Backup Service
Providing
Interview with KPNs Managing Director Software OnlineKPN is the biggest supplier of online backup services in The Netherlandsp.4
Windows and Sun Solaris asbackup server platform
p.8
Deloitte: “online backup is a trend”p.14
Backup innovations
Online backup breaking through
Backup Magazine, October 2008
The Success stories of Service Providers and Resellers
p.12
Make money with online backup
Foreword
ForewordThe central theme of this Recover is Service Providing’ and that,
given IASO’s recent successes in the Telecom/ISP sector, should
come as no surprise. Major IASO Backup Service Provider (BSP)
partners use their scale to place attractively priced backup
services on the market.
It is interesting to note that partners do not exclusively follow a
direct sales model, but rather resolutely seek cooperation with
the partner channel, namely the ICT reseller. This reseller, as it
so happens, has unique knowledge and a relation of trust with
the client, the SME.
With the emergence of these service partners IASO Backup
Technology now offers the client, namely the channel partner,
more and more choice: “do-it-yourself” by acquiring an own BSP
installation, or contract it out to a specialist service provider,
offering the service on a much bigger scale and thus more cost-
effectively. Besides financial arguments this choice must also be
based on strategic considerations, such as: “does this fit in with
our core business? Do we want to depend on a third party for
this service?” The IASO team is now very experienced in (jointly)
answering these questions and will gladly talk with potential
partners about the ‘business case’ for your organization.
Rob Verbeek
Back
up M
agaz
ine,
Oct
ober
200
8
ContentInterview with KPNs Managing Director Software Online
IASO International
Backup Innovations
Skinning, Keeping up appearances
The Success story of a Service Provider
In the media
Blaze Networks: replacing unreliable tape backup
Events
4.
7.
8.
10.
12.
14.
16.
18.
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Foreword
Publishing details:
Recover is published by IASO Backup Technology
Noordzijde 20
8302 GP Emmeloord
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 885 222 222
Lay-out and design:
IASO Backup Technology
Printing Support:
Topper Products, The Netherlands
04
KPN is the biggest Telecom supplier in the Netherlands. KPN’s role is increasingly becoming that of an ICT service provider. Online
backup is a considerable part of this process. If there is one company in the Netherlands that, in recent years, has made major
contributions to the visibility and market acceptance of online backup, it’s KPN. With a marketing campaign costing millions of euros,
2007 was not only the year KPN was placed on the map as ICT service provider, but also the year when the phenomenon of online
backup acquired immediate great notoriety. In early 2007 KPN made the transition from the American software used until that time
to the IASO product, sprung from the soil of the Netherlands. With success, we proudly add! Measured in absolute figures, KPN has
since become the biggest supplier of online backup services in the Netherlands. So, high time for a chat with the man who leads the
KPN team that signs on for this service, Richard Nijhoff, KPN Manager, Software Online.
Richard Nijhoff
Managing
Director Software
Online at KPN.
05
KPN
, fro
m T
elec
om s
uppl
ier
to
ICT
serv
ice
prov
ider
06
Richard, what does Back-up Online mean for you and for
KPN?
“Although I graduated from university in Marketing and
Business Economics, very soon in my career I came into contact
with the problem of backup & restore. Unlike many of my fellow
students who went off to work as marketeers or consultants for
one of the big brands, I found Information Technology infinitely
interesting and chose to work for the (then) Pink Roccade. I
was taken on as an IT guy at Shell where, among other things,
I rolled out the PCs for the management and tried my hand at
system management on the Novell network. I still have vivid
memories of all the fiddling about with ArcServe 6.0 and the
messing about with backup tapes.“
He continues: “After a pit stop in one of the many startups in
the DotCom period, in 2001, I ended up in KPN, where right
from the start I was busy with various Product Management
jobs in the IT services area. Actually, even in KPN I was always
engaged in the marketing of IT services, apart from one short
period during which I was involved in a VOIP project, which is
closer to KPN’s traditional core business.”
“My present division, Software Online, represents an important
strategic turn around for KPN, from traditional telecom supplier
to ICT service provider. In our vision “voice” is coming to be one
of the many IT applications made available via the omnipresent
IP network. My personal objective is to ensure that IT forms part
of the ‘corporate DNA’ of KPN. Like in any big company with a
long history you’ll run up against the necessary resistance, but
there’s a lot of support for the new IT-driven strategy, on all
levels of the organisation.”
KPN introduced the first Backup Online product as early as 2004.
Nijhoff: “At the time we were probably on the market too early,
because Backup Online was originally not all that successful.
Back then we even asked € 7.95 per month for 500 MB. In 2006
we ran a client survey, which showed that the market associated
KPN above all with security and reliability. Online backup,
the Internet Security Package and the Extra Hard Disk Online
product fit in perfectly with this. Thanks to bold simplifications,
a substantial price reduction in 2006 (from € 4.95 per month)
and a solid marketing campaign, KPN’s Software Online is now
very successful, particularly in the broad lower end of the SME
market.”
In your opinion, how is the future of Software Online shaping
up?
In my vision the way in which we communicate and (co-)
work will change drastically in the coming years. For example,
many companies in the US no longer have a real ‘head office’;
collaboration is more and more based on web tools such
as WebEx, video conferencing and the like. In Europe we
are lagging behind a bit, but what with the increasing traffic
congestion, rising fuel costs and environmental problems, I
expect that, here too, we’ll see more and more interest in such
online alternatives.
In KPN we anticipate this by aiming, in the first instance, at
growth in the delivery of services for basic applications, such
as backup and protection, and developing this position towards
increasingly specific corporate applications. We’ll continue to
do the basic applications all by ourselves but, for the more
specific solutions, we’ll be working alongside specialists, with
KPN in a role as ‘technology enabler’.
The strength of KPN lies in the volume that we can generate,
through which we are able to stand out from the rest not only
as regards prices, but also customer service. A good example of
this is our ‘delivery street’: customer satisfaction in ‘delivery’ is
currently 95%, which is an exceptionally high score.
In the short term, at any rate, we’re about to expand the
Software Online portfolio and make it suitable for other
target groups, namely the rather larger SMEs. Just think of
the Internet Protection Package, in the first instance available
only for PC workstations, since June also available for Servers
and, come November, also for mobile devices. We are working
with IASO on a ‘2-tier’ variant of the Back-up Online service, in
which the customer receives an on-site backup appliance that
is synchronised with the central backup servers in our Cyber
Center. This way the KPN partners can also deliver value-added
services in combination with our online services”.
So I should definitely still make green fronts for our
appliances?
“Yes, that strikes me as a very good idea!”
KPN is the biggest supplier of
online backup services in The
Netherlands
FranceAfter using another backup solution for a while Synomega switched to the IASO solution at the beginning of this year. “We were
looking for a backup solution that can run on different systems and can work well with big data bases. I don’t know of any solution that
uses a more efficient delta block technology than IASO. IASO is professional through and through, and their helpdesk is fantastic,” says
Luc Vannier, Technical Manager at Synomega.
BelgiumThe fastest-growing marketing group in Belgium, ConnectIT, adds online backup services to its portfolio, joining forces with IASO
Backup Technology. ConnectIT represents dozens of resellers in Belgium and will be offering the backup service to its members.
Luc Devos from ConnectIT smells good business in online backup and is enthusiastic about IASO’s solution. “IASO offers many more
possibilities than other providers and the security is conceived strong feature. One big advantage for us is the possibility of managing
everything ourselves and that we can offer our partners a customised solution. We have small partners as well as very big partners,
and now we have the right solution for each partner,” so says Luc Devos.
Eastern EuropeIASO Backup Technology has opened a second base in Eastern Europe in order to attract the best IT brains to work for IASO. The IT
industry in this part of Europe has a lot of software engineers, many of whom are very highly trained and have outstanding educational
accomplishments. There are 58 technical colleges and universities in and around Minsk. Each year more than 23.000 students receive
their degrees in IT and technology. The region is regarded as the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe.
The NetherlandsBBeyond, Dutch subsidiary of BBned, has chosen IASO. Together with IASO BBeyond will be offering an online backup service to SMEs
and resellers in the Netherlands. “Before we decided to join hands with IASO we tried out different providers. We set up a broad test
programme that produced a recommendation. That recommendation was IASO. Of course, the technical specifications of a product
are very important, but there were also a number of intangible elements that affected our choice, for example the contact with the
people in the company; who you work with and how you go about business. At the end of the day we came to the conclusion that IASO
was the best option,” so says Mark Stolk, Product Manager at BBeyond.
07
Each year the World Economic Forum makes a ranking list of
the most innovative countries. The Netherlands takes sixth
position in technological innovation, quite a leap compared
with previous years. IASO Backup Technology is originally a
Dutch company and has certainly made a contribution to that
upward movement. In the 5 years of its existence IASO has
introduced, among other things, the Stacked Directory Hashing
technology, developed an uncommonly powerful Delta Restore
and, by using the IASO Cabinet technology, has created even
more optimisations of data transfer and storage. Many more
such examples may be cited, but let’s pause and consider IASO’s
recent innovations: Windows as Backup Server Platform and the
Online Backup solution for installations with more than 20 Tb.
Backup
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09
Windows Backup serverThe different tests run by the IASO engineers revealed that
NTFS (the Windows files system) was not suitable for working
with millions of unique files, because then the performance of
the whole system was compromised. That’s why IASO Backup
Servers are always delivered on a Unix variant: FreeBSD. This
will be past tense from 1 October 2008, since new technology
now makes it possible to use Windows as Backup server.
In version 5.1 of IASO’s software the block storage structure
is changed in such a way that the number of files on the
Backup server is reduced by a factor of 250 to 15.000. This
makes it possible to use NTFS and, by extension, Windows.
The introduction of Windows as Backup server platform also
gives greater freedom on the hardware side, because the IASO
software can now run on all servers and storage systems that are
supported by Windows, including HP, IBM, Dell and technology
such as i-SCSI and Fiber Channel. With the introduction of the
Windows Backup server it is now much easier to make inroads
into the world of online backup, for the end-customer and for
the Backup Service Provider alike.
The IASO solution is also reaching upwards. A 2 Petabyte solution
is soon to be delivered, in cooperation with Sun Microsystems.
Cooperation with SunFor really big installations (over 20 Terabytes) IASO has entered
into a strategic cooperation with Sun Microsystems. IASO has
acquired the status of Sun Principal Partner and, as such a
partner, IASO has access to all Sun’s know-how and experience
in the field of large-scale storage. IASO can now offer a very
scalable and safe platform based on the Sun Open Storage
technology using Sun disk arrays and Storage Tek libraries.
Combining the Sun and IASO technologies yields a very
interesting price per Pb. The use of tape libraries also allows
work on meeting the provisions of the Kyoto Protocol, because
one Petabyte of storage in a tape library uses a good deal less
energy (and thus also cooling) than does on-disk storage. This
reduces the CO2 emission, thus benefitting the climate.
Interesting business case for Telcos and XSPsThis cooperation has created an opportunity for Telcos and XSPs
to place on the market a very interesting online backup service.
For one of IASO’s biggest Telco customers the people at Sun
and IASO have developed an ILM concept on the basis of SamFS
and ZFS, using the latest storage disk systems and tape libraries.
Offering online backup is an added-value on the Telco and XSP
market. The millions of potential subscribers create a monthly
income and enormous demand for storage.
Contact the IASO team to discuss your business case,
telephone No.: +31 (0) 885 222 222.
Backup Innovations
The outside is not important, it’s what’s inside that counts; you hear it said time and time again. Any service provider choosing IASO
knows that the inside, in this case the qualities of the product, are perfectly in order. Many service providers are keen to propel their
own corporate identity in the product that they select for the provision of IP Backup services. In other words, appearances do also
count, ...
Keeping up appearances
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Multi skinningYou can use more than one BSP code on a backup server. This
means that the backup server can be used for different looks; a
wallet-friendly solution and a brilliant service. All products run
on the same backup server, but with a variety of user interfaces.
A BSP code is created by the support team at IASO. Once the
BSP code has been created the skin can readily be configured in
the console of the backup server.
The possibilities of skinning of the IASO Backup Manager make
it possible to create a unique service. IASO looks after the
substance, all you have to think about is the looks…
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BSP codeThe BSP (Backup Service Provider) code is the key to different
‘skins’. The first question that an end-user is asked in the Backup
Manager installation procedure concerns the BSP code. This
code determines the “skin” of the Setup Wizard and the Backup
Manager. This skin is very versatile and covers many areas of the
application, including fonts, colours, images and the installation
directory. In the illustrations you can see the SetupWizard with
the skin of various companies. It’s the same application in all
three cases, it just looks different. Many items in the Backup
Manager can also be adapted. The banner, for instance, may
be placed horizontal or vertical, but the buttons may also be
placed in another location.
12
Since it was founded in 1980 CCE has established an enviable
track record of delivering reliable and highly professional
managed services to a wide range of companies. During that
time the range of managed services provided has been revised
and extended, to proactively meet the changing requirements
of its customers, a practice that will continue in the future.
Employing some 150 personnel CCE offers genuine UK wide
support and service and is accredited to the highest level with
all leading hardware manufacturers (Hewlett Packard, IBM, Dell
etc.) as well as being a Microsoft Gold Partner and a Citrix and
VMWare partner – all the components needed to deliver robust,
resilient and innovative managed solutions. A client retention
rate of 97%, speaks for itself... Time to have an interview with
CCEs Director of IP Services, Chris McAuley.
What does CCE IP Services do and target on?
CCE IP Services was created in 2007 and offers clients a complete
range of VOIP, Internet, Connectivity, Business Continuity and
Disaster Recovery solutions. Partnering with world-class Carrier
Class Service Providers, IP Services creates robust and resilient
IP-based solutions and delivers these as fully managed services.
Three important services are:
Hosted Voice: Hosted Voice solutions and VoIP gateways, doing
away with the need for traditional PaBXs and BT lines, and
enabling total flexible working solutions.
Connectivity: Connectivity ranging from ADSL, ADSL MAX, SDSL,
LES & WES circuits – anything from a 256KB circuit through to
GigaBit WES circuits, Internet Access through to IP VPNs, all on
a true Carrier Class MPLS enabled network.
Online backup, Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery:
resilient redundant server hosting in Viatel’s Carrier Class Data
Centers in Egham and Bracknell as well as an Enterprise On-
Line Backup Solution. Put together these provide day-to-day
backups alongside Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
Solutions, all connected over the Viatel MPLS network. All the
components a business needs to work flexibly and carry on
“business as normal”.
The success story of a Service ProviderThe technology is leading in its field and allows us to offer a flexible reliable and future-proofed backup solution to our clients.
CCE: tailored backup solutions
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Do you focus on the IASO products as part of IP Services?
From the beginning IP Services has been providing managed
services to its clients and backup is one of the biggest but most
often ignored pieces of the business continuity jigsaw. And not
just recovering from a disaster, but dealing with day to day file
restore issues, and making sure clients are compliant with the
regulatory demands of their industries. CCE IP Services launched
their On-Line backup service based around IASO technology to
address these issues.
Why do you like IASO as an online backup solution?
CCE IP Services aims to work with Carrier Class suppliers to
deliver its managed services and IASO fit well into that category.
The technology is leading in its field and allows us to offer a
flexible reliable and future-proofed backup solution to our
clients. We are finding more and more demand from clients
with multiple sites where the head-ache of running a tape based
backup solution in-house simply disappears, and is replaced
with a more efficient and cost effective managed service. Many
clients have been pleasantly surprised by the actual amount of
data they end up backing up due to the advanced de-duplication
features of IASO, and the ability to scale is also reassuring for
them – too many clients have had their fingers burnt going
down a technology cul-de-sac. IASO’s leading technology and
innovative roadmap allows CCE to reassure clients they are
making the right long term decision.
How is the cooperation with IASO?
Working directly with IASO has allowed CCE IP Services to
develop tailored solutions for clients and means that it is always
possible to explain to clients where we are with the services
and where the development road map is progressing.
Chris serves as CCE Director of IP Services and is responsible
for all Voice and IP services alongside reviewing potential new
technologies and services. Chris has over 20 years experience
in the IT Solutions industry, most recently completing a project
with Viatel helping launch their VOIP services in the UK. Previ-
ously, he spent 2 years as Sales Director of Inclarity, one of the
early pioneers of Hosted VOIP solutions in the UK establishing
them as an early leading player in Hosted VOIP solutions. In the
1990’s Chris spent a number of years as a founder and COO of
Pervasic - one of the first companies offering GSM mobile data
solutions.
Chris McAuley,
Director of IP Services.
In the
media14
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Deloitte predicts: online backup a trend Deloitte has recently published the 2008 edition of Technology
Predictions TMT Trends. The report lists the most important
developments in the technology sector and predicts what
impact they will have on the sector.
In the 2008 report, Deloitte indicates that online backup is
becoming a trend. “Data protection is playing an increasingly
important role in businesses, and online backup is a requirement,
as is adequate protection against viruses. Incidentally, the trend
extends beyond backing up PCs: there will also be more demand
for an online backup solution for external hard disks and mobile
phones,” says Deloitte.
Deloitte reports that the returns from PCs derive less and less
from the sale of the hardware, and more and more from the
sale of services, especially data protection. The value of the
stored data is enormous, and this factor coupled with the lower
purchase price of the hardware means that users are prepared to
pay more to protect their data. Deloitte expects that businesses
will spend more on online backup and virus protection in 2008
than on the purchase of the underlying equipment. Go to www.
deloitte.com to download the report.
Krosbéy Solutions takes online backup service to SurinameThe previous issue of Recover included the story of Krosbéy
Solutions. At the time, Krosbéy had only just launched its
online backup service, but it is now fully up to speed. On 18
July, many of Suriname’s newspapers reported that Krosbéy
was extending its service to Suriname. Jan Gerzinus Jongsma,
Sales Support Consultant at IASO, and Carlos Linger, Director
of Krosbéy Solutions, travelled to Suriname to present IASO’s
backup solution to business circles there. Those who attended
the presentations were full of enthusiasm. “Suriname too has
proved more than ready for this product,” comments Carlos
Linger.
Online backup breaking throughPage 33 of the June issue of CRN features a brief interview with
Rob Verbeek, Managing Director of IASO Backup Technology.
According to him, the online backup service has made its
breakthrough. “Not least because of KPN’s advertising
campaign,” he says. “Many services, such as system and network
management, are not scalable. Remote/online backup services
are in a different category: because the backup process runs
almost completely automatically, human intervention is hardly
needed, and a highly profitable service can be introduced on the
market with a one-off investment in hardware and software and
limited operating costs. Experience shows that the investment
pays itself back in six to nine months, and that the margins can
quickly reach 60 to 80 percent”. Verbeek also sees advantages
in combining a system service with online backup. “Around half
of administrator activity focuses on backup and recovery. A lot
of time can be saved with online backup, and with fixed-price
contracts in particular this is highly advantageous,” he points
out.
Test: IASO Backup ApplianceThe German magazine Lanline has tested the IASO Backup
Appliance “gründlich und pünktlich”. “IASO’s Backup Appliances
use an efficient delta block technology to protect data. This
reduces the quantity of data enormously and makes it possible
to send a backup via WAN connections” (Lanline 2, 2008). A few
quotations from the article:
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Efficient delta block technology
The various tests revealed a clear data reduction. Thanks
to IASO’s data reduction technology, a mere 4.5Gb of the
400Gb needed to be backed up.
Restoring a single e-mail is very easy.
Quickly up and running.
If the backup is interrupted, for instance because the
Backup Appliance is booted, the backup automatically
carries on from where it left off.
IASO’s Backup Appliance is suitable for both large and small
For the complete article, go to www.lanline.de.
Founded in May 2002 Blaze Networks Limited provides networking systems that suit all industries. Blaze Networks unique approach to
networking delivers unmatched reliability, scalability and manageability. Blaze Networks assures that it has the right solution regarding
hardware, software, installation or maintenance. Can they assure they have the right solution regarding online backup? Yes, they can!
Ben Brassington, Director of Blaze Networks, is very enthusiastic about his online backup solution and his customers are too.
“We were looking for a while for a good online backup solution. We compared several products, like IBM and Symantec, but most of
them were ridiculously expensive and others weren’t exactly what we were looking for. At one moment I received a phone call from one
of the sales consultants of IASO and his story sounded very good. IASO’s solution was exactly what we were looking for and that is how
our cooperation with IASO started,” says Brassington.
Blaze Networks
Replacing unreliable tape backup“As a dedicated IT support company we needed to come up
with a solution that could completely replace these unreliable
tape backup solutions our customers where using. We needed
multiplatform support for a whole host of services like SQL
and exchange. It was a complicated task as most technologies
only worked with one OS and rarely supported database driven
applications. Most solutions did not notify you of backup
completion or the integrity of that backup, not to mention
the hidden costs behind the storage solutions that the end
customer could not control or understand because of no access
policies being forced on them by backup providers. We have
achieved a complete online backup solution though Blaze Vault,
all thanks to IASOs technology. Unlike most other companies
we can back up the large majority of operating systems like
Linux, MAC and all Microsoft server operating systems as well
as key database driven applications like SQL, and Exchange. We
give our customers a complete overview of the secure online
data backup and remote data storage process. This is perfect
for our customers. To convince our customers of this good
solution, we offer them a free trial and show them testimonials.
This can assure them that we produce together with IASO the
perfect backup and that it is superior to competitors,” says
Brassington.
Fully managed en cost-effectiveBrassington: “A great advantage of IASOs solution is that it is
fully managed. Besides that it’s very cost-effective and it can
easily handle large data sets over a small internet connection.
A number of customers are already using IASOs online backup
solution and they are very satisfied. By the way, we are
enthusiastic as well; IASO is a brilliant company, its model is ok,
the solution works and the cooperation with the sales team is
going smoothly. Even the salesteam can answer my technical
questions and that is really great. Most important is of course
that my customers are happy and they certainly are. I expect the
number of customers using IASOs solution to grow rapidly.”
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Storage Expo12-13 November, Utrecht19-20 November, ParisIASO will put on quite a show at the at the Storage Expo in Utrecht,
the Netherlands and Paris in France. With an eye-catching stand of
almost 60m2 you can hardly miss IASO at this trade fair. Storage Expo
is a trade fair for data storage and management that takes place on
12 and 13 November in the Jaarbeurs, the Utrecht annual trade fair.
You can register on www.storage-expo.nl for a free-of-charge visit to
Storage Expo, Infosecurity and Linuxworld.
Broadband World Forum Europe 2008, Brussel 29 September - 2 OctoberFrom 29 September to 2 October 2008 inclusive, the Brussels
Expo Centre is home to the Broadband World Forum Europe
2008. The world’s most dynamic broadband technologies,
applications, solutions and services are presented during this
event. An important element of the Broadband World Forum
is the trade fair, showcasing the most innovative and successful
technology companies from all over the world. The trade fair
offers an ideal opportunity to get to know everything about the
opportunities and advantages of IASO’s Backup solution. You
can find us in the trade fair hall, stand number 276.
European Telco Strategy Summit 17-18 NovemberThe changing market, the European legislation and the pressure of competition exert great influence on the future of Telco’s and ISPs.
Which corporate, financial and product strategies result in more profit, more success? It is the task of the strategist to anticipate these
influences, to draw the right conclusions and to implement the best solution. The European Telco Strategy Summit offers executives
the possibility of encountering the most recent strategies and methods around the following themes:
Innovative business models
New players on the market
The future of network operations
Strategy development and implementation
Financial strategies
Developments in legislation
You can receive full information about the IASO solution in one-to-one meetings.
The European Telco Strategy Summit takes place on 17 and 18 November in the Ritz Carlton Hotel Berlin. For more information
contact: Angelika Wildermann, [email protected].
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IASO Backup Technology is an innovative vendor of IP Backup solutions. Many service providers and ICT Resellers use our software to offer Backup over IP to the market. Our scalable service is suitable for SME’s and large companies and has been readily adopted by both sectors. On top of that, our channel partners can earn an attractive margin by delivering this service.
Tel: + 44 208 602 0869, [email protected], www.iasobackup.com
Number 1 in IP Backup