Internet Remote Storage?

[bjarvis]

I've been thinking for a while about implementing some sort of off-site backup for my personal files. For many years, my most critical personal items have been synced between my network, an external flash drive and an external USB hard drive. It's OK, but with more work-related travel in my near future, it probably be more convenient to keep an encrypted copy of must-have files stowed somewhere on the web, just in case.

DropBox seems to be the industry standard, as near as I can tell. 2GB free, $10/month for 50 GB. Offers an API, a very nice feature although I don't have much of a use for that currently.

Insync uses Google Storage: 1GB free, $20/year for 80GB. Great integration (or stranglehold of death, depending on your point of view) with Google Apps. Their web site is minimalist to the point of insanity... I've only been able to figure out a lot of details from a press release on 'The Verge' rather than from the firm's site.

Skydrive is part of Microsoft's live.com family of products (think hotmail). 25GB free. Tight integration with Microsoft (or stranglehold of death, depending on your point of view) as well as Windows Mobile and iPhone but not so great with Android. Has file version control.

BackBlaze charges $4/month for unlimited storage. I like the word 'unlimited.' It seems to be more oriented towards full system backups & restores rather than a remote disk facility like the others.

SugarSync has the most informative web site thus far, no small consideration for someone who is shopping for a service as I am. 5GB free, 30 GB for $50/year (3,000 docs, 6,000 photos, 6,000 songs), syncing to multiple devices, lots of folder customization options.


Anyone have recommendations for other services or experiences to share with these? Any advice or suggestions?

Comments

[apparentparadox]

We're using Dropbox but just the free amount -- which is upgraded as you get others to join because of a referral. But, we're not actually using it for offsite backups, just to share stuff across multiple devices.

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

The user experience of Dropbox is *AMAZING*. It's not like a lot of other services, where your stuff exists on the net, and you have to manually pull it if you want a copy… everything is actually local, so you have full use, even if you're offline. It does however, manage to synch your dropbox folder with all your devices (tight integration with IOS, and I am sure android, but I haven't confirmed), and keep a copy in the cloud. It all happens automatically. I even use it to sync preferences files across my machines (I symlink the prefs in dropbox to where they should be in the Preferences folder, and suddenly, any change I make is reflected across all my machines)

They also do versioning if you go with one of their paid plans. I was a freeloader for ages (I had about 5GB free with all the referrals), but now I pay the $10. It's not a 'full backup' solution, as I've got TBs of data, but it gets all the mission critical stuff. Everything else is backed up in the 'uncloud', so everything is happy-happy.

[abqdan.livejournal.com]

Well, I haven't used it, but several of my PC clients are using Carbonite, and they love it. It automatically backs up everything from their machines to the cloud, and they can apparently access individual files remotely if they need to. But, it is more of a backup system than a file storage system, as I understand it.

I personally am suspicious of any service that is adding the encryption layer to my files. While I don't have anything top secret, I do have archived copies of credit card and other sensitive documents. I don't think I'd send them off into the cloud without encryption of my own. I currently save sensitive files to a TruCrypt drive, which is actually a very large 'file'. That is then locally backed up to a RAID server in the house, but I guess backing up the TruCrypt container to the cloud would be effective, and secure.

[sfkev.livejournal.com]

I have used SpiderOak over a year or so. I have had no problems with it - I sync particular folders between Mac'c (one at work; one at home) & PC's (3 at home) for important files I use at work & home... and if you decide you want to sign up, be sure to use my name (sfkev - I get 1GB free for every referral - and after you sign up, you will too!).

[vasilatos]

i've used carbonite for umpty years and through about 3 computers, and just a few days ago had to locate a folder from 2004, and yeah, there it was, yay... and they're pretty inexpensive

[allanh.livejournal.com]

I've been using SugarSync for most of 2011. After discovering a few minor bugs (all of which were resolved with automatic code updates), it's worked very, very well for me. It actually got me to let go of my death grip on Novell iFolder.

EDIT: Forgot to mention: I'm syncing files across my home desktop, work laptop, netbook (rarely turned on these days)...and my iPad 2. Fabulous.

[rwgill.livejournal.com]

After years of meaning to do something meaningful with home PC backups I started using SOS Online Backup in 2011. Though not a perfect solution it works great with my PC, has a decent web interface and provides a daily notification e-mail so I know it is working.

Most importantly I've been able to recover files that I either deleted or fat fingered. It provide peace of mind.