Online Backup....it’s time has come, Finally!

So, back in 1999 I was looking to enhance my business services and wanted to offer an online backup service to my customers. Well at that time high speed internet was not as pervasive, nor was it as high speed as today, the online backup software market was in its infancy and it was a fair expensive proposition. Fast forward to today and all of a sudden, high speed internet is really high speed, more data is being lost by not backing up or backing up incorrectly, we are much more dependant on the computers and more important the data they contain about our lives and our businesses. Cloud computing (there’s that phrase again!) is coming of age and online backup is a perfect application to take advantage of it. Now in 2009, ten years later, it’s time to backup online. These services are relatively inexpensive (and for a modest amount of data, the’re free!) and very easy to use. In fact the ones I recommend are truly a set-it-and-forget-it type. I have been testing several of these services and each has their strong points. The one thing I look for in a backup service is that it has to be a reputable company. If they are going to store my personal or business data, they need to be a company I can trust with my data, and oh, a company that is going to still be there years down the road. So I eliminated local backup providers, the mom and pop businesses (like mine!). I want to be sure that not only my data is backed up, but my backup provider also backs it up, and even more important, my privacy is maintained. Something that a “mom and pop” backup service may not be able to guarantee.
I had to narrow down my provider selection, so I picked Carbonite, Mozy Home and Syncplicity.

Carbonite and Mozy Home are comparable, they work basically by copying new and changed data daily to the “cloud” backup center. They work as advertised and are very reliable, either of them in my opinion would be a cloud computing application I would use. Then there is Syncplicity, they take a slightly different approach, as files are added or changed they are immediately backed up. So no need to wait until the witching hour to have your files backed up, they are done so immediately, which seems to me to be an advantage. Also an added feature of Syncplicity is that it can keep your files in sync with multiple computers. So if you want to keep your desktop and laptop in sync with your latest pictures or word processing files, this service can do this for you and it really works smoothly! I really like this because it give you a local backup copy as well as the remote copy, something I recommend as well, having a local and remote copy ensures your data is protected with multiple copies. Syncplicity also give you access to your files via the internet as well, another nice feature. All the services work in the background and don’t seem to interfere with the performance of your computer, which is another very important factor. The only disadvantage is that Syncplicity is not a public company but is a startup. Will it survive? Time will tell, and to one of these larger more established companies that want to enhance their backup services or provide new ones, this is a perfect company to look at partnering with or possibly acquiring. The software is solid, the idea and implementation is great, the demand for this is growing.....what are you waiting for you well established companies....look into this.

Other known players in this space is Idrive and SOS. I haven’t yet tested these yet, but both seem to have the features and backing needed to get the job done. SOS also has the local synching capabilities that I like with Syncplicity.

Bottom line…..backup your data! Using these tools will make it easier and it will also give you an offsite copy for true disaster protection. Oh, and did I mention that most of these (if not all of them) have free options for limited amount of data? If you don’t have a lot of critical data or if you just want to test before you buy, this is a perfect option. Until next time.......