I have been causally looking into online backup services, i.e.: Carbonite, Mozy, etc.
My question revolves around the fees. Once you are done with the initial backup, are the monthly fees based on the new data each month or do you get charged for ALL storage space being used? I suspect ALL data is charged, but I really didn't get a clear answer looking at their web sites.
Carbonite is the only player left that offers unlimited data (at least that I could find), BUT they throttle the upload rates way back after a fairly low volume of data has passed over the wire.
Most of these services DO NOT keep unlimited versioning, most seem to scroll previous versions off into thin air after 30 days, meaning you can't recover a version of a file older than that. SOS Online is one of the few that don't do this.
Looking for any feedback on what works and what doesn't as well as costs. I am thinking of using an online service, BUT I probably have about 200 GB of data since I started my business in 1995, if I am charged for 200 GB every month, that isn't going to be inexpensive, may consider my own backup system that is more automated than what I do now or don't do sometimes! I am thinking of installing a NAS Raid box for primary backup of my office PC's and then backing that to a USB drive that I keep in a fire and water proof safe on site. Sentry now makes a safe with a USB port, the backup of the NAS would always be in the locked safe, not quite as safe as an off-site backup, but I think I can implement a 1 TB raid with a 1 TB USB drive and the safe for around $1K onetime cost. Burning everything to DVD is starting to get to be burdensome and requires me to actually do it regularly.
SHG
Burning to DVD isn't a good solution, IMHO, due to media degradation. I know that some disks are reportedly better than others, but my experience with CDs that I've written is that they began to fail after 5 or 6 years. I also spent a couple hundred dollars on a set of CDs from the Sacramento County Recorder, and the became unusable after 9 years or so. Writing to optical media is also pretty labor-intensive, as you noted, and doesn't solve the problem of offsite storage.
With regard to cloud storage, I like the Amazon S3 service, which I access via JungleDisk. I'm using an older version of JD that has no monthly fee, but it looks like the new versions require a small ($5 or so) fee. That's on top of the monthly Amazon charge, which is pretty modest: currently $0.14 per GB for the first TB. I pay around $12 per month at present.
The immediate advantage of Amazon S3 over something like Carbonite is redundancy. Amazon stores your data in at least 2 places, though both are in the same facility. (You can get multi-region redundancy for additional charges if you think it's necessary.) Carbonite, on the other hand, offers no redundancy other than your local drive.
The longer-term advantage is that Carbonite's business model still hasn't demonstrated that it's capable of staying afloat -- let alone making a profit -- in the long term. Amazon S3 is built on a sustainable business model, so it has a reasonable chance of still being around 10 or 20 years from now.
"Backup" is a belt and suspenders thing.
off site on-line is cool, but having a full copy on site is equally important.
I bought a 2TB Western Digital USB drive a year or so ago, it contains a copy of everything that I have on the other various CDs and smaller external drives.
Each of my working computers has a second hard drive that is a backup of the Data on the primary drive.
Hard drives are cheap, and degrading of the media is automatically monitored by the OS software.
Consider a Linux file server box. the hardware would be less than $300 total and the software is truly industrial strength (and free). It is what the big boys do.
Your mileage will vary.;-)
I use Mozy Pro. It works and it works fast. You pay for a block of storage, if you don't use it all you still pay. I used it on Monday to restore a file an employee accidentally deleted. 20 seconds and the file was restored. I give it an A overall but I have not used any others. We also have a NAS with mirrored drives (redundant back up on 2 drives on site) and I'll back everything up on an external hard drive and lock it up off site once a month.
Best Backup Hands Down - BACKBLAZE
$50 per year for unlimited storage. Their website is also great, they go into great detail on how they backup your data. I am a surveyor, I gain nothing by complementing them, they have treated me very well.
Mozy
I use mozy.com. It simultaneously backs us every night BOTH on-line & onto my external hard drive sitting on my desk.
Here is what I have been paying:
This is probably old fashioned by now,
but I simply back-up to an external USB hard drive just about daily. I take that home periodically and backup everything to a couple of additional external hard drives. These are kept in different locations.
You can get a 1TB external drive for around $100 anytime. Three copies in three locations = +/-$300.
I also have an extra internal hard drive that I have cloned my PC drive onto. If the drive mounted in the PC ever fails or there is an OS problem, I can simply replace with the cloned drive with no downtime re-installing programs.
Thanks for all the replies guys, some good advice given.
I am leaning toward on online as a secondary only if at all and just doing something old fashioned as Jon does. I had not heard of Backblaze before today, BUT I like what they have to offer and may try them too.
SHG
Has Carbonite had a privacy breach?
Bad on Carbonite if they gave away info.
Based on the feedback here, I am trying Backblaze right now, started last night, shows about four days to go to complete the backup.
Very easy to use as advertised!
I tried the locate feature and it is very accurate, has my location plotted on the building I am in using Google Earth images, I would say that is good enough to locate any missing computer equipment and this service is free, an added bonus.
I have two weeks before I have to pay, BUT so far Backblaze looks like a keeper.
I also plan to implement a NAS raid box for local backup and back that up to a USB drive I will keep on site in a fireproof safe.
SHG
I was not happy with Mozy or carbonite either one. Had a crash with Mozy and was not able to retrieve my data. It was so encrypted, no one including me, could get it. Long story.
I would like a simple site, cloud storage I think is what they call it, where I can retrieve my files without a lot of hassle from anywhere.
Sam, give Backblaze a shot, very simple, of course I am only a user for 24 hours, BUT almost zero effort to start a full PC backup. With my connection it looks like about five days for a full backup. You don't have to do additional encryption, BUT have the option to where ONLY you have the key, loose that and you loose the ability to restore.
Happy after one day, time will tell.
SHG
It looks like Backblaze is hard to just go in and pull a single file out like you are in the boonies and want to access something. Sugersync looks like a good setup. I may try it.
I have done a sample restore of three files, pretty straight forward, you pick the files and they zip those and e-mail you and you download, pretty easy.
I also use a free Dropbox account, useful for short term transfer of files, but really a complimentary service.
SHG
I have used SpiderOak for both backup and Sync. Works well, but takes a bit to get setup. Once done autosyncs changes also. Can be accessed from any computer.