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I'd like to make one small plug for http://www.Backblaze.com http://www.Backblaze.com We're an online backup service that provides completely unlimited storage

by budmang 15y ago

I'd like to make one small plug for http://www.Backblaze.com http://www.Backblaze.com We're an online backup service that provides completely unlimited storage, external drive backup, versioning, etc. for $5/month. (And we're the Presenting Sponsor of World Backup Day.) We also open sourced our 135 TB Storage Pod for anyone to use. If you're not backing up - please start! (Using us or something.) If you are, please help your family and friends who almost certainly are not.

aMoniker 15y ago
Backblaze looks like a great service, but like other cloud-based backup services, it does not store "your operating system, applications, and temporary files." Out of curiosity, why is this? Are there copyright issues involved?
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- budmang 15y ago
  We don't store your operating system or apps primarily because without taking a complete disk image, you wouldn't be able to reinstall them typically anyway. Thus, it would take more of your bandwidth to get the files backed up, but you wouldn't be able to use them. (And you may get a false sense of security about them.) In general, our goal is to backup your data - the things you can't get back.
benohear 15y ago
Satisfied Backblaze customer here. It's unintrusive in daily use and the few times I've had to restore a file it was painless. The fact that it is remote also means that it is fire / theft / water damage proof. Since we've got the Backblaze folks knocking around, here's the bits where I think it could be improved: 1. The initial backup can take weeks, and during that time tends to either saturate the ADSL line, or, if you throttle, runs too slowly to make decent progress. This is obviously a problem with any remote backup solution but it is also big pain point. I Wonder if you couldn't hook up with local providers with mega-lines (Apple stores for example, or some other large chain) where you could go do the initial backup for a fee. 2. I found restoring an older version of a file unintuitive - it would be nice to be able to see a history of changes per file.
- benohear 15y ago
  Come to think of it, another way to address #1 would be a smarter auto-throttle. The ideal setup would be for it to use the entire bandwidth but yield instantly to any other traffic. Alternatively, a "day / night" setting, which is what I did manually during the initial backup: Throttle it during the day and put it on full speed at night. It's a bit of a pain to do manually and I'd regularly forget.
jubos 15y ago
I just started using Backblaze last week, and so far I have been very pleased. Even with Time Machine, I found I rarely hooked up my external hard drive at home, so this gives me a little more peace of mind, not to mention continuous backup during the day at work, in case my laptop gets jacked on the commute home.
JoshTriplett 15y ago
I do find Backblaze interesting, particularly the details of the storage pod, but I always tend to read "unlimited" (commonly used in "unlimited storage" or "unlimited bandwidth") as "we won't tell you the limit unless you exceed it".

by budmang 15y ago

aMoniker 15y ago

Backblaze looks like a great service, but like other cloud-based backup services, it does not store "your operating system, applications, and temporary files." Out of curiosity, why is this? Are there copyright issues involved?

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
budmang 15y ago
We don't store your operating system or apps primarily because without taking a complete disk image, you wouldn't be able to reinstall them typically anyway. Thus, it would take more of your bandwidth to get the files backed up, but you wouldn't be able to use them. (And you may get a false sense of security about them.) In general, our goal is to backup your data - the things you can't get back.

benohear 15y ago

Satisfied Backblaze customer here. It's unintrusive in daily use and the few times I've had to restore a file it was painless. The fact that it is remote also means that it is fire / theft / water damage proof. Since we've got the Backblaze folks knocking around, here's the bits where I think it could be improved: 1. The initial backup can take weeks, and during that time tends to either saturate the ADSL line, or, if you throttle, runs too slowly to make decent progress. This is obviously a problem with any remote backup solution but it is also big pain point. I Wonder if you couldn't hook up with local providers with mega-lines (Apple stores for example, or some other large chain) where you could go do the initial backup for a fee. 2. I found restoring an older version of a file unintuitive - it would be nice to be able to see a history of changes per file.

benohear 15y ago
Come to think of it, another way to address #1 would be a smarter auto-throttle. The ideal setup would be for it to use the entire bandwidth but yield instantly to any other traffic. Alternatively, a "day / night" setting, which is what I did manually during the initial backup: Throttle it during the day and put it on full speed at night. It's a bit of a pain to do manually and I'd regularly forget.

jubos 15y ago

I just started using Backblaze last week, and so far I have been very pleased. Even with Time Machine, I found I rarely hooked up my external hard drive at home, so this gives me a little more peace of mind, not to mention continuous backup during the day at work, in case my laptop gets jacked on the commute home.

JoshTriplett 15y ago

I do find Backblaze interesting, particularly the details of the storage pod, but I always tend to read "unlimited" (commonly used in "unlimited storage" or "unlimited bandwidth") as "we won't tell you the limit unless you exceed it".