Abstract: Methods and systems for performing peer-to-peer backup are provided. According to one embodiment, a P2P backup system includes multiple peers on an IP network forming a P2P network, an edge peer residing behind a firewall, a rendezvous server, a relay server and a P2P backup process running on each of the peers. Each peers may function as a server peer by storing a configurable amount of backup data on behalf of other peers. The rendezvous server is visible to all of the peers and configured to enable the peers to discover other online peers. The relay server is associated with the edge peer and allows communication to/from other of the peers to be initialed with the edge peer. The P2P backup process automatically and securely backs up data of one or more of the peers to one or more remote server peers in accordance with a configurable backup schedule.

Abstract: A beam shaping device for a laser device is provided. The laser device has a beam with a first beam quality factor M.sub.x.sup.2 in a first direction, and a second beam quality factor M.sub.y.sup.2 in an orthogonal direction. The beam shaping device includes at least one reflecting surface diverting at least a first part of the beam in order to reconfigure at least one of the first and second beam qualities M.sub.x.sup.2 and M.sub.y.sup.2.