Administration Feature

Iron Mountain’s Connected® Backup for PC backs up distributed desktops and laptops over the Internet to a Data Center. Version 8.1 added a bandwidth throttling feature that allows administrators to limit the bandwidth used during backup. The bandwidth throttling requirements were:

• Limit the bandwidth used by each backup client
• Limit the bandwidth used by multiple clients backing up concurrently
• Set different limits based on peak, medium-peak, and off-peak schedules
• Set different limits based on the IP address, if known

I designed the bandwidth throttling interface to meet these requirements. Samples include:

• Throttle settings
• Edit throttle settings
• Import throttle settings
• Import error handling

Throttle Settings Wireframe

Throttle Settings

This page gives administrators a high-level view of all their throttle settings for their network. Administrators can define different throttle settings by IP address ranges. They can use the built-in Catchall Setting for unknown IP addresses, which is useful for locations outside the corporate network, such as when users back up from a hotel.

Edit Throttle Settings Wireframe

Edit Throttle Settings

On this page, Administrators enter an IP address range, then set the maximum bandwidth per backup client and the maximum bandwidth shared by clients backing up concurrently. They set these values for peak, medium peak, and off peak hours, which are defined in by the selected schedule. They can throttle by entering an absolute value or a percentage, or they can make bandwidth unlimited.

Import Throttle Settings Wireframe

Import Throttle Settings

Some customers have hundreds of IP address ranges in their network. The web-based interface is inefficient for entering large numbers of throttle settings. To make the process more efficient, we added the ability to import throttle settings created in Excel, and to export settings.

Import Errors Wireframe

Import Errors

Good error handling ensures a positive user experience. If errors occur, the system continues importing and displays the results on a page like this.