In general a small business or single user customer is primarily interested in backing up a single computer or laptop system. In this scenario the iShelter client is installed on the target computer and local files and folders are selected for backup. The iShelter client compresses and encrypts all selected files, and sends them to the iShelter Primary Target Server. The files are stored and ready for retrieval at any moment.

A small to midsize customer will typically backup files and folders spread over different computer systems. These computers are usually connected to each other over the same local area network (LAN). In addition, this type of customer will install the iShelter client onto laptops in the field to provide users such as traveling sales people with a safe and secure backup solution.

Customers with larger backups prefer to have their backup sets attached to their local area network (LAN), as well as have them synchronized to the iShelter Data Center. This type of customer usually uploads more than 10GB of new backup data each backup cycle. For this reason, it is preferred to have the iShelter client backup to a locally attached disk array, and allow the drive array and the primary iShelter server to replicate data between each other. This backup solution eliminates backup failures due to low speed Internet connections

This Enterprise customer is a business that requires all of its data files to be always available. The iShelter service provides a large iSCSI disk solution that duplicates (in real time) all of the customers date between their site and the iShelter Data Center. In addition an onsite VTL system is installed to provide significantly reduced backup and restore windows, making the entire solution a highly available disaster recovery service.

The Enterprise Customer is a business that is looking to replicate all of their backup data to an always available offsite system. This type of service usually requires a high-speed internet connection, or a private wide area network architecture such as MPLS or point-to-point DS3 services. The iShetler Enterprise system provides an always online, fully replicated data set of the customer files. In addition the iShelter Enterprise offering reduces local backup windows by as much as 50%, by simply eliminating backup tape drives, and providing a synchronized Virtual Tape Library (VTL) system.