Australian Start-Up incriptus in Cooperative Storage Cloud

Start-up incriptus Ltd, based in Adelaide, Australia, changed its name from Memory Box Backup Ltd in April 2011 but its service continues to be under the name Memory Box.

It was founded in 2008 by five former Motorola employees including CEO Trevor Glen, a software engineer.

Recently the company looked to raise a further $1.5 million in round three funding to expand operations in the US market (probably in Boulder, CO) after sealing $750,000 in backing. Investments in incriptus are made through the Australian Small Scale Offering Board.

The firm’s ground-breaking technology was originally applied to a peer-to-peer data storage system that enables subscribers to backup and retrieve data. The proprietary algorithms were developed by its creators to ensure data security and integrity.

Its technology is comparable to Symform and Wuala with its Dynamic Data Director that dynamically gathers and distributes user data across user’s computers subscribing to the service.

The application for Windows or Mac OS X needs approximately 30MB on the PC and about 10 minutes to be installed.

It works by exchanging free space on disk with other users and distributes backup data to them. When your data is uploaded to the network, an equal amount of encrypted information from other users is stored on your local HDD. So, how much space is used is equal to the size of files being backuped.

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"This constant 1:1 ratio ensures a massively scalable system with infinite capacity and without the inefficiencies of typical online backup where excess storage must be maintained to accommodate fluctuations in demand," stated the start-up. "Depending on the scale of your incriptus subscription – consumer, small business or enterprise – a complete backup of all files can happen as quickly as an hour or take weeks. However, all backup occurs in the background and when your computer is idle, without any direct monitoring by you. So how long it takes to completely backup all your computer files does not affect your performance."

Each file is encrypted then broken into over a hundred pieces before being distributed to other users on the Memory Box network. Redundant information added ensures the original file can be recovered even if many of the parts are lost.

Backup data are encrypted and then fragmented resulting in security. In addition, encryption occurs at three levels, the file itself, the communication between the computer and incriptus’ Dynamic Data Director, and again when the files are fragmented.

In case of disaster, incriptus said that nearly 70% of the computers across the network would have to be eliminated before threatening your ability to retrieve your backuped files.

Memory Box can make Internet slower for the user. Generally, it only runs when the computer is not being used. However occasionally it may run even when in use if files have not been completely backuped within the last 24 hours. Certain applications may be more affected than others (for example online gaming). If Internet performance are slowing, the user can temporarily suspend Memory Box for 24 hours or limit how much data will transmit.

The online backup service Memory Box costs $85 per year.

The firm also sells an enterprise version of the software. First known customer is Solution Forest, an Australian consulting company to offer its clients a backup solution.

According to our database including
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