Safeguard your data from any threat with HostworX Cyber Protect – the only cyber protection solution that natively integrates data protection and cybersecurity,

Eliminate gaps in your defenses with integrated backup and anti-ransomware technologies, Safeguard every bit of data against new and evolving cyberthreats with advanced MI-based protection against malware.

Protect and Backup your Personal Computers / Servers and other devices with our Cyber Protect and Cloud backup Solution. Easily manage all protection aspects via a single console. Online backup services scan your hard drive for files worthy of backing up, encrypt them for security, and send them up to the cloud.
There's no such place as "the cloud" of course; this just means powerful, secure, and high-storage-capacity remote server computers attached to the internet with fast connections.
APPLICATION PLUGINS
Backup and recovery of Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server®, Active Directory® and Office 365 mailbox data is a total breeze with free plug-ins. Also included is VMware, Hyper-V, XenServer agentless backup agents

BARE METAL RECOVERY
Restore your entire machine in one go. Our bootable media allows for recovery of your machine just as it was at the time of your last backup

CROSS PLATFORM COMPATIBILITY
Protect every component of your IT infrastructure – Physical and Virtual, Windows® and Linux® Servers, Windows, Mac®, Linux Desktop and Laptop PCs, iPhones, iPads, Android Devices, as well as Office 365 Mailboxes

CYBERSECURITY PROTECTION
Included is Ransomware and cryptojacking protection, Antivirus and antimalware protection, Exploit prevention, CyberFit Score protection assessment, Vulnerability assessments for Windows, MacOS, Linux, as well as offering patch management, url filtering and other options.

There is a lot of nasty malware and viruses, especially crypto and ransomware viruses on the internet, all it takes is 30 seconds and you could lose all your data forever.

How much is your data worth to you? Just think about the costs involved to recover yourself back to where you were before you lost your data. When you look at the recovery costs involved, a few rand per month doesn't look so bad does it ?

Signup now for a Cloud Backup Account

Plans

 

  • Monthly Price
  • Storage Limit
  • Devices
  • Data Storage Location
 

20Gb

Cloud Backup Account

  • Price
  • R79
  • Storage Limits
  • 20Gb
  • Devices
  • Unlimited
  • Data Storage Location
  • South Africa
  • Data Encryption
  • AES256 TLS sessions

50Gb

Cloud Backup Account

  • Price
  • R179
  • Storage Limits
  • 50Gb Cloud Storage
  • Devices
  • Unlimited
  • Data Storage Location
  • South Africa
  • Data Encryption
  • AES256 TLS sessions

100Gb

Cloud Backup Account

  • Price
  • R299
  • Storage Limits
  • 100Gb Cloud Storage
  • Devices
  • Unlimited
  • Data Storage Location
  • South Africa
  • Data Encryption
  • AES256 TLS sessions

150Gb

Cloud Backup Account

  • Price
  • R449
  • Storage Limits
  • 150Gb Cloud Storage
  • Devices
  • Unlimited
  • Data Storage Location
  • South Africa
  • Data Encryption
  • AES256 TLS sessions

200Gb

Cloud Backup Account

  • Price
  • R599
  • Storage Limits
  • 200Gb Cloud Storage
  • Devices
  • Unlimited
  • Data Storage Location
  • South Africa
  • Data Encryption
  • AES256 TLS sessions

250Gb

Cloud Backup Account

  • Price
  • R749
  • Storage Limits
  • 250Gb Cloud Storage
  • Devices
  • Unlimited
  • Data Storage Location
  • South Africa
  • Data Encryption
  • AES256 TLS sessions

500Gb

Cloud Backup Account

  • Price
  • R1599
  • Storage Limits
  • 500Gb Cloud Storage
  • Devices
  • Unlimited
  • Data Storage Location
  • South Africa
  • Data Encryption
  • AES256 TLS sessions

1Tb

Cloud Backup Account

  • Price
  • R2799
  • Storage Limits
  • 1000Gb Cloud Storage
  • Devices
  • Unlimited
  • Data Storage Location
  • South Africa
  • Data Encryption
  • AES256 TLS sessions
 


Get all your questions answered below - FAQ.

 

Frequently asked questions

Here's a selection of answers to our most popular questions.

What systems / devices are supported ?

On our Cloud Backup system, the following operating systems and devices are supported:

  • WORKSTATIONS - Windows / Mac
  • SERVERS - Windows / Linux
  • MOBILE DEVICES - IOS / Android
  • VIRTUALIZATION HOSTS - VMware ESXI / Virtuozzo Hybrid Infrastructure / Hyper-V / Virtuozzo / KVM / Red Hat Virtualization / Citrix SenServer / Nutanix AHV / Oracle VM / Scale Computing HC3
  • APPLICATIONS - Microsoft 365 Business / Google Workspace / Microsoft Exchange Server / Microsoft Active Directory / Microsoft Sql Server
  • WEBSITE BACKUPS - via FTP

Can I install on multiple devices?

Yes, you are able to install the backup software on multiple computers using the same account. There is no limit to the number of devices per account.

How secure is this solution

We assure our customers that it is very secure. We've done our utmost to ensure the environment is configured as such, and security is of paramount importance to us.

The technical details

Cloud Backup Solution always encrypts all user data before sending or storing it, using strong AES-256.

During rest:

When Cloud Backup Solutions sets up a Storage Vault for the first time, it generates two high-entropy random keys (the 256-bit "A" and 128-bit "E" keys). All user data in the Storage Vault is stored encrypted with the A-key using AES-256 in CTR mode and authenticated using Poly1305 in AEAD (encrypt-then-MAC) mode. The only party with the decryption key is your company/the backup user. This ensures total privacy of the data.

Do you support HIPAA Compliance

Absolutely. There is no official, legally recognized HIPAA compliance certification process or accreditation. However, Acronis Cyber Protect follows HIPAA compliance requirements in their applicable part. Acronis established and maintains a HIPAA-HITECH security and compliance program for services offered as part of Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud. Designed to ease customer compliance concerns, the program ensures our solutions uphold the strict security and privacy standards demanded by HIPAA-HITECH

Do you support GDPR Compliance

Cloud Backup Solutions can be part of your GDPR compliant backup offering, however, you will have to ensure that you fulfil your own GDPR obligations as well. It may be advantageous to engage a GDPR consultant or agency to ensure your compliance.

Do you support POPIA Compliance

Absolutely. Your personal data is fully protected and secured in line with POPIA guidelines. Backed-up data and personal information never leaves the borders of South Africa.

Cancellation

In accordance with the terms and conditions, you must provide us with 1 clear calendar months notice of cancellation.

Because we bill monthly in advance, termination must be provided before receipt of your next automated invoice. After this time, your Cloud Backup service(s) will ceased.

Unless you request otherwise, your data will be automatically migrated away from our live backup area and kept for a maximum of 30 days, during which time you may reactivate the cloud backup service.

After reactivation your data will be migrated back to our live backup area and it will be possible to restore from it.

How do I set up automated cloud backups ?

Firstly you should configure a Protection Plan. This is a backup plan that you set to backup your machine, there are various options to choose from, backup your full machine, specific drives, specific files and folders, system state (your current machines configuration), exchange mailboxes, etc.

Typically you would only need to backup your user data, to do this create a plan using the files/folders option, select the various folders, ie c:\users\fred or selectively choose which folders in the users folder ie, documents, desktop, pictures,music, etc, once all the folders are selected specify the schedule you want to back your files up on, ie every hour or every 15 minutes, etc, also specify how long to keep the data stored online, and other options.

The plan also provides the options to enable antivirus and malware protection, if you have your own antivirus running, then turn this option off, or you can disable your own antivirus and use ours, you just can't have both enabled at the same time.

You can have multiple Protection plans - for example, you might set up one for "Payroll Data", another for "Documents" or just a single "Backup Set" with all the items you need.

Once your first backup has started, the backup agent will automatically, and in real-time, provide you with ongoing protection for your files and folders, transmitting changes.

Backups will run whether you are logged on to your machine or not.

How do I perform a backup ?

Once you have started your first backup, the backup process will begin.

You do not need to do anything further and the client will run in the background monitoring your files and uploading any changes automatically.

When are my files backed up ?

Once you have the Cloud Backup Solutions agent installed and running, any new files will be backed up within a 15 minute window after the schedule specified when creating your plan.

Therefore, assuming you have a working internet connection and/or an active external device that you are backing up to, the new files will be backed up pretty much immediately and available for restore within a few minutes.

Are open files backed up ?

Yes. Inbuilt into the Cloud Backup agent are methods enabling open files to be backed up.

The advantage of this is that active files do not need to be closed prior to backup, and anything you are actively working on is also protected.

How long are my files kept?

All your backed up files are retained based on your set a retention policy that was defined when creating the protection plan, you can set the number of months, weeks and days, or you can set a single policy based on the setting you are happy with.

Files deleted from your device are never removed from your backup set unless you deselect them from the backup, in which case you will be prompted that you understand they will also be removed from our cloud.

How long will my backup take ?

This all depends on the amount of data you are backing up, and how fast your internet connection is.

For customers using our dedicated South African Cloud Backup service, our servers have dedicated 1Gbps connections to the main core network of our Upstream provider and so we are very capable of catering for our customers backing up solidly at once without a performance impact.

Typically, we estimate you can expect to back up between 2 and 10Gb per day over an internet connection, but we have seen more than this possible.

Remember that if you have a large initial backup size exceeding 20Gb, we can load this manually for you and your device backup will continue from where this stops. We charge a one-off fee of R1500. You provide us with a memory stick or hard drive with your initial encrypted backup on and a prepaid return method, we load it onto our servers and then send your device back to you.

How much data can I backup ?

There are theoretically no limits to the amount of data that you can back up, but most accounts are limited to the selected data storage option you chose, you can always upgrade whenever you need to, but please bear in mind that you will be limited by your internet connectivity for the initial upload.

We also offer substantial discounts on backups larger than 500Gb so we recommend you contact us to discuss your requirements.

Refer to the other frequently asked questions for information on how we can perform an initial manual load of your encrypted backup data directly to our servers.

Why is my backup smaller than the data on my device ?

The backup software that we use implements deduplication and compression, and skips irrelevant, temporary and certain system files.

This means that if you have files that are duplicated in your backup set, only a single instance of the file is stored, and files such as swap or temporary files which are only used for the duration of your logon, are not backed up.

The result is that your backup set may be much smaller than the drive, folder, or files that you have specified to be backed up. For example, you choose your C:\ drive which reports it has a total of 30Gb used, but your backup set is only 20Gb.

In addition, compression is used wherever possible to save as much bandwidth and space as possible. This also saves you money on your storage fees.

Why is my backup smaller than the data on my device ?

If you don't hear anything, they are working silently in the background.

If your device has not backed up for 3 days and you have configured notifications, you will receive a warning email.

Occasionally you may receive an email with a summary of your backups.

You can also access the web-based dashboard at https://backup.hostworx.co.za and log in with your account credentials to view the overall status of all devices in your account.

Can I backup my email ?

The answer depends on how your emails are stored. Most email clients are backed up natively. We also offer Microsoft 365 backups as well.

what should I backup ?

You have the ability to manually add any files or folders into a Protected Plans.

As a rule, the current users home directory should be enough. This will typically include Documents, Pictures, Mail files and so on.

However, it should be noted that on Windows in particular, this can include video files, which can take up more space than may be necessary, so some "tuning" of the backup selection may be required.

On Windows, we do not recommend backing up the C:\Program Files\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\ directories as this usually will not result in the programs being installed successfully following a restore unless you also back up a copy of the registry and C:\Windows directory to include components. This can result in a lot of data being backed up!

How does cloud backup differ from dropbox or Onedrive ?

This is a great question. The primary distinction is that we provide endpoint backup rather than file syncing and sharing. If you are looking for key differentiators, the following list summarizes accurately:

  • * Dropbox/Onedrive is primarily a sync client, for file sharing and collaboration, and is not really designed for ongoing backups even when you are logged off
  • * Dropbox/Onedrive is based in the US, and as such is governed by a different jurisdiction, subject to the privacy questions that are being raised in the US with the NSA. This is also particularly relevant in light of the POPI (Protection of personal information) act passed in South Africa, governing that certain data cannot leave the country.
  • * Backing up or recovering large sets of data to Dropbox/Onedrive could potentially take months, whereas our service is 100% based in South Africa and we have a 1Gb connection to the internet. We can back up and restore data as fast as your ADSL connection will allow.
  • * Dropbox/Onedrive do not provide any quick and easy way to restore large quantities of backup to external disk for rapid recovery (and the same for backup)
  • * Dropbox/Onedrive charge extra for versioning and delete files are subsequently removed after 30 days - we store multiple versions and deleted files indefinitely
  • * Dropbox/Onedrive themselves have advised they will decrypt and hand over files to the US government upon request, and on their website quote "Dropbox/Onedrive employees are prohibited from viewing the content of files you store in your account" which we read as "prohibited, but fully capable of doing so". We cannot view your files unless we initiate a full restore on behalf of our customers, and if a backup encryption password is used, we are completely unable to even initiate it without the password.

How can I quickly restore my data ?

If you have unfortunately suffered data loss and/or some sort of hardware failure, we are very sorry for you - but help is at hand as this is exactly why you signed up for our service in the first place.

Restoring to a new device is a simple process - you will need to download the backup client again and choose the option to sign in with your existing account username. If you do not remember the password, contact us and we can reset it for you.

Do not perform a backup yet - you will be prompted "Is this a new device" and given the opportunity to "adopt" your old device - then you can restore the data in your account - your new device will inherit everything from the old one.

Once the data has been restored you can allow the backup to start, which will continue from the point of restored data onwards.

Manual Restore

Optionally, we are able to quickly and easily perform a bulk data restore for your account, to your own external device, rather than you wait for your data to be restored over the internet, which could take a long time. There is a one-off fee of R1500 for this service.

If you have configured an additional archive restore password for your backups, you will need to provide us with this when your restore is performed, otherwise we have absolutely no way of restoring your data for you.

How Do I restore ?

The simplest, quickest and most effective way to restore is by launching the Cloud Backup Solutions application on your computer.
Navigate to the Restore option on the left, follow the wizard to choose the files and folders you wish to restore.