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.
One of the biggest barriers to entry for online backup in Australia is the poor bandwidth available by most internet service providers. Well this was particularly the case 2 years ago when we launched Carbonite into Australia.
Unlimited data plans where unthinkable. Plans with more than 100GB of upload/downloads may have been available but very expensive. A considerable amount has changed since then. Both the wholesale and retail cost of bandwidth has fallen considerably. The result of this is a significant jump in the bandwidth allocated to most plan including entry level plans. Groups such as TPG have built a huge client base on such plans. As an example you can get unlimited ADSL2+ with TPG for $29.99 who would of heard of such plans in Australia 2 years ago.
With the change in bandwidth pricing we have seen a huge appetite for bandwidth by the consumer market, so much so that internet is now a utility that is just as important as water and electricity in the home.
With so much data going around and such a desire for data, there is absolutely no reason why every consumer with an internet connection should not be using some form of online backup to secure their precious photos.
The challenge however for everyday consumes who aren’t glued to their PC each night after work is that many of them probably haven’t had a chance to upgrade to the better plans or are coming of 2 year plans as we speak and wondering if they should be moving.
I am one of these people, who using Optus has been on a 10GB plan for some time now wondering why I still here with so much data being flown around. What it has meant in my case is that services such as online backup are reserved for the most important files.
During my time supporting Carbonite (and I have mentioned this several times before in this blog), I rarely had a customer complain that their ISP charged them an arm and a leg because Carbonite through them over the line for the month. I really can only recall one case.
I have always advised customers to stagger their online backup in order to avoid reaching their limits particularly in the first 30 days of their backup (ie the first and initial upload).
With my PC crash a few weeks ago, and my use of Carbonite to restore my data, I found my self in a bit of a predicament. I have so far this month used more than 50% of my bandwidth downloading necessary software and updates for my machine which has meant that I have had to be careful about what I back up with Carbonite before the month ends. Needless to say I have upgraded my plan and from 1 Dec will have 50GB at my disposal and so will be using Carbonite to backup a whole lot more than before to ensure that it is ready and available for me should I ever need it again.
This is from a recent article in The Age & SMH regarding remote backup and small business.
Brisbane small-business owner Nathan Oldfield sells water filters online and backs up his business records with Carbonite. He recognised the service’s impact instantly.
“I have an IT background, so I know that the big thing about backups is to have them off-site,” Oldfield says.
“Queensland Water Filters is a very small business … and we could have saved our documents to disc and exchanged them with a mate but it’s a bit ad hoc.
“Knowing that documents are automatically and continually backed up off-site means if you lose something, it’s only about 10 or 15 minutes’ work at most. Then you can get online and retrieve the backed-up copy.”
Oldfield, who also runs an IT consultancy business, recommends Carbonite and similar email backup services to his clients. He has helped clients avoid the situation faced by ma.gnolia.com.
“I’ve never had to use it for myself, touch wood,” he says.
“But a client who runs a web design business had his site hacked. Doing backups to the cloud meant we could retrieve the information for him and get his site back up and running again.”
You can read the full article here or here
As part of our ongoing promotion of Carbonite and our relationship with PC Authority, the latest edition of PC Authority magazine includes a free 6 month trial of Carbonite. So if you want to try Carbonite and 30 days isn’t enough for you, then go to your local newsagent and buy a copy of the magazine. The 6 months free trial offers unlimited backup (note: video files are not automatically backed up).
This must be one of the best free online storage offers going around.
If you are looking for a free online storage solution, then start with the Carbonite 30 day no obligations free trial. Backup your entire hard drive via our online storage service free for 30 days. Test our restore capability as well as our remote access service that enables you to access your files over the internet.
If at the end of the 30 days you are happy then we welcome you to join us buy purchasing online. If Carbonite doesn’t meet your needs, then thank you for visiting us and you can simply uninstall Carbonite via your Windows control panel.
Carbonite’s free online storage trial doesn’t ask you for any personal details, simply register and try with an email address and password. No credit card required.
