Backup – Horses for Courses
Reading through my Google Alerts on Online Backup this morning and I came across a post on a forum called OverClockers, you can read it here actually. http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=920953
I did actually leave a post of my own just to clarify Carbonite’s position. Hopefully it is still there and they haven’t considered it as spam.
What is really interesting about this post and another one I found that was dated in mid June of this year, is the number of backup solutions out there and different needs that they satisfy.
There was plenty of mentions for the usual suspects of Mozy and Dropbox as you would expect but there was also a solution offered by one company where staff map a drive from work to their home PC and can then dump as much data as they wanted on it. So the data actually sat at work and acted as a backup or storage for them. The person who mentioned this also mentioned that he was in IT and so it may have been a privilege that only IT staff had.
Not sure what you would do in this situation if work was to retrench you and lock you out of your files within 24 hours. If you couldn’t draw down these files they would be lost forever.
There was also mentions of keeping DVDs at work and using online backup services that connect your to friend’s PC and storage (file sharing facilities). The options are endless and if you had time (and you had an interest) could be fun exploring.
Personally, having tried many online backup services over the years, the thing that really stands out for me with Carbonite is the simplicity of the interface. How quickly can I get it set up and how quickly can I find what I have lost and retrieve it. The final criteria is support. 95% of the world are not tech junkies and so when the PC dies, look to someone else to assist them to repair it. Using a service that only provides you with support from an overseas office is risky, particularly with something like backup. Carbonite is the only foreign provider of online backup services in Australia (a far as I know) that also has a local support office and that can offer you free local phone support during Australian (Eastern time) business hours.
One of the most common concerns that people were raising was the stability of the company performing the backup. It was raised over and over again. As a couple of them pointed out the likelihood that your PC will die and the company behind your backup will go down at the same time is very unlikely. It can happen. In all likelihood however, if the database was big enough, it would be purchased by another company and life would continue as normal. They would then look at how they could bring your data across to their program (which may result in you having to backup all over again). To date I have not heard of this happening, but you can never say never (particularly in this economic climate).
A little more on this note, I wonder how many people ask the same thing of their external hard drive? Will you be around tomorrow? Although a 12 month warranty will come with the drive, there is no warranty on your data. There is a considerably higher chance that your external hard drive will crash and die than there is for one of the larger online backup providers going bust.
Another point made which I actually commented on was the try before you buy. Carbonite offers a 30 day trial and a 12mth subscription. There is nothing in between. Mozy have a pay by the month service, so if you decide you didn’t like it you could leave at any time limiting your financial risk. Yes this is true, However, in the 2+ years that I provided support for Carbonite, if a customer was so unsatisfied with the Carbonite service we would simply give them their money back. So the risk would be extinguished.
The biggest risk you face is not which online backup provider to select, it’s actually not backing up at all.
