• Bucket-level versioning creates multiple copies of each data point and retains that data once any change is made from the original document. This gives us the ability to preserve, retrieve, and restore earlier versions of data stored in an Amazon S3 bucket.
• AWS multi-factor authentication gives Backupify an additional layer of security mitigating risks around delete operations.

Backupify also partnered with Rapid7 to conduct penetration testing, identify the largest potential threats and provide guidance on how to mitigate any risk associated with those threats. This structured approach to security identifies the top threats that have the greatest potential impact on an organization’s infrastructure.

Security matters immensely for a backup company, so when comparing Google Apps backup providers, ask if they have been tested by an outside security firm. Backupify has, because the security of your data is our top priority. For more information on Backupify security, feel free to check out our Backupify Security Brief.

No mention, it seems, of what the IPO means for Facebook’s users. The smart money says privacy, security and data ownership are the big winners of the Facebook IPO. Why? Take a gander at Facebook’s actual SEC filing. This is a peek behind the curtain at Facebook’s financials that the company would never have allowed in the past. Yes, it’s trading that close-to-the-vest secrecy for an expected $5 billion cash infusion, but once you cross the threshold to publicly traded entity, that kind of secrecy is never coming back.

So what has this to do with privacy, security, and data ownership? Well, for starters, the SEC spotlight makes it possible for the data liberation movement to keep a much keener eye on Facebook’s inner workings. And where the SEC goes, the Federal Trade Commission often follows, and they have some rather strong feelings about consumer protections.

Now, being publicly traded isn’t a panacea. Facebook may remain an online dictatorship when it comes to user rights, and their culture of privacy indifference can’t change overnight, but there’s a rather powerful impetus to keep from playing fast and loose with user data: A public share price. Facebook will need to step lively to keep Uncle Sam happy, because nothing smacks a share price around like a federal investigation. Look no further than Google’s recent mini-dust-up over its unified privacy policy — and the Congressional oversight thereof — to see the level Facebook is playing at now.

Facebook is going public, in more ways than one. And they’ll have to work twice as hard to keep the public on their side. That can only be good for users.

Just make sure you have a good backup plan.

• Backupify for Google Apps is a backup solution
• Postini Message Discovery is an archiving tool

Archiving and backup are two very different use cases, and it’s important to understand the distinction when evaluating products designed to meet each demand.

The rule of thumb: Archiving is for discovery, backups are for recovery.

More broadly, archiving tools are for expediting auditing and compliance tasks, backup tools aid in error correction and disaster recovery. While you can use most backup tools to aid discovery tasks, and it’s possible to employ some archiving systems as recovery solutions, neither are ideal for those use cases.

Why You Need An Archiving Tool
Because you have to know where your data has been, and have to be able to prove it.

Archiving tools are designed to make compliance audits and legal discovery requests simpler. Archiving systems create copies of data that are intended to illustrate who had access to emails and documents when, and who made which changes at what time. Their interfaces and data exports are designed to satisfy regulators and investigators.

If you ever get sued, you’ll be glad you deployed an archiving tool beforehand. However, if you try to restore an email or document with your archiving tool, you’ll be upset you didn’t have a backup system instead.

Why You Need A Backup Tool
Because you can’t live without your data and, if it’s ever lost, you want to get it back as fast as possible.

Backup tools are designed to keep your business data secure and intact in the event of natural disasters, security breaches or good, old-fashioned user error — the latter of which makes up nearly one-third of all data loss, and two-thirds of data losses within Google Apps. Backup systems create copies of data that are intended to maximize speed of recovery, such that you can restore any lost items or accounts with the absolute minimum delay. Their interfaces and data exports are designed to satisfy I.T. professionals.

If your system ever gets hacked or someone maliciously deletes your data, you’ll be glad you deployed a backup tool beforehand. However, if you try to piece together an audit trail with your backup records, you’ll be upset you didn’t have an archiving system instead.

Backupify vs. Postini
Backupify and Postini are not competing products, they are complementary solutions. Archiving is a best practice in regulated industries, and backup is a best practice for any critical system. It is entirely possible, and often best practice, to deploy both Postini and Backupify on your Google Apps domain. That said, there are specific differences between the two products, and you should know beforehand exactly what functionality you require — and are legally obligated to possess — before deciding whether Postini and/or Backupify is the right solution for you.

Unlocked from solitary confinement on an isolated local hard drive, server or network, cloud data can (theoretically) appear in any browser, be shared with any application, and be put to any use you see fit. Connected via the Internet to any online system, your data is infinitely more versatile and valuable than ever before.

But only if your information is actually free.

Is your email really free if you can’t extract it from your webmail provider? Are your business contacts and relationships really yours if there’s no meaningful way to transfer them between online CRM systems? Do you really own your e-books, movies and music if their attached DRM dictates which devices you can consume them on?

Information locked inside one online application is just as restrained as information trapped on a single hard drive — but worse, because you don’t control the storage system in question.

Let’s go one step further and consider all the data you passively create, which has no analog on local systems.

The ad-tracking information innately generated by your surfing habits has value, and consequences, to which you should be privy. The meta-data divined from analysis of all your online data storage is also a product of your labors, and you should have as much access to, and benefit from, that information as the system you’re using. Moreover, the applications and services storing and creating this data are vulnerable to attack and exploitation, and you deserve to be apprised of the dangers — new and old — that arise from the widespread adoption of cloud computing.

The preeminent technical issue of this decade is data ownership. This blog is dedicated to discussing the implications of data ownership, and how individual users and organizations can take and retain control of their online data.

Not all, or even most, online services or applications seek to imprison your data — but some do. Data transparency and portability are not in the direct, short-term interest of your online service providers. The harder it is for you to change services, which is to say extract the content you create from an online application, the easier it is for vendors to protect their revenue. The less you know about the meta-data that online services collect on you, the more those vendors can exploit that data without oversight or opposition. That isn’t a conspiracy, that’s basic business.

The promise of the cloud is that your data can go anywhere and do anything you want. The peril of the cloud is that your data can only go where and do what your web application provider will allow. What is allowed should be indistinguishable from what you want. This blog will be dedicated to advancing that cause.

Welcome to the cloud, where everything will be possible only when your data has been set free.

Hope you’ve got a good backup plan.

—

What do you love — and what do you fear — about the cloud? Is data ownership a legitimate concern, or are we tilting at windmills? We welcome your feedback in the comments below.

One of the most common criticisms of Google’s Apps business is that it’s just a bunch of small companies using the free version of Google Apps. But is that really true? We did a little research to find out, as summarized in the infographic at the left.

Over 8,000 businesses have signed up for a trial of our Google Apps backup product, or Snapshot – our Google Apps account download tool. When someone signs up for a trial, one of the pieces of information Google sends us over the API is the total number of seats on the domain (which we use for capacity planning). As a result, we have a nice sample of data to look at to see who is on Google Apps*.

Now, to be clear, this is not a random sample. This sample consists of people who want to buy backup for Google Apps. And in our experience, it skews towards domains with at least 30+ users. Why? Because that is the point where companies add an I.T. person, and I.T. pros are the ones who love to buy backup for anything and everything. Our close ratios on larger companies are much, much better than on the small ones.

But getting back to the data… what does our sample of companies on Google Apps say about the Google Apps ecosystem? Here are some inferences that can be drawn based on the data:

1. Most of the domains are small

As you can see from the chart, 53% of the domains are 10 seats or less, just what you would expect based on what you hear in the tech media about Google Apps. Domains with 10 or fewer seats are free, and free is a popular price point. But that doesn’t tell the whole story.

2. The number of small domains doesn’t matter because the big domains overwhelmingly drive revenue and seats on Google Apps.

Notice that 0.33% of domains drive 54% of seats. Even with educational institutions  removed, 0.22% of domains drive about 40% of seats. (Schools also get Google Apps for free, regardless of domain size.) If that ratio holds true across Google’s number of 50 million total Google Apps users, then more than 20 million paying business users are on Google Apps. If that’s the case, Google Apps should be closing in on a billion dollar annual revenue run rate.

I will add that, based on our data, it also seems that the average size of a Google Apps deployment is increasing. That is, larger and larger accounts are moving to Google Apps.

3. If you sell a per-domain product in the Google Apps marketplace, you should probably customize it for smaller accounts. If you sell a per-seat product, you should probably customize it for larger accounts.

Selling add-ons to Google Apps can be difficult because the large customer base spans many customer segments — more than most small companies or startups can target. Very few solutions work for mom & pop accounting firms and real estate office and also work for large universities and software consultancies. But, because Google Apps is relatively young, there is a lot of whitespace around the product, and thus lots of add-on opportunities for those who find their niche. Moreover, Google has increased staffing in their partnership department this past year, signaling that they take their partners seriously and want to build a strong ecosystem that includes add-on developers.

4. If you remove educational institutions, the largest industry on Google Apps is the technology industry.

No surprise there. But why don’t we hear more about some of the cool tech companies on Google Apps? Well, from dealing with customers in this industry, I can tell you that many of them don’t want to be reference customers and don’t want any publicity. But there are some big names on Google Apps, some that would surprise you.

That is our take on the Google Apps ecosystem, based on our own survey. You can see the full infographic here, and of course, if you are on Google Apps and need a backup, sign up for our 15 day free trial.

*Note: All data shared about our Google Apps install base is derived from aggregated user data. We don’t share any customer- or account-specific user data without clearing it with the customer first. If you want to see customer-specific data, check out our testimonials and case studies.

We’re contacting you to let you know that your Backupify account needs attention. Recent changes in Facebook’s API required us to alter our Facebook backup system. As a result, we need you to re-authorize your Facebook account to re-start your backups. Don’t worry, it’s easy. Here’s what you need to do:

Step 1. Login to Backupify.

Step 2. Select your Facebook account(s) listed in the Backup tab

Step 3. Click the Reauthorize button at the top of the page, then follow the instructions

That’s it. After these steps, Backupify will again be able to connect to your Facebook account and verify that all your Facebook data is safely backed up.

If you have any questions, or receive any email that takes you to a non-Backupify URL, please the Backupify Support Desk.

The Backupify MigrationApp transfers Gmail (including labels and status), Docs (collections and permissions included), Contacts (groups and categories), and Calendar (primary and secondary) from one Google Apps domain to another. It is perfect for these commonly requested cases:

• Migrating a company domain you have acquired to your own domain
• Migrating an entire Google Apps account to a new domain because of a domain name change
• Migrating users across domains (for example, moving students who graduate to an alumni domain)

The app will be free for a single account on any domain, and cost $15/account for migrations after that. However, if you sign up now for beta access, you can get MigrationApp for 50% off. The first migration is free, and every additional MigrationApp transfer you purchase costs a mere $7.50.

Other features include:

• Self serve application – Easy set up and a single click to start migrations
• Monitor Progress of migration at any point in time
• Notification on migration completion, including details of data migrated
• Error reporting in cases of exception during the migration process
• Migrate data within the same Google Apps domain or between Google Apps domains
• Uses OAUTH2, so setting up authenticated domains is fast, easy and secure
• Uses existing Backupify infrastructure, domain expertise to ensure security and reliability

If you need to move all your data from one Google Apps domain to another, and would like to try our tool (and receive a 50% discount), fill out this short form to receive early access to the Backupify MigrationApp.

1. Data control allows companies to move to the cloud with confidence.

Data is a critical asset for most companies, and while I.T. managers aren’t generally worried cloud providers will lose their data, it isn’t an acceptable business risk to have the only copy of important business data in someone else’s control. Data control issues have prevented many companies from adopting the cloud. Backupify can give some control back to the I.T. department by providing a secure second copy of all cloud data, which means companies who wouldn’t consider the cloud before can now enjoy the benefits of going cloud without the downside of losing control.

2. Fragmented access to cloud data increases the chances of a mistake.

One of the main benefits of the cloud is the ability to collaborate with others online. You can share files so that others can edit them. You can “sync” data across multiple devices. You can install hundreds of apps that will access your data via APIs. All of these things increase the chance that a person makes a mistake that syncs across multiple locations, or a bug in a third party app screws up your original data source. With Backupify, you can have an independent backup to restore a piece of data or a full account so you can always revert to your previous state.

3. User error is real.

Google has great Disaster Recovery, but that DR is designed to protect users against disasters and incidents that may happen to Google. What about your disasters? What about accidental user deletion? What about malicious deletion by an employee who finds out he is about to get fired?

One of the main use cases we hear about from Backupify customers is that they accidentally delete an email or calendar event and don’t know how to get it back. With a third-party backup, this becomes a non-issue. If anyting goes missing or wrong within your account, simply head on over to your Backupify account to restore the file (or, dare we say, the entire account).

The TechWatch gang appeared to pick up what Rob was putting down and commended Backupify on allowing users to “manage their data on a personal level.” We’ve said before and we’ll say it again, the era of the cloud will be all about taking control of your data. We’re working to make Backupify a tool in the arsenal of that cause. TechWatch thinks we’re on the right track, how about you?

Got a take on data ownership, TechWatch, or Backupify in general? Drop us a line.

First, because most of our architecture is built upon Amazon Web Services (AWS), we passed Amazon’s SLA through to our customers. Secondly, in the early days of Backupify, our business customers were mostly under 1,000 employees, and that customer segment didn’t ask much about SLA, and usually found the necessary legalese of a formal SLA to be an unnecessary burden. (Frankly, to many small businesses, the only SLA they care about is a support phone number they can call when something goes wrong.)

Over the past year, we have seen multiple organizations with more than 1,000 employees sign up for our Google Apps backup service (you can read about one of them here), and this customer segment is always very interested in our SLA. After much feedback from these customers about what a web application backup SLA should contain, we are excited to announce a new Backupify SLA. Below are the key points.

1. 99.9% uptime on the front end of the website. This insures that we will be up when you need to access your backups.

2. Guaranteed complete daily backups, once your initial backup is completed. While we complete the majority of initial backups in a single day, Google’s API limits won’t allow us to pull all the data from large accounts in a single 24-hour period. However, once that initial backup is done, we guarantee completed daily backups going forward.

3. Remedies if we don’t complete your backups are:

We extend your term by 3, 7 or 15 days depending on the impact of the problem:

- Downtime: 3 days if over 99%, 7 days if over 95%, 15 days if under 95%

- Backups: 3 days if we miss 1 day, 7 days if we miss 2-4 days, 15 days if we miss 5+ days

Over the past 3 years, we have made significant investments in the quality, reliability, and scalability of our platform. Those investments have allowed us to introduce what our lawyers and PR tell us is an industry-leading Service Level Agreement, and become the first cloud-to-cloud backup provider to guarantee completed daily backups of your data. Feel free to contact us if you have specific questions or comments. The full SLA will be on the website next week, at which time we will update this post with a link.

The announcement prompted several questions from customers about how to access versions of Calendar events and Contacts entries. Below we detail the version data available in your Calendar and Contacts archives, as well as instructions on how to access them.

Google Calendar Versions:

We’ve all been invited to meetings that get changed five times because of unexpected scheduling conflicts. But sometimes, a mistake can happen when an event is rescheduled, such as an accidental deletion or removal of an invitee. How do you get that previous version back?

1. Login. Simply login to Backupify, click on your Google Calendar account and click the ‘Previous Versions’ button on the top right of your screen.

2. Choose a Version. In the dropdown menu of dated versions, choose the version you need to access (see screenshot below). You now have the ability to download any version you need and both save the event locally to your computer or open it to view immediately.

Google Contacts Versions:

Accessing different versions of Contacts in Google works in much the same way as Calendar versions. If you ever make a faux pas (by accidentally deleting something, misspelling an email address, etc.) in your Contacts, don’t worry about digging through emails to find their signature or calling them to get their information right. It’s as simple as:.

1. Login. Simply login to Backupify, click on your Google Contacts account and click the ‘Previous Versions’ button on the top right of your screen.

2. Choose a Version. In the dropdown menu of dated versions, choose the version you need to access.

3. Select ‘Restore’ to send the contact back into your Google Apps address book.

Check out Google Calendar and Contacts restore and let us know what you think!

Want backup versions for all your Google Apps accounts? Try Backupify.

Now, as I work in the early days of the cloud industry, I wonder how it will pan out, when we will hit certain tipping points, what new innovations are ahead of us, and what the industry will look like at maturity.

As a cloud industry watcher who also has a direct financial tie to the success of Google Apps, I was excited this week when Google announced that BBVA will move to Google Apps. It is Google’s largest deal to date, and is particularly interesting because the security-conscious nature of banks has made them late adopters to many technologies, the cloud included. The BBVA deal made me wonder if Google Apps, and cloud in general, is close to a tipping point.

I see some signs that it is. One of the trends we have seen at Backupify the last 3 years is the growth in size of the average company that is on Google Apps. At the end of 2010, we had no customers over 50 employees, and our largest lead was a 1,100-employee organization. At the end of 2011, we had hundreds of customers over 50 employees, our largest customer was 3,200 employees, and our largest lead was over 50,000 employees. We now see a handful of 10,000+ person companies every month moving to Google Apps and contacting us about our Google Apps backup product. In other words, from what we see in our customer base, bigger companies are moving to the cloud more frequently, and it is happening fast.

So congratulations to Google on the big win. Congratulations to BBVA on the smart decision to move to the cloud. Maybe 2012 will be the crossover year where more people are in the cloud than aren’t.

But what happens when the online mob punishes you for crimes you didn’t commit? That’s exactly what happened to U.S. Representative Paul Ryan, who was targeted by the online community reddit for his support of the Stop Online Piracy Act. Except that Rep. Ryan doesn’t support the Stop Online Piracy Act. Fortunately for Ryan (and for reddit), all reddit did was raise money for Ryan’s opponent; they stopped short of any denial of service attacks or email purges. So far, at least.

Still, how would Ryan “give in” to the demands of a group that didn’t know — or refused to believe — he already agreed with them? It’s one thing to say you don’t have to worry about online vigilantes because you don’t pick fights with them. It’s quite another to feel safe when these groups target people due to a complete misunderstanding of their positions. You can’t predict attacks based out of ignorance, willful or otherwise.

More to the point, what if you used the same online service as the next Paul Ryan, and the online mob decided to take down that application simply to get at him? How would you like to lose access to Google Apps or Salesforce or your Facebook Fan Page just because somebody else picked the wrong fight — or at least one hacker forum thought they did?

Backing up your online data isn’t simply for the threats you expect — service outages, user error and all the usual suspects — it’s for the attacks you’d never see coming. Paul Ryan got blasted for a crime he didn’t commit. You should backup Gmail or Facebook or any other online account to guard against the next crime you don’t commit.  Otherwise, you put yourself at the mercy of the mob, and they clearly don’t like to be reasoned with.

Hope you’ve got a good backup plan.

So check out the Kroll Ontrack study, and then beef up your backups by giving Backupify a try to protect the data you store in cloud applications.

Google Apps domains admins no longer need to add users to Backupify one at a time. Instead, you now have the option to automatically add new user accounts to Backupify when you create them on your domain. This feature is located in the ‘Account’ tab → ‘Domain Settings’. (See screenshot below)

Those of you managing large domains no longer need to visit Backupify every time you add a new user account to ensure it’s backed up. Instead, you can rest assured that every new account added to your domain is automatically protected. Save time, avoid worry — that’s a feature we can get behind.

Check it out and let us know your feedback!

We have made several improvements to the administrative controls in your Backupify account so that you can quickly add, manage and modify any user or service in minutes.
We have made it easier for you to add any number of domain users to your Backupify account, added Google Docs versioned backups and launched full-account restore and account-wide search.

Running your IT department and services is a full job in itself – especially when you place implementing and managing a backup of all your company’s data on top of that. We’re here to make your job (and life) a bit easier.

Don’t take our word for it, though. IT admins across the board are telling us what they are loving most about our latest improvements (from our Google Apps Marketplace reviews)

The Setup:

“Easiest rollout of the year by a country mile. [...] Setup was so easy I was left thinking, ‘is that really all I have to do’?” – Paul M., customer

“Backupify is super intuitive and simple to use. It was one of the easiest backups I have ever done. Easy to manage which users are backed-up, as well as when data was backed-up and how to restore.” – Richard M., customer

Using Backupify:

“Easy to set up. Easy to recover files. Adding and removing users is a breeze. When I have needed to contact them they have always been friendly, professional, and prompt.” – John W., customer

The Support:

“Not only does Backupify work, if ANYTHING goes wrong they’re amazing at fixing it. [...] Fantastic customer service.” – John J., customer

Why this Matters to You:

You, our customers, have given us invaluable feedback which we’ve implemented into our core product to make it even more useful to you. This feedback allows us to fully understand the way you are using your cloud apps so that we can continuously develop customer-centric products and features.

Stay tuned to our continuous flow of new products and cool feature announcements in the new year.

As always, if you want to find out a bit more about how Backupify can help you and your company safeguard all of your online data, check it out here.