How the Backups and Data Transfers work
The Vigilance strategy is to minimize bandwidth use by using an intelligent "Client+Server" software system.
This means that large volumes of data can be backed up very efficiently.
The Vigilance Client runs on any Windows PC or Server, though Window 2000 or above is preferred.
We recommend a minimum of a 400Mhz CPU, but the faster the CPU the better.

 You specify the the Drives and/or Directories to be backed up.
Standard temporary directories and files are automatically excluded, and you can add in your own exclusions.

The Vigilance Client runs locally and the Vigilance Server runs on the remote Web Server.
When data is transferred between the two it is always compressed 'on the fly' by the Client and similarly
decompressed by the Server, for bandwidth efficiency.

 When the local Vigilance Client runs (usually by automatic schedule on a nightly basis) the backup procedure is:

- local files are compared with the remote files.
- on the Vigilance Server, old/deleted files are moved to a dated store
(such as 28-09-2007)
- a list of just the changed and new files is created.
- new files are sent direct to the Server.
- changed files are compared locally and remotely, one by one,
and just the changed portions of the file are transferred.
- the Server copies the old file to the dated store (28-09-2006)
and then 'creates' the new file by combining the new data
with the unchanged parts of the old superceded file.
- a status email is sent to your nominated recipients 

This ability to do file comparisons means that very large files that have just a few changes can be backed up within minutes.
It is super-efficient, and fast!!

How Data is Stored Remotely
The standard backup scheme typically comprises:

MAIN STORE – Complete copy of your specified data
5 x DAILY BACKUPS – Daily stores of superceded & deleted files, for the past week
3 x WEEKLY BACKUPS – 3 Weekly stores of the superceded & deleted files provide a complete month of backups.
+ MONTHLY BACKUPS (optional) - Monthly stores of files, zipped to save space

A Weekly Backup is a combined backup of all the changed & deleted files for that Monday to Sunday.
Later files take precedence over older ones, i.e. a particular file that changed daily will have just it’s Sunday version retained.

1 or more Monthly Backups - can also be stored indefinitely on-line as you require.
To save space, these Monthly backups have all files individually Zipped.
i.e. a file named "MyLetter.doc" is stored zipped as "MyLetter.doc.zip".

For extra security, we can also provide CDs/DVDs of your data.
We can store them in our safe and/or send them to a nominated address.

Backup Considerations
The brilliance of the Vigilance strategy is the ability to backup very large amounts of data very fast, even over slow Internet
connections. The drawbacks can be twofold, remote storage is not compressed (though we hope to solve this at some point in
the future), and that "backups of backups" are not always efficient. Using a Zip file as an example (though it applies to many
backup programs) when a Zip is updated it usually makes changes throughout the whole file. This usually leads to the whole
file being transferred again, even if only one small file within a large Zip has been changed - not efficient!

Retrieving Data
Individual files are easily restored from the secure Website. This is Username and Password protected.
You just navigate to the required file and click on it (or right-click and 'Save As') and start a normal download
(see the Demo Site).
For larger volumes an FTP program is quicker as they can usually download whole directory structures.
There are many available (often free). More information is supplied if you subscribe to Vigilance.