on a unique combination of the user name and password that provides access to a randomly generated encryption key ensuring a dedicated encryption and decryption code for each user.

Additional security levels ensure that if a user inputs an incorrect password on more than three consecutive occasions the service will automatically lock them out. In this way “brute force” attacks are severely limited as it is almost impossible for anyone to guess a password within three attempts.

Compression

All data transferred to and from Depositit is compressed prior to transmission. Compression is a means of reducing the actual file size so that the amount of data ultimately sent over the network is smaller. This results in faster transfer rates and less time spent on line. Depositit elect to pass on the benefit of compression to their users as it maximises the amount of data that can be stored. Many other remote backup providers do not pass on this benefit to their users, which mean that those users will effectively be paying more money for less storage.

The percentage amount that a file can be actually compressed will depend largely on the type of file. Certain file types react better to compression than others. Word documents, spreadsheets and database files can be reduced by up to 80%. Picture formats such as .jpg and .gif already have compression algorithms applied, so the amount of further reduction is often limited.

Similar to the encryption technique, all compression takes place "on the fly", without any consequent user interaction. Depositit have programmed a default setting that allows for optimum compression without compromising either processing or transfer speed.

Incremental Backup

The first time data is transferred to Depositit, the entire file or series of files will need to be sent. Thereafter only changed or new files will be transferred, as the system has the intelligence to establish that any files that have not been changed and are already present on our servers do not need to be transferred each time a backup occurs. This substantially reduces the online time required to perform a backup.

Delta Blocking Technology

This process takes the incremental backup one stage further in that only the relevant part of any changed file needs to be transferred to our servers. In this way if only minor changes to a document were made, only this small amount of changed information will need to be uploaded as opposed to the entire file. This again has a large impact on time spent online carrying out backups especially when working with large files such as databases that are routinely updated during the working day.