Storing the backup over the network, booting, speed of transfer

[dnanian]

You can't start up over the network, but it's still quite useful -- just not (directly) bootable until restored.

For speed, it depends entirely on the speed of the drive, its own file accesses, etc. We copy the files as fast as the system lets us, but access to the image isn't purely "streamed" so you won't get high throughput.

Subsequent Smart Updates are much faster, though.