Introduction
ElephantDrive was founded by a team of techies who are passionate about creating first class programs and excited by the challenges of storing, securing, and protecting massive amounts of data. They are headquartered in LA and have worked together for many years designing and deploying online applications.
They have one free account, a couple of home editions, 2 business accounts and large company options.
Security Features
Data being transferred to and from their servers are secured with 128bit SSL encryption; this is the industry standard. When on their servers your file set is protected using 256 AEG encryption. You can use a personal encryption key to further secure your information.
Backup Features
Open and locked files can be backed up in the Pro versions only.
External hard drives can be backed up in all editions except the Home edition, yet network drives can be archived in the Pro and Pro Plus versions.
Backups can be continuous or scheduled, if continuous, then only files that are altered will be backed up. Backups can be configured to archive by folder or by file type. There is a utility called TrunkManager that allows you to move files directly from your machine to the ElephantDrive using either drag-and-drop or by selecting the files you want to move and choose the upload or download buttons.
File versioning is automatically setup however the amount of versions permitted depends on the edition used:
- home edition allows 3 file versions
- home pro edition allows up to 10 versions
- pro edition allows 20 versions
- pro plus edition allows unlimited versions
Restore Options
Files can be recovered via either the 'TrunkManager' or the web. Either way, navigate to the file you wish to restore and drag-and-drop the file to your machine. If you need to recover a earlier version, then click on the item and pick ‘Version History’. Then simply pick the version you need to restore. Restores start almost instantly.
Control and Analysis
All backup jobs can be stopped, paused or resumed at any time via the desktop client Progress Report. This is also where you will find the error and transfer logs. CPU and internet usage are worked out by the client program, but you can change throttling to on, off or scheduled for specific times.
Interface
The ElephantDrive can be mapped as a local drive letter using the program installed with the client program. The web portal allows access to your entire backed up file set and you can view and retrieve different file versions from here.
The Pro Plus account has centralized control options and all versions support Proxy servers.
Device Support
MAC OS X and higher
Windows 7, Vista, 2003, XP, 2000
Linux support is in development
Limitations
Maximum single file size: Home – 1Gb; Home Plus – 2Gb; Pro – 2.5Gb; Pro Plus – 5Gb
Maximum Monthly Transfer Limit: Home[,|&|and} Home Plus – 100Gb; Pro – 1Tb; Pro Plus – 2Tb
Maximum Number of PCs: Home – 1; Home Pro – 4; Pro – 10; Pro Plus – 20
File Sharing and Collaboration
Any file held on your ElephantDrive can be privately shared by right-clicking on the file in Trunk Explorer and clicking share. Then just fill in the email addresses of the people you wish to share the file with and they will be sent a unique website location to the file. Public File sharing is not supported.
There are no collaboration tools within ElephantDrive.
Synchronization
Machines synchronize to the web portal however not directly to each other.
Web 2.0 Integration
At the time of writing ElephantDrive does not link with any online programs or social network sites.
Customer Support
Self-help support is very good: There is a knowledge-base, forum and blog for conversations with other users and ElephantDrive staff. For reference there is a very good FAQ section and the user documentation is also very good. There are tutorials, testimonials, demos, webinars and case studies.
If you wish to contact ElephantDrive privately: Either using email or by filling in the web form. There is telephone support but only by appointment. I found their customer support extremely helpful, knowledgeable and easy to talk to.
Usability
Both the web site and the client program are very easy to use. If you can use the file explorer in Microsoft Windows, then you can use ElephantDrive. Adding files to backup lists and retrieving files is intuitive and easy. Mapping ElephantDrive as a logical drive took a bit of finding yet when setup it behaves like any other network drive.
Cost
- Initial setup cost: free
- Monthly Cost: Home – $4.95/mth; Home Plus - $9.95/mth; Pro - $34.95/mth; Pro Plus - $99.95/mth
- Yearly Cost: Home – $49.95/yr; Home Plus - $99.50/yr; Pro - $349.95/yr; Pro Plus - $999.95/yr
- Initial allowed storage limit: Home, Home Plus – unlimited; Pro – 1Tb; Pro Plus – 2Tb
- Cost of additional storage: – n/a
- Cost of additional devices / PCs / users: n/a
- E-billing facility: Yes
To Sum Up
ElephantDrive is a clever and simple backup client. While it is extremely well made and does its job extremely well, it would be good to see some web 2.0 integration to let alteration of files directly from the web site. At this point ElephantDrive is a solid, effective and reliable Online Backup Solution, however I cannot shift the feeling that there is so much more the service could be offering. We would love to see ElephantDrive explode into a full-blown Online Storage and Collaboration Service. We will have to wait and see what happens. At the moment, if you need a very reliable, quick and straightforward Online Backup Solution then ElephantDrive is an excellent choice.
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