32 Internet Services

Ask the Helpdesk

Q.What are the benefits of choosing the TOPS Internet Backup Service compared to an in-house solution, such as a zip disk or CD backup?

A. We have designed the TOPS Internet Backup Service to be as flexible as you need, so you can use it exclusively, or as a companion to your standard backup system. Here are some of the benefits that our customers have acheived with this service compared to an in-house solution:

One of the biggest benefits of the TOPS Internet Backup service is the fact that it is tied directly into TOPS 2000™. The service allows you to only backup or restore those module files that apply to your situation. For example, if a mistake was made in your CCR module, but your accounting data is fine, you can choose to restore only the CCR data, instead of having to re-do work across all modules the way a universal backup would force you to do.

Backups that are created through the TOPS Internet Backup Service are stored on a remote internet server. This means that if anything were to happen to your office - fire, flood, lightning, etc. You would still be able to access your important community data from any computer in the world, as long as it has an Internet connection. Furthermore, since our server is backed up redundantly (we backup the backups), even if a disaster happened that took down our server, we could make the data available on our backup server within minutes.

Another benefit to the TOPS Internet Backup service is the cost factor. Disks and drives need to be replaced on a regular basis as they become old or magnetized. Every day, you need an employee to switch the zip disks, and you also need to have someone check them regularly to insure that the media is still good. All of this can be avoided with the TOPS Internet Backup Service. Setup and maintenance are incredibly simple. It takes about 15 minutes to set up your backups, and once you have done so, TOPS will perform the backups automatically on a regular schedule that you set up.

There is no need for a person to switch disks, and no need to replace anything. Even checking the backed up files is simple due to a message that appears in the upper left corner of your TOPS 2000™ desktop, letting you know the exact date and time of the last backup. You can take this a step further with our online administration, which allows you to view all of the files you have backed up, and make changes to them, or even download them to another computer.

Backup files are stored on an online server in an encrypted, compressed format. You can further protect your backup files by including a password on the files, which is encrypted into the compressed files. This double encryption (locking the password into the zip file before it is encrypted) means that even if someone were to somehow steal your backup files, they would be unable to open the files without your password - something that even TOPS Software does not have access to.

If you would like to see how much the TOPS Internet Backup Service would cost per month, you can use the Backup Estimator, which is available at topsbackup.com/estimator.htm. This program will determine exactly how much space your files will take up on our server, and help you select a backup scheme that provides the best protection and price for you.

If you have any further questions, please contact TOPS Sales at
1-800-899-5689 or email to sales@topssoft.com.

by Andrea Drennen

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