Frequently Asked Questions |
What is the TOPS Internet Backup
Service?
The Internet Backup Service is a revolutionary backup
system that eliminates the cost and maintenance burden
of tape drives, CD backups, and hard drive backups by
sending your critical TOPS community data over the Internet
to our off-site backup servers. One you can setup and
forget about, secure in the fact that your data is being
backed up safely. |
The data we track for the associations
we manage is private! Will our data be secure?
TOPS Software will not divulge your backed up data
to any source. In fact, the data files that you upload
can be encrypted with a password assigned by you so
even TOPS personnel cannot open your backed up data
without your password. |
What if something happens to your
server, will we still be able to recover our data?
TOPS Software maintains a duplicate copy of all of
our customers' data on a redundant server in our Clearwater,
FL office. Since our Internet server is located on the
west coast, you can be assured that even if one of these
locations were hit by a disaster, you would still be
able to recover your critical TOPS data. |
How labor intensive are Internet
Backups going to be? I don't want to waste valuable
employee time on performing backups.
TOPS Software has built a scheduling program directly
into TOPS 2000™. This program will allow you to
define what days, and at what time you want to perform
backups. Once you have set up your schedule, you can
forget about it. Simply make sure that your computer
is turned on at the scheduled hour, and the TOPS Scheduler
will automatically connect to the Internet, and perform
the scheduled backups. |
We have a large portfolio of communities.
Is this going to cost us a lot of money?
Absolutely not! Even if your communities are quite
large, the TOPS Internet Backup Service will compress
your TOPS data 75-80%! This means that the data that
gets uploaded to the internet is only 20-25% of the
size of the data on your hard drive. Since it is the
compressed data that is uploaded to the Internet server,
and you only have to pay for the space you are using
on the server, you will only be paying for a fraction
of the size of the data on your computers. |
Is there a way for me to find out
exactly how much space I will need, and how much it
will cost?
Absolutely! We designed the Backup
Estimator for that very purpose. Simply open the
program directly from the web site, add the communities
you wish to test, and click Calculate Size. The backup
estimator will compress the TOPS data files exactly
as if you were performing a regular backup. The program
will then display the sizes of the compressed and uncompressed
files, and a costs screen will allow you to determine
precisely how much the service will cost to back up
the selected communities. |
What if I decide I don't
want to use the service anymore?
We would be sorry to see you go, but you can cancel
your account at any time. Simply fill in the simple
cancellation form and
submit it. We will cancel the service effective the
next billing period. (Billing is done monthly.) |
