ElephantDrive is a storage virtualization

Storage Virtualization

Storage virtualization or storage virtualisation is a concept and term used within computer science. Specifically, storage systems may use virtualization concepts as a tool to enable better functionality and more advanced features within the storage system.Broadly speaking, a 'storage system' is...

 service used primarily as an online backup tool

Remote backup service

A remote, online, or managed backup service is a service that provides users with a system for the backup and storage of computer files. Online backup providers are companies that provide this type of service to end users ....

, but also as a remote access service

Remote Access Service

Remote Access Services refers to any combination of hardware and software to enable the remote access tools or information that typically reside on a network of IT devices. A RAS server is a specialized computer which aggregates multiple communication channels together...

/collaboration tool

Collaboration tool

A collaboration tool is something that helps people collaborate. The term is often used to mean collaborative software, but collaboration tools were being used before computers existed...

. The service runs on both Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

 and Mac

Macintosh

The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...

 platforms, and allows users to create simple automated rules for protecting data by moving it into an ElephantDrive account.

ElephantDrive makes use of infrastructure-on-demand as part of its architecture, and is one of the first and most popular examples of the applications built on Amazon's S3 (Simple Storage Service)

Amazon S3

Amazon S3 is an online storage web service offered by Amazon Web Services. Amazon S3 provides storage through web services interfaces...

. ElephantDrive initially utilized Amazon S3 as a tool for a datacenter migration, but quickly moved it into the production infrastructure.