The Back-Up Plan: We Examine 5 Cloud-Based Services
The Back-Up Plan: We Examine 5 Cloud-Based Services
Posted 02/24/2011 at 2:47pm
| by Mark Edward Soper
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From Google’s Gmail and GoogleDocs to Microsoft’s Windows Live and Adobe’s Acrobat.com, more and more personal computing is taking place in “the cloud.” PC users are increasingly growing accustomed to mobile computing from their smartphones and tablets – and cloud computing is an essential element in this growing mobile adaptation. From online data sharing, email, social networking, and file creation (and editing), cloud computing is a very good fit for the on-the-go, work-from-anywhere crowd.
With the convergence of several trends, including fast CPUs able to run background processes without getting bogged down, to breakneck broadband Internet connections, and powerful end-to-end encryption (to assure that nobody but you can view your backups or restore them), backing up data to the cloud is an idea whose time has come. All of these features are widely available today, and you have several choices in cloud-based backup. We’re going to break down all the elements of cloud-based backup - from how it works, and what the leading players in the home market offer, to helping you determine whether cloud-based backup should be on your “must-have” list of online services.
UPDATE: It was brought to our attention that several of the services initially mentioned in this article have changed their services, availabilities and pricing, so we've updated the article (as of April 2011) in order to better reflect available choices!
How Cloud-Based Backup Works
All cloud-based backup services include a few basic elements: a client program that runs on your computer; an encrypted connection to and from the Internet; and secure online storage. Generally, in a typical cloud-based backup situation you install the back up client, log into the service, choose your options and select what to back up. Then the program will run in the background, transmitting files over the encrypted Internet connection to secure online storage.
The progress of the backup is usually displayed in a notification area. Initial backups can take several days, depending upon the size of the backup and the speed of your upload connection.
As backed-up files are updated and changed, the new files are backed up as well. Depending upon the backup service, they might either replace previous versions or be available for restoration for a limited time.
It’s important to note that cloud-based backup services cannot provide disaster recovery image backups, because they are designed only to back up data files or other files that you specify. So, while you can use cloud-based backup as part of your personal or business backup strategy, do keep in mind that you will still need to choose a program that works for disaster recovery.
A Quick Note on Cloud-Based Restore
The client program installed by the cloud-based backup program is also used to start and manage the restore process. Depending upon the service selected, there might also be provision for restoring data to mobile devices. Generally, the process is pretty self-explanatory: you install the backup client onto the device where you want to restore files, log in, select restore, the files you need, and the location you want them and bingo! You’re back in business.
Factors Affecting Cloud-Based Backup Performance
Unlike backup to local drives, which can sometimes take less than an hour if an image backup is being performed, cloud-based backup can often take several days to complete. The speed of online backup is affected by several factors, including the upload speed of your Internet connection and the priority you assign to the backup task - some backup clients allow you to specify the priority of the backup process, or even allow you to specify different priorities based on when the backup process is taking place.
With typical home DSL or cable Internet services, your upload speed is a small fraction of your download speed. For example, with a 10Mbps (download) cable Internet service, your upload speed is typically about 1Mbps. (A 3Mbps DSL service typically offers a 512Kbps upload speed.) Keep this in mind when choosing what to put in your cloud-based backup.
Major Players in Cloud-Based Backup
Although the best-known players in cloud-based backup include Carbonite Online Backup and Mozy Home, there are plenty of other services worth considering. In the original version of this story, we also evaluated Acronis Online Backup, IDrive, and SugarSync. We’ve decided to take a second look at this category because of Mozy’s recent switch to a capacity-limited service and because our readers suggested additional products, including BackBlaze, CrashPlan+, and Updatestar. We got the goods on each one below.
Using Carbonite Online Backup
Carbonite performing an initial backup
We used Carbonite Online Backup’s 15-day free trial for this review. Using its default settings, Carbonite will automatically back up documents, pictures, email, settings, contacts, presentations, spreadsheets, and music (music with paid subscriptions only). Video files, program files, and individual files of any type larger than 4GB are not backed up by default.
Note: Carbonite will not back up files on an external hard disk or network share, even if they are part of a Windows 7 library. To determine if a file or folder can be backed up by Carbonite, right-click the file or folder. If Carbonite is not listed in the right-click menu, Carbonite cannot be used to back up the file.
Because Carbonite has built-in rules that determine the files it backs up automatically, it’s very important that you verify exactly what files are being (or will be) backed up. During the backup process, Carbonite’s InfoCenter displays information about the backup process, but when you open Windows Explorer, you can also determine the backup status of individual files by opening Windows Explorer or by opening the Carbonite Backup Drive (listed in My Computer) which will display files that have been backed up as well as those awaiting backup via a yellow or green colored dot.
Folders are also marked with yellow and green dots, as well as green circles, with a yellow dot indicating that the file (or all of the files in the the folder) are awaiting backup, and a green dot indicating that the file(s) or folder(s) have been backed up. A green circle (aka "green donut") means that some (but not all) of the files in the folder have been backed up.
Windows Explorer displays Carbonite backup status
Restoring Files with Carbonite Online Backup
Restoring deleted files with Carbonite is similarly easy, just open the Carbonite Backup Drive and navigate to the folder where the files were located. To save time, right-click the folder and select Open Folder in Carbonite Backup drive. Files that have been backed up but are no longer in the folder are listed.
From the right-click menu, you have options to restore the file to the current folder, restore the file to a different folder, restore a previous version (if any), or discontinue backup of the file. To restore multiple files, select them with Shift-Click or Ctrl-Click. A restore progress dialog appears, enabling to cancel or pause the restore if desired. Click Done when the restore is completed. You can also close the restore dialog and the restore will continue.
Carbonite Impressions
For what it does, Carbonite is a very easy-to-use and powerful backup program. It does an excellent job of keeping you informed about what’s happening. However, if you use external drives or network storage for storage of important files you want to back up, Carbonite isn’t the service for you because of its limitations.
Carbonite Online Backup Fast Facts
- $54.95/year
- Unlimited backup of a single computer
- Default settings backs up documents, music, email and other files in Windows user accounts continuously
- Customized backup options include the ability to select other files for backup and to back up on a schedule
- Supported operating systems: Windows XP, Vista, 7; Mac OSX 10.4, 10.5, 10.6
- Client available for restore to iPhone, Blackberry, or Android smartphone
- Cannot back up files on external drives or network shares
- http://www.carbonite.com
More like this
KingB
June 06, 2011 at 5:29am
I used Carbonit for a while but I stopped trusting them after they had problems on their servers. I've been trialling a new cloud based backup called Genie Timeline for a week now.
The backup stored on Amazon S3 and they support disaster recovery for complete system restore. They also have full management consol for all machines and reporting.
yodar44
April 26, 2011 at 12:58pm
your comparison did not address 2 important issues:
1. many backup systems throw away the file date info.
2. encryption: must be done before leaving my computer, with my control of the key
the only service that i have found that does both is JungleDisk/s3.
Mozy handles encryption properly, but didn't preserve file dates, at least the last time i checked.
mfineman3
April 11, 2011 at 12:22pm
Which services actually work?
For example:
I don't think any of the listed services do restore to bare metal.
At least one listed services doesn't handle Alternate Data Streams,
I'm not sure if any of the listed services handle Access Control Lists correctly.
I'm not sure if any of the listed services handle the extra dates and other
infomation in NTFS.
tuberb
April 06, 2011 at 4:25am
Carbonite's throttling doesn't kick in at 200GB, it is there from the start. I just made the mistake of signing up, and my initial backup of 80GB took 6 weeks to complete (which is more than I would consider to be "several days"). Complaints to tech support were met with finger pointing at my network and computer (FIOS 25mbps upload, reasonably fast PC that is always on) and ended up concluding that, "this is the deal, live with it".
stuffnstuff
March 01, 2011 at 10:52pm
Just remember that while Carbonite advertises itself as unlimited the reality is that after 200 GB your upload rate gets throttled dramatically (not by your internet service provider, but by Carbonite).
This speed cap imposed by Carbonite really makes it (almost) unusable for anyone who has large files and who has more than 200 GB to store.
NigalCunningham
February 27, 2011 at 10:23am
I tried some of the mentioned online-backup-services, like Mozy, Carbonite and Dropbox. All of them are very good. Now I now use Updatestar Online Backup, cause of the price and a good press reviews.
http://client.updatestar.com/en/onlinebackup/overview/
aarcane
February 25, 2011 at 5:34pm
Data caps are an Abomination, unless we as customers actually DO something (Like jump ship to higher priced fringe companies that provide unlimited services still), and refuse to come back to our mainstream ISPs unless they provide a reasonably priced unlimited plan, nothing will change.
As for using WHS, the problem with maintaining your own home fileserver for backups is disaster recovery. sure you're protected against common maladies such as drive failure or controller failure, you're NOT protected from proper disasters such as Fire, Flood, Meteor Strike, Breakins, etc.. What will you do when someone forgets to turn off the oven and the house burns down in the night, but the report backed up to your WHS is still due tomorrow?
Even if you can't afford a proper online backup solution, like S3, or one of these mediocre services, you should still obtain some "Offsite Storage" such as a safe deposit box or storage unit to perform physical offsite backups to. If you're using a linux based system, your best bet is to deploy ZFS, which provides most of the benefits of WHS, PLUS a bunch of more important benefits (like replication, deduplication, raid5 without write-hole, and end-to-end integrity verification), then use ZFS Send /receive to push your backups to a few spare drives, which you then take to your offsite location. Using amanda+S3, I just backup my encrypted nightlies to amazon, and forget about it.
axiomatic
February 25, 2011 at 12:22pm
With the data caps most ISP's are imposing lately I fail to se ehow these services remain in business. I use a Windows Home Server to back up my home because with just the main PC's of my family equaling 8 I am (incrementally) backing up over 200GB worth of data. Sure once the first one is complete the incremental backups are far less in size but it just boggles my mind that these cloud storage comapnies and streaming companies like Netflix are freaking out. (Well Netflix finally came out against the caps but thats really new news.)
TechLarry
February 25, 2011 at 8:13am
I think a Windoss Home Server with a couple of 2TB drives is a far better investment, especially with WHS 2011 coming out.
And no crying about DE please. Just roll your own...
The WHS backup system is brilliant. It is one of the few that will do bare-metal restores simply by booting the dead machine from the recovery disk, and selecting the backup you want to restore from.
Single Instance Store saves tremendous amounts of disc space.
And the remote media streaming capabilities of WHS 2011 are very good.
Take an old box, get an OEM copy when it is releasead, toss a couple of drives in it, and have at it. You can build one hell of a server for $400 or even less.
Xtomik
February 24, 2011 at 7:50pm
Maybe it's one click harder to find, but it is right here:
https://mozy.com/home/free/
It's presented as a trial version of MozyHome, but it is still a free 2GB backup service. I just set up someone on it last week.
AndySocial
February 24, 2011 at 7:46pm
I'm continually amazed that so many "comprehensive" reviews of backup programs omit Crashplan, which is one of the most flexible options out there.
haqattaq
February 24, 2011 at 7:09pm
You guys totally forgot Backblaze, Crashplan, and SpiderOak.
Please take down this mediocre review and redo for Maximum sake.
Your street cred is in question!
aarcane
February 24, 2011 at 5:53pm
I couldn't help but notice that none of these services offer a good linux client. I'll stick to amanda + S3 until someone comes up with a decent linux client. At least this way I have a unified cross-platform backup solution.
Jer Stryker
February 24, 2011 at 4:38pm
I switched to Crashplan when Mozy dropped their unlimited plan. It's better than Mozy ever was! (You don't even need to keep your external drive hooked up for it to remember to keep the files backed up.)
ABouman
February 24, 2011 at 4:32pm
Phooey. We liked MozyFree. Oh well... thanks for the update, we've corrected the story.
jaymz668
February 24, 2011 at 4:25pm
Mozy is no longer unlimited, Carbonite does not backup videos by default, and they don't make it obvious. So good luck getting those baby videos back if you have a hard drive crash and are depending on carbonite.
Crashplan is the best bang for the buck when you have multiple PCs and people in the house, their family plan is awesome
Pball1224
February 24, 2011 at 4:23pm
What an odd writeup. You guys don't usualy take such a promotional standpoint for one peticular service over another.
Also, Mozy is no longer Unlimited, they just changed their rate schedule, making them too expensive for me now.
I've been reading about BackBlaze.com which is unlimited and seems quite affordable, but I haven't tried it yet.
reutnes
February 24, 2011 at 3:17pm
Mozy no longer has Unlimited! Stick with Carbonite if you want that.
It should also be noted that a cloud backup should not be your only backup! If you do any kind of work on your computer you'll want to have an on-site backup as well. NAS boxes are good choices as they can be configured to backup over the network automagically, but a large external drive wouldn't be such a bad thing either.
As we say in the business, data you don't back up twice is data you don't care about. But I'll gladly take your coin to try and recover it.
jtrpop
February 24, 2011 at 3:09pm
Why not include CrashPlan?! They are the best around for local, offsite with friends, and cloud based unlimited backup. Also, Mozy ditched their unlimited.
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