What is Kondar? Kondar Byte-level Delta Deduplication technology is the new and revolutionary technology for making incremental or differential backups of very large files. This technology is capable of creating very small incremental or differential backups of large files by using our 100% proprietary algorithms designed for large blocks of information. The files generated by Kondar occupy between 10 and 100 times less than the original files. Kondar isn’t a backup application per se. Instead, Kondar complements other backup products by providing them with the capability of creating very small incremental backups. Integrating Kondar technology into a standard backup application will enable it to create far smaller incremental backups than would be possible without the Kondar technology, especially when it is necessary to create backups of big files.

How does Kondar work?

Once you have the Kondar incremental file, you can delete or modify the target file without risk, since you can easily recover it just by using the source file and the Kondar incremental file.

Several backups can be made simply by saving the source file and the Kondar incremental files.

Here’s a diagram that illustrates the differences between the results produced by “standard” incremental backups and those of Kondar Byte-level Delta Patching technology:

Let’s look at an example:

Suppose we want to create a backup of our Outlook e-mails every day. When e-mails are saved in Outlook, they are saved to what is called a “PST file”, which is a large database containing all Outlook emails.

If we use a standard backup application for daily backups, it will create a full copy of this PST file every day. Naturally, this will require lot of storage space.

If this backup application uses Kondar technology, it will create a full copy of the PST file on the first day but then a small Kondar incremental file for each day thereafter.

To create these incremental files, Kondar would compare the first full backup with the PST file created each day and simply save the differences.

To restore the PST file of a given day you would only need the first full backup and the Kondar incremental file of that day.

What makes Kondar different from other “incremental” backups?

Kondar is capable of creating very small incremental backups of large files by using our 100% proprietary algorithms designed for large blocks of information. The files generated by Kondar occupy between 10 and 100 times less than the original files. For this reason, with Kondar it is possible to store more than a month of daily incremental backups of a 1GB file in just one CD; with a standard backup application, 2 CDs per day would be probably necessary. The advantages are evident in terms of cost, storage space, maintenance, etc.

In the following table we can see a comparison of the sizes of some files saved using a standard incremental backup program and the Kondar Incremental Backup.

Why does Kondar need a copy of the original backup to create an incremental backup?

Even when just one byte of a 1GB file has changed, this standard backup application will save the full file to the backup media.

Kondar needs to have access to the original full backup (source file) to compare it with the present or more recent target file in order to create the incremental file with just the differences between both files. This, along the fact that Kondar takes a little longer to perform its incremental backups than a standard backup application does, could be seen as a small disadvantage. However, the immense amount of storage space saved by using Kondar for incremental backups (usually 100 times smaller than a file backed up by way of a standard “incremental” backup program) more than compensates for this.

What is the meaning of "Match Level" option?

How can Kondar be integrated into a standard backup application?

Imagine that a user of “HyperBackup”, Mary Smith, wants to make a scheduled backup of her hard drive. As explained above, the first time this is done “HyperBackup” will make a full backup of the HD (the source file).

Let’s suppose that this first backup has the following files:

• 40,000 files with 10MB or less.
• 100 files with more than 10MB but less than 100MB.
• 10 files with more than 100MB.

Then, a few days later, Mary uses “HyperBackup” to make a second backup. For this second backup, the file distribution is now:

• 40,700 files with 10MB or less:

o 1,000 new files.
o 1,500 changed files.
o 300 files deleted from the last backup.

• 132 files with more than 10MB but less than 100MB:

o 40 new files.
o 15 changed files.
o 8 files deleted from the last backup.

• 11 files with more than 100MB.

o 2 new files.
o 5 changed files.
o 1 file deleted from the last backup.

Now she can do the first incremental backup with Kondar. There are several ways to set up the integration between “HyperBackup” and Kondar. For example, “HyperBackup” could create a second full backup, then call Kondar to create an incremental file between the first full backup and the second full backup and, when finished, delete the second backup. But certainly, this is not the most efficient way for “HyperBackup” to make incremental backups using Kondar technology. There are better ways to do this.

Below, we propose two ways, though there are more. You will see that the choice of the particular system to be used will depend on the developers’ criteria in terms of whether they consider it important to achieve small storage space savings by applying Kondar for smaller files or if they only wish to obtain Kondar incremental backups from very large files.

Example: integration system 1:
Here, the developers of “HyperBackup” are not interested in saving storage space when backing up files that are under 10MB, so they will only “call” Kondar to make incremental backups for files that are over 10MB. To do that, “HyperBackup” will pack all changed files with 10MB or more into one file and will pack the same files from the original backup into another file.

Here are the steps:

• “HyperBackup” will copy all the new files.
• It will then create a standard incremental backup (not with Kondar) with all changed files with 10MB or less.
• Next, “HyperBackup” will create a temporary file into which it will pack the 20 files bigger than 10MB that have changed and another temporary file with the same files from the original backup. “HyperBackup” will then call on Kondar to create an incremental file between these two files and, once this Kondar incremental file has been made, it will delete the two temporary files. The way to pass and return the files (to/from Kondar) could be through real file names, memory buffers or file mapping objects.

Finally, all of these files will be packed into the final backup. The following is a summary of what has been done:

Integration System 1: The second backup (using Kondar):

• 40,700 files with 10MB or less:

o 1,000 new files. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Copied
o 1,500 changed files. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Standard Incremental Backup
o 300 files deleted from the last backup.

• 132 files with more than 10MB but less than 100MB:

o 40 new files. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Copied
o 15 changed files. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Kondar Incremental Backup
o 8 files deleted from the last backup.

• 11 files with more than 100MB.

o 2 new files. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Copied
o 5 changed files. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Kondar Incremental Backup
o 1 file deleted from the last backup.

Integration system 2:
In this case, the developers of “HyperBackup” have decided to use Kondar just for big files they wish to create one Kondar incremental backup for each file with more than 100MB.

These are the steps:

• “HyperBackup” will copy all the new files.
• Next, it will create a standard incremental backup of all files with 100MB or less that have changed.
• Then, “HyperBackup” will call on Kondar to create an incremental file for each changed file bigger than 100MB (there are 5 of these). To do this, “HyperBackup” has to get each file from the original backup and transfer them to Kondar together with the modified file. Kondar will compare these original and target files in order to make the Kondar Incremental Backups. “HyperBackup” will then copy the 5 incremental files returned by Kondar into its incremental backup file. The way to pass and return the files (to/from Kondar) could be through real file names, memory buffers or file mapping objects.

Finally these 3 files will be packed into the final backup. The following is a summary of what has been done:

Integration System 2: the second backup (using Kondar):

• 40,700 files with 10MB or less:

o 1,000 new files. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Copied
o 1,500 changed files. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Standard Incremental Backup
o 300 files deleted from the last backup.

• 132 files with more than 10MB but less than 100MB:

o 40 new files. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Copied
o 15 changed files. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Standard Incremental Backup
o 8 files deleted from the last backup.

• 11 files with more than 100MB.

o 2 new files. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Copied
o 5 changed files. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>5 Kondar Incremental Backups
o 1 file deleted from the last backup.

There are even more efficient ways to do this integration, such as a combination of these systems. In fact, it’s possible to give a backup application the intelligence to take these decisions in real time depending on the types of files to be backed up on each occasion.

Is Kondar technology only useful for backup applications?

• Backup applications
• Electronic mail
• HD cloning or image creation utilities
• Virtual systems
• Databases
• Image, video and audio treatment
• In general, any application generating big files and requiring store different versions of the same file.
  

How are we going to make this technology available to interested parties?

We will also be glad to negotiate special agreements with companies for developing a “custom made” API adapted to their requirements.

What is RIB-it and how is it different from the Kondar SDK?

We develop RIB-it as a proof of concept tool for ISVs (see Partners) that may be interested in integrating Kondar technology into their applications (backup, databases, HD cloning, etc.). With RIB-it, ISVs can easily evaluate the power and effectiveness of Kondar technology without having to actually use our Kondar SDK to make a trial integration.

If you would like more information about this tool, please click here.