Q: Do I really need to back up my Google Apps data? Doesn’t Google do that?
A: Yes you do, and no, they don’t.
Google has great disaster recovery capabilities, but it’s important to recognize that they’re designed to recover from disasters affecting Google, not those affecting you. For instance, if there’s a fire in a Google datacenter, they’re able to recover. But if someone in your office deletes a shared calendar, a sync corrupts your contacts, or you accidentally delete a document, Google doesn’t consider that a disaster—and offers nothing to help you get your data back.
Browse through the Google Apps help forums and you’ll find hundreds of posts from users who have lost their data and need help. The usual reply, when one is given, is, “Sorry, your data is gone for good.”
Without Spanning Backup, once your data is gone, it’s gone.
Q: Does Spanning Backup back up Google Drive?
A: Yes! Spanning Backup is fully compatible with Google Drive, and backs up all of its contents. Just check the “Docs” tab.
Q: Does Spanning Backup back up email?
A: Yes! With the release of Spanning Backup v2.0, Spanning Backup now backs up Google Apps email in addition to docs, calendars, and contacts. And just as importantly, it also allows you to navigate even very large backups quickly and restore multiple messages in a single action, which you can see in this video.
Q: Does Spanning Backup back up Google Chat history?
A: Yes! You’ll need to configure your Gmail account to show chats in IMAP so they’re accessible to Spanning Backup. Here’s how:
- Sign into Gmail and click on the “gear” icon in the upper right to open Settings.
- Under “Labels”, enable “Show in IMAP”. You can also optionally “show” in the label list.
- Under “Chat”, select “Save chat history”.
- Save Changes.
Q: How do I know I can trust you with my Google Apps data?
A: Spanning is a well-established company with an excellent security and privacy track record. We have been certified to display the TRUSTe Privacy Seal and TRUSTe EU Safe Harbor Seal, demonstrating both our global commitment to consumer trust and privacy online and our compliance with the EU Safe Harbor Framework as outlined by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the European Union.
A TRUSTe certification means TRUSTe has reviewed the data collection, use, and management practices of the app and has verified these practices meet TRUSTe’s program standards. TRUSTe’s program standards are based upon a combination of privacy frameworks such as the US-EU Safe Harbor, regulatory guidelines such as the Fair Information Practice Principles, industry standards and reports such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology privacy and security report, and client and expert review.
We’ve been operating the popular Spanning Sync service since 2006 and in that time have never had a security or privacy issue. We’ve handled Google Apps data for hundreds of thousands of users, including celebrities, executives, and even well-known security researchers. The security measures we’ve put in place for Spanning Backup are even more rigorous than those for Spanning Sync, and since we assume that a security breach would destroy our business, preventing such is of the utmost importance to us.
We invite you to read our Privacy Statement.
Q: Can I use Spanning Backup to back up my whole Google Apps domain?
A: Absolutely. Just install Spanning Backup for Google Apps into your Google Apps domain through the Google Apps Marketplace. During configuration, you can enable Spanning Backup for all of your domain users so their data is backed up without their having to do anything. They’ll have access to Spanning Backup and their backed-up data through the Google Universal Navigation bar in Google Apps.
Q: Where in the cloud exactly is my data backed up?
A: Spanning Backup is a pure cloud-based application built on Amazon Web Services and stores user data using a combination of Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3) and Elastic Block Store (EBS), which provide 99.999999999% durability.
Q: Whom should I contact if I have a problem or question?
A: You can always contact us at support@spanningbackup.com. Or if you’d like to talk to other Spanning Backup users, please join the Spanning Backup Google Group.