@Backup

Backup.com was an early entrant in the remote data backup market, operating as a secure, offsite backup service for PC users. The company secured a significant Late-Stage Venture Capital funding round of $22 million in October 1999, with investment from Crest Capital Ventures and Advanced Digital Information Corporation (ADIC). The firm was headquartered in San Francisco and provided its services through the domain backup.com.

The core business revolved around providing automated, managed backup solutions. Clients would install software to select specific files and directories for protection. The service then automatically managed the backup process, copying the selected data in an encrypted format to a remote data center managed by SwapDrive. This model offered individuals and potentially small businesses an offsite storage solution for valuable digital information, protecting it against local catastrophes like hardware failure or theft. Revenue was likely generated through a subscription model, as a 30-day free trial was offered, after which customers would be automatically charged under their selected service plan.

The service utilized technologies that were advanced for its time, including data compression and incremental backups, where only the changes to files were transmitted after the initial full backup, to improve speed and efficiency. Security was a key feature, with the service employing 256-bit AES encryption and a unique method of breaking files into small blocks and transferring them out of order to the data center. The service was eventually owned by Symantec Corporation, which ultimately discontinued the Backup.com service effective March 31, 2013.

Keywords: remote backup service, online data storage, PC backup, secure file backup, encrypted backup, incremental backup, offsite data storage, Symantec, SwapDrive, ADIC, Crest Capital Ventures, data protection, automatic backup, file restore, historical tech company, dot-com era, cloud backup pioneer