mikedopp.com Code Monkey by Day, Unix/Windows Administrator by Night, Social Media Chump 24/7

Backing up data and solutions that are available

So a couple of weeks ago I wrote about how to back up your data on a windows(XP(home and Pro) Vista (all versions)) machine. Some great little apps to backup data to external drives even to a network allocated storage device.

Did you however think great I have a way to backup the data and its working however my hard drives are filling up quickly. What do I do now?

Well you have options:

1. Backup Less often (this can make things a bit interesting if you are constantly changing files and you may lose critical info.)
2. Delete older backup files. (if your paranoid like me how far do you go back and delete backups?)
3. Backup your data to a outside source.

So I am going to talk about option 3.  We want to publish all the backups to a outside source. Well what source or applications are available?

There are a ton of great backup applications/services on the web. I decided to just reference a few:

Microsoft Skydrive

Amazon S3 and Jungle Disk

Carbonite

Mozy

Sugar Sync

Yes I have tested these applications/services. Here is the break down.

Microsoft Skydrive: 25gigs of Storage. No automatic backup and have to be signed in to upload. Web interface to upload only. Non Encrypted. Free

Amazon S3: Pay per Gig use. Only a service. To be able to interface the service you have to use 3rd party applications (Jungle Disk) to do your backup. Encrypted transfers. Pay.

Carbonite: Unlimited storage. Installs to your local c drive and you can drag and drop files. Non Encrypted. Monthly service plan. *Used this service for 12months. Did not like the inflexibility of the service. Also after multiple emails asking if the data uploads and storage was encrypted. I was told in summary: Not to worry about what we do with your data. I promptly Canceled the service.

Mozy: Limited storage as of writing. A lot like carbonite. Non Encrypted. Monthly service plan

SugarSync : Another Clone to Carbonite and Mozy. Non Encrypted. Monthly service plan.

 

So there is the run down on services. However some things you might consider because it is your data. Right?

-Auto Backup?

-Where is the Data really going?

-Who has permission to view your data?

-Availability?

-Encryption?

-Support?

-How to Restore?

Service	Auto Backup	Data Stored (location)	Who can see data?	Availability(uptime)	Encryption available	Customer Support?	Restore
Skydrive	No	Microsoft	Private and Public	??? Hope microsoft servers stay online.	No	No or MSN support so No.	No just download data
Amazon S3	Yes only if you use JungleDisk with it.	Across all Amazon Data Centers	Only You and those you invite(not recommended)	??? Seen Amazon down 3 times in year	Yes	Yes Amazon support.	Yes using Jungle Disk.
Carbonite	Yes, If you map your drives correctly. Good luck.	Carbonite Servers	Could not be answered by Carbonite	??? As long as the company stays open.	No, Once again could not be answered by Carbonite	Yes, Very bad support via email.	No
Mozy	See Carbonite	Mozy Servers	Yes	???	???	Email	No
Sugar Sync	See get="_blank">Carbonite	Sugar Sync Servers	Yes	???	???	Email	No

 

In summary all these services are very good. It is hard to choose a service unless you really nitpick.

My personal choice after using all these services. Is amazon s3 and Jungle Disk. As a second backup I use SkyDrive and for stuff I want to just publish to the web I use Drop.io.

Why I use these services is partly out of habit. However I like the pricing schema of Amazon s3 and the ease of making the files stored there made public.

Your thoughts are always appreciated.