eGenius, Inc. -- known for its expertise in integrating open-source software with hardware for networked environments, and for its software systems testing tools -- announced today its network-ready, automated backup appliance, BackItUp!. Attached to any company's intranet or local area network (LAN), the rackmount or stand-alone unit comfortably stores gigabytes to terabytes, and offers unprecedented automation and ease of use. All major operating systems are supported, including Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, most Unix variants, and Apple Macintosh OS. Administration uses either a Web browser or the secure Virtual Network Computing (VNC) interface for remote administration.

The device provides a variety of data storage options, including hard-disk drives, tape drives, recordable/rewritable compact discs (CD-R/CD-RW), recordable/rewritable digital video discs (DVD-R/DVD-RW), tape jukeboxes, and DVD jukeboxes storing terabytes. Smart software integrates these diverse devices into a seamless and user-friendly solution. Verified backups, built-in firewall, and optional encryption support mission-critical and high-security environments without complicating network administration. eGenius offers BackItUp! on month-to-month, quarterly and yearly leases, as well as for purchase.

"Maintaining today's networked computers is a difficult, time-consuming, and often thankless task. Network administrators are typically so overloaded that backups may be neglected until mission-critical data is lost, through accident or catastrophe. "At that point a search for the guilty begins," says Chalu Kim, president of eGenius. "That's understandable, but counter productive. Backups are a fundamental service every company needs to perform on a daily basis in order to survive." The trick, as every administrator knows, is creating a device capable of fulfilling complex backup demands.

"Every company has different backup needs," explains Kim. "Some require that daily backups be sent to a secure offsite location while others demand secure, high-availability data with self-service file restoration." These needs typically increase over time as a company's data usage grows or becomes more sophisticated.

BackItUp! is completely scalable and customizable depending on the specific needs of a business and its network configuration. "Some sites generate gigabytes of new data daily, while others use large amounts of critical -- but mostly static -- data," explains Kim. "BackItUp! supports the perfect mix of disk, tape, CD, and DVD for any environment." The key to making BackItUp! so easy to use is sophisticated software.

"We started with the point-and-click and drag-and-drop interface that is familiar to everyone," says Kim. "Then we made BackItUp! behave like an appliance: Just drop it into a network and backups become totally automated and transparent without any effort. Impressive functionality, high reliability, huge data capacity, remote access, and attractive leasing terms make the BackItUp! appliance invaluable to every business.

Users care about regular backups and timely file restoration, not the magic required to make those processes work. Network administrators care about a trustworthy, secure, and automated backup mechanism that doesn't take time away from keeping the company's information infrastructure humming along. Management cares about a reliable off-the-shelf solution that won't break the piggybank. Everybody wins!

"If you value your data and don't want to spend all your time on backups and restores, you need BackItUp! from eGenius," says Kim. "We worked hard at building some serious smarts into BackItUp! so network administrators can spend their time doing the real work that needs to be done, instead of baby-sitting backups or panicking when data is lost."