These are some terms we use quite liberally – both in this document, and in our user interface. So here’s a short description of what each of them means.

GigaVaultStorage Server Provider Edition Terminology:

1. Service Provider - The provider who offers the online backup service

2. Customer - The customer of the Service Provider who is backing up online to the service provider's data center.

3. Client - PCs in the customer site backing up to the GigaVaultStorage server installed in the Service Provider's data center. These PCs have GigaVaultStorage installed in the Client mode.

4. GigaVaultStorage ID - This is the unique ID each installation of GigaVaultStorage is identified with. GigaVaultStorage will prompt you to give an ID during the installation. It will automatically take the machine name as the GigaVaultStorage ID by default.

GigaVaultStorage General Terminology:

GigaVaultStorage Server:

A GigaVaultStorage Server receives (and stores) backup data from GigaVaultStorage Clients.
The backed up data is stored in the machine which runs the GigaVaultStorage Server – a PC can run GigaVaultStorage server if you plan to store data on that PC.
If you wish, the same machine can run GigaVaultStorage Server and GigaVaultStorage Client. This would be the case in a true P2P deployment, or if you have a backup server that will in turn be backed up, as well.

GigaVaultStorage Client:

A machine that has data it wants to back up has to run GigaVaultStorage Client.
The GigaVaultStorage Client backs up its data on to a machine running GigaVaultStorage Server.
If you wish, the same machine can run GigaVaultStorage Server and GigaVaultStorage Client. This would be the case in a true P2P deployment, or if you have a backup server that will in turn be backed up, as well

(anyone who purchases a paid license of GigaVaultStorage is also a GigaVaultStorage client )

Client-Server:

A Client-Server architecture is a concept in which many clients are served by a single or multiple servers. In the context of GigaVaultStorage, multiple clients (Desktops) can backup to a single Backup Server or multiple Backup Servers.
The Backup Servers are generally dedicated to a particular purpose, in this case, to store the backed up data.

Replication:

Term used for the process where a backup server sends its backup data to a replication server to create a redundant copy of the backup data.

GigaVaultStorage Replication Server:

A machine that receives replication data from a backup server. In case the backup server crashes, it can be restored from the replicated data in the replication server. A backup server can replicate to only one replication server. A replication server can accept replication from more than one backup servers.

GigaVaultStorage Web Console:

This is the browser based GigaVaultStorage user interface from which the backup, restore and administration of GigaVaultStorage servers and clients are done.
Since the user interface is browser based, any GigaVaultStorage Client or Server can be configured and administered from any location.

Peer-to-Peer (P2P):

In P2P, individual entities like Desktops (Peers) exchange information with each other without the help of a central server. In a true P2P architecture, all peers are equal and participate in some form of network activity. In the case of GigaVaultStorage, which can be deployed in a P2P fashion, the Peers (Desktops) use each others free disk space to backup data between each other. In the case of a true P2P deployment both the GigaVaultStorage Server and the GigaVaultStorage Client will run in the same machine as a single process.

Remote / Online Backups :

The same as client-server (see above), except that the ‘server’ is outside the clients’ network.