Online Backup Opinions

E

extide

2[H]4U
Joined
Dec 19, 2008
Messages
3,494
So, who does everyone use for online backup ? I know of Crashplan and Backblaze, who else is out there?

Tell me about:
-Pricing
-The backup software itself, is it well written? Does it run on Linux or just Windows?
-Whet type of encryption?
-What kind of speeds are you guys seeing? I have ~5mbit up and I would like to be able to saturate it when I want. I would also like to be able to retrieve files quickly.
-Ability to keep multiple versions of the same file? (Not a requirement, but just curious if anyone has this)
-Can you easily restore individual files and folders? Or do you have to do everything?

Other opinions/comments?


Thanks in advance!
 
I've used rsync/sftp based online storage. Mostly because it gives me the freedom to do exactly what I want on any platform. Including cell phones and tablets.

You can use a cheap VPS, for example:
https://www.cloudshards.com/backupvpshosting.php
Or you can use:
rsync.net (very expensive)
strongspace.com (expensive)
backupbay.com (60GB is currently free for a limited time as its a newcomer, but do not yet have a web interface)

There are many reasons I do not use BackBlaze nor Crashplan. Unlimited is a lie, there are catches. For example Backblaze delete your data if you do not have it locally after 6 months. None of them have backup of your data, so you could be unlucky and have to reupload.And there is no support for multiple computers.
Their price is good, but the safety of my data is more important and I need some flexibility.
 
online backup is not for you if you have a home internet connection and plan on backing up more than a few gigabtyes,

It will probably do 200-400 KBps up most of the time.

Your best bet is forget online backup, buy a few extra HDs and rent a bank safe deposit box for like $100 bucks a year and put them in there, much faster and much safer for your stuff.
 
No, I want to use online backup. I currently have about 1TB of data on HPCloud object storage, uploaded from my home connection, however I have to manage the files myself and it is also quite a bit more expensive. I know what it takes to seed lots of data over an internet link, hell I used to download ISO's and stuff back when I was on dialup. 400KB a sec is hauling ass compared to what we used to see.

The virtual private servers seem to be similarly priced to my current setup on HPCloud, which is something I am trying to resolve, however I would be just fine with using rsync, that's a good idea actually. I am looking for the capability to store 2-3TB of data for pretty cheap. I may just bite the bullet and go with backblaze or crashplan, as even with their downsides the price is right and I can live with the negatives.

Who has used Backblaze? Crashplan? What experiences did you have? Others?
 
I've been using crashplan for close to two years. I have 550 GB uploaded to it. It took me about a 1 and half months to upload it on my connection.

I think the pricing is fair and you receive unlimited storage depending on the plan.

The software isn't bad and I don't notice it running. When I rebuilt my PC, after I restored my files from a onsite copy, I was able to install the software and sync the files without having to re-upload everything.
You can set it that when your computer is away, it will use more upload.
I can also go back in time and retrieve a file in case I delete or have a corruption.

I know a lot of people just say buy a a bunch of external hard drives and drop them off at parents houses or bank boxes, but I think with Crashplan, it's automated and off site which is my biggest concern. Worth the price to me.
 
If you have a TB of data or more, Crashplan, KeneticD, Robobak will have issues with bandwidth, load speeds and retrieval speeds. We found that after 0.5 TB most cloud backup providers have issues. Our marketing firm stores a lot of multi-media and large files so retrieval speeds are very important. We tested a lot of different backup platforms and the key is finding a provider that uses a leading-delta backup, meaning it only looks for changes in files and doesn't try to backup the entire data set daily.

We are currently using Sterling Data Storage cloud backup: http://sterlingdatastorage.com

It was the most reasonable price for our type of data which doesn't compress very well. They encrypt on both ends of the wire, during transmission and in the data center. 14 versions are kept in storage and you can retrieve individual files if necessary. The user interface is very intuitive and easy to use.

The backup and retrieval speed is remarkable because of the leading delta technology but also multi-threading (I believe they use 8 threads over the wire).

If you are backing up a TB or more, I would recommend sending a USB to seed the data initially. This will save some time and bandwidth.
 
I use spideroak for my desktop(Linux), though I have a small dataset. My father uses carbonite with ~2TB of data and it is slow as molasses. I have seen it take about a week for 10 JPEGs to get backed up, he has 25/25 fios and the system is on 24x7. Jungledisk looks like an interesting option. AES-256 and says it does compression and dedup. $5(first 10GB) + $0.125(AS3 w/ transfer cost) to $0.15(Rackspace hosting) a month per GB.

In regards to olavgg's comment about deleting data, I believe it was Carbonite said, I also assume this is the thinking of most of the companies that offer unlimited backup storage, they are a backup service not a data archiving service. $60/year for unlimited archival storage would be a steal.
 
If you're looking for strictly an archival type solution where you will very infrequently need to re-download data, Amazon Glacier is very difficult to beat on pricing. ($0.01 per gb) There are some caveats relating to extra fees when deleting data that hasn't been stored for 90 days and downloading more than 5% of what you're storing per month. That's why this service should be used strictly as an archival solution, otherwise the fees can add up and you'll end up paying more than you would with some of the other options out there. Data retrieval can also be slow (up to several hours), which is another consideration if you'll need fast access to your data for whatever reason.

The benefits for me, other than price, are encryption (AES-256), speed, reliability/durability, and the integration with S3. There are many ways to interface with Glacier, but the only one I've personally used is "Fast Glacier". A quick Google search will show you a much wider selection of options.
 
brettnordin said:
If you have a TB of data or more, Crashplan, KeneticD, Robobak will have issues with bandwidth, load speeds and retrieval speeds. We found that after 0.5 TB most cloud backup providers have issues. Our marketing firm stores a lot of multi-media and large files so retrieval speeds are very important. We tested a lot of different backup platforms and the key is finding a provider that uses a leading-delta backup, meaning it only looks for changes in files and doesn't try to backup the entire data set daily.

We are currently using Sterling Data Storage cloud backup: http://sterlingdatastorage.com

It was the most reasonable price for our type of data which doesn't compress very well. They encrypt on both ends of the wire, during transmission and in the data center. 14 versions are kept in storage and you can retrieve individual files if necessary. The user interface is very intuitive and easy to use.

The backup and retrieval speed is remarkable because of the leading delta technology but also multi-threading (I believe they use 8 threads over the wire).

If you are backing up a TB or more, I would recommend sending a USB to seed the data initially. This will save some time and bandwidth.
Click to expand...

I am liking what I see with Sterling Data, I have sent them an email asking for more information. Hopefully they are not too expensive. I am also liking that they are looking for VAR's to resell their software... If I end up liking this software I would definitely be interested in becoming a VAR and offering this as a branded solution to my customers!


Also, I am looking for a disaster-recovery type backup solution. Not an archival system. I will keep a local copy of everything I back up to the cloud, so I am not too worried about that.
 
Last edited:
For the people saying online backup is not for lots of data on a home connection I disagree.

I have a home Time Warner connection with 5mbit upload, nothing amazing.

I currently have 9TB uploaded to my CrashPlan account. Upload speed is always the full 5mbit which is enough to upload about 50GB per day.

I really enjoy my CrashPlan account and personally don't have any problems with upload or download speeds. Cost is only $34 per year for unlimited space which is an amazing price IMO.

Obviously it's not for everyone but I think it's a great service and everything.
 
SirMaster said:
For the people saying online backup is not for lots of data on a home connection I disagree.

I have a home Time Warner connection with 5mbit upload, nothing amazing.

I currently have 9TB uploaded to my CrashPlan account. Upload speed is always the full 5mbit which is enough to upload about 50GB per day.

I really enjoy my CrashPlan account and personally don't have any problems with upload or download speeds. Cost is only $34 per year for unlimited space which is an amazing price IMO.

Obviously it's not for everyone but I think it's a great service and everything.
Click to expand...

So, another positive review for crashplan. I am going to see how much this Sterling dealio is, and if it's too expensive then I am just going to go with crashplan.
 
Check out Bitcasa too. They have a cool storage solution that works a bit different and give you some flexibility about how you want to do your online storage.
 
lundrog said:
I prefer dedicated , private professional backup solutions. These are private cloud based, on san infrastructure.

http://netvpro.com/html/products.html

Put my name down and that I referred you and I will ask him to give you better pricing.
Click to expand...

I really hope the prices after discount would be 1/100 the quoted price or something like that. 50 cents a GB / month will be way out of reach for a home user with a media center application and TBs of data.
 
Well, I have decided to go with Crashplan after comparing the features and whatnot. The ability to run the regular client on windows server OS's along with a few other features were the deciding factor. Honestly, between crashplan, backblaze, and carbonite they are all very very similar, and you would probably be fine with any of them. It's been about 4 days and I have ~200GB uploaded. ~2TB to go! :)
 
Let us know how it goes with crashplan. I tested it a little while back and it had far too many issues.
 
I was never able to max my 5Mbps upload with Crashplan.

I have over 3TB stored with AltDrive (which is identical to CrashPlan), and things have been pretty good. Simple set it and forget it solution for archiving.

I do like the idea of Bitcasa, but $10/mo is high. However, $69/year is reasonable in my opinion, as their feature set looks good.
 
tycoonbob said:
I was never able to max my 5Mbps upload with Crashplan.

I have over 3TB stored with AltDrive (which is identical to CrashPlan), and things have been pretty good. Simple set it and forget it solution for archiving.

I do like the idea of Bitcasa, but $10/mo is high. However, $69/year is reasonable in my opinion, as their feature set looks good.
Click to expand...

It's funny you say that $10/mo is high, during my research for 2tb, some places (mozy) wanted $10,000/yr.
 
i tried the carbonite trial version and it sucks IMO, i bought a year of crashplan and love it so far.
 
rsbennett00 said:
It's funny you say that $10/mo is high, during my research for 2tb, some places (mozy) wanted $10,000/yr.
Click to expand...

Well, it's double that of BackBlaze, CrashPlan, and AltDrive. I am checking out BitCasa myself, but I am fairly happy with AltDrive so I have no motivation to re upload all my data. :)
 
tycoonbob said:
I was never able to max my 5Mbps upload with Crashplan.

I have over 3TB stored with AltDrive (which is identical to CrashPlan), and things have been pretty good. Simple set it and forget it solution for archiving.

I do like the idea of Bitcasa, but $10/mo is high. However, $69/year is reasonable in my opinion, as their feature set looks good.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I am only seeing 2-3Mbit out of my 5mbit upload as well. It would be nice to see some more speed, but oh well, that's pretty decent, and I don't need to worry about any sort of QoS as uploading at that speed doesn't slow my connection down.

So far it seems to be working well enough, I mean there really doesn't seem to be much that could even go wrong. I am still on the free 30-days, I figured I might as well use those up before I start paying.

I just hope I can get all/most of this uploaded before Comcast starts enforcing their data caps again...
 
After test all companies.

I decided to use CrashPlan.

Pro:

1. real unlitmit filesize and filetype. Limit only a few files.
2. Can use backup-set and priority.
3. Can use special promotion 1 year free.
4. Can backup to any places, local computer, friend, cloud.
5. Cheap.
6. User forums.
7. Easy and flexible to transfer license code to anybody.

Con:

1. Ugly on high DPI screen.
2. Use slow Java and eat ram.
3. Bug about file rendition. You can to click compact.
4.
 
Last edited:
olavgg said:
There are many reasons I do not use BackBlaze nor Crashplan. Unlimited is a lie, there are catches. For example Backblaze delete your data if you do not have it locally after 6 months. None of them have backup of your data, so you could be unlucky and have to reupload.And there is no support for multiple computers.
Their price is good, but the safety of my data is more important and I need some flexibility.
Click to expand...

To counter your "catch" against Backblaze.... They are a "backup" provider. If you do not have a local copy of that data, they are no longer a backup. They are storage. Anyone who relies on any online service for storage of a single copy of data is an idiot, at the end of the day.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top