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Rather, BackUPMAX has a product for $9.95/month that uses better software and a better data center than M or C. Some of our Service Providers offer services for $4.95/month, but I don’t personally recommend that they do it. There’s not enough profit in it at that price to ROI on a reasonable investment for infrastructure.

Yes, I would discourage average end users from using Amazon S3 – for now. It’s good for geeks who don’t mind fiddling around with something to get it to work right.

Some people find Amazon S3 a good alternative. To date, however, there is no fully automated client software that even approaches the functionality of M or C or any of my stuff. Amazon can be deceptively expensive, depending on how you use it, and it’s still not redundant and highly available. So, I wouldn’t recommend it for business data.

Some of the studies I’ve seen comparing S3 to full service online backup companies show that after a period of use, it’s no cheaper than commercial full service online backup services.

S3 is a good idea whose time hasn’t yet come. Any way you use it, you’re on your own. There’s nobody you can call at Amazon to help you with a restore, or to answer questions about which files should be backed up. There’s no Client software for S3 that’s anywhere as good as commercial products. Signing up for an account is far too complicated for the average person.

I’d have to agree with the direction I think you’re going – Mozy or Carbonite. Carbonite has a much simpler interface and a better restore procedure. Mozy gives you more control over your backups. They both have free trials. If you don’t like them, move upscale.

I followed your link for online backup services and found the Basic package (Personal edition) for $839. That’s a little more than the average Joe wants to cough-up, at least this average Joe.

I see on your Home page an ad for end users starting at $4.95/mo. Is this any different than Carbonite or Mozy?

Would you discourage individuals from using the Amazon S3 service? I see that Firefox has a nice add-on (S3Fox) to interface with the Amazon servers.

Thanks for your insights.

mitch

I’m not sure what an average Joe is. If you’re Joe the student, and your 25-50 GB is your iTunes stuff, $5/month services are probably good enough, and you wouldn’t want to pay the $2-5/GB it would cost you to get a high quality service. However, if you’re Joe the president of your own company, trusting that to a $5/month service is foolish. If you’re Dr. Joe, you DEFINITELY don’t want a $5/month service.

It’s not that the cheap companies fail often, it’s more like they don’t back up the right stuff, or they don’t keep it long enough, or they are VERY slow, or they have a high potential for failure because of corner-cutting, or they can’t afford to provide good tech support, or they won’t promise you they can restore your data. Nobody knows how often they actually fail. The one I cited came to light only because of the public filings associated with the resulting legal action.

Unfortunately there’s no way I’ve been able to tell when a company is going to go under. It has never been announced in advance, and there’s usually nothing in the news.

The best online backup companies won’t quote you a price right on the web site. They want to consult with you first to see what kind of data you have to back up. They’ll charge more than $50/month, and they’ll use words like “enterprise level” to define the level of service they offer.

Price, actually, is a pretty good indicator of the level of service. AmeriVault is a good one. They use the Asigra platform and start at $190/month. Any of my own Service Providers use enterprise-grade software. BackUPMAX.com is a good one. They offer two levels of service based on each of my two online backup platforms.

Rc.

Also, can you give us some idea of how often these cheap solutions actually fail, compared to how often they work (assuming they do work)?

How would I find out if my provider is about to fold and leave me high and dry?

Give us an alternative…

Thanks,
mitch