Lifeguard Brings New Technology to Personal Data Backup

Tenebril Inc. has released Lifeguard v1.2, a personal data backup product for Windows that uses new technology to speed up backups. Lifeguard manages computer resources to ensure that the hard drive, processor and backup medium can work independently of each other, allowing peak performance. Lifeguard also introduces a new document-centric interface" which allows customers to choose what data theyd like to back up without knowing where it is stored on their computers.

Boston, MA -- October 7, 2003 -- Tenebril Inc. has released Lifeguard v1.2, a personal data backup product for Windows that uses new technology to speed up backups. Lifeguard manages computer resources to ensure that the hard drive, processor and backup medium can work independently of each other, allowing peak performance. Lifeguard also introduces a new document-centric interface" which allows customers to choose what data theyd like to back up without knowing where it is stored on their computers. Additionally, Lifeguard is the only backup product available today that integrates with Outlook, Outlook Express and Eudora to allow direct backup of e-mails and address book contacts.

During a backup, the customers data must be read from its original location, processed, and then written to the backup location. Normally, the computer manages these components together, reading the data first, then processing it, and then writing it. Because todays processors are much faster than hard disks, CD-ROM drives and other media, the processor is mostly idle during a backup. To take advantage of this wasted processor time, Lifeguard manages each computer part separately. As data is flowing into the processor, Lifeguard performs as many operations on the data as the processor will allow before the data is needed for writing. This technology allows Lifeguard to offer the strongest encryption available for backups (256-bit) and to apply more powerful compression algorithms.

Lifeguards document-centric" interface is a strong departure from the current user-interface standard for backup products. Existing products display a window similar to Microsofts Windows Explorer, which gives the customer a familiar way to select files and folders but requires that the customer know where important files and folders are located. In contrast, Lifeguard displays a list of all types of files that are on the customers computer. For example, Lifeguard might list documents, spreadsheets, e-mails, pictures and Internet bookmarks for a typical user. Lifeguard allows the customer to select which types of files should be backed up by checking or un-checking those that are displayed. The document-centric" interface shifts the burden of locating files onto Lifeguard. The customer can then, if desired, refine which specific documents (or e-mails, spreadsheets, etc.) are backed up by filtering them based on name or content. The document-centric" interface design is intended to make the general-case backup tasks easier.

Lifeguard also includes new features previously unavailable in backup software. Lifeguard integrates directly with the most popular e-mail clients so that it can back up e-mails directly, and only those that the customer wants. It handles address book contacts, chat conversations and Internet bookmarks as well. Lifeguard comes with its own backup server, allowing homes or small offices to back up all their data to a single location. Tenebril also offers its own subscription Internet backup service, through which customers can back up their data to Tenebrils secure servers.

Lifeguard costs $49.95 and is available online at (http://www.tenebril.com).

http://www.tenebril.com