Mozy drops unlimited backup plans

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#436827 8-Feb-2011 14:33

This is just stupid.

I was paying $4.95 per month for unlimited storage, now they are going to charge me $5.95 for up to 50gb of storage. I'm only using about 37gb at the moment but it annoys me that they reduce the cap and charge me more!

I won't be staying with Mozy... i have 14 days to come up with an alternative.... may not even go with remote backup.

simon14

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#436841 8-Feb-2011 15:07

Are USB stick flash drives reliable and safe?

I may just purchase a 64gb USB pen drive and backup my important data on that and store it in a different location. That will last me the next year or so until i need more than 64gb.

EDIT: Or even 128gb pen drive for $80:

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Computers/External-storage/USB-memory-keys/auction-352582766.htm

freitasm

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#436854 8-Feb-2011 15:55

I'd put USB memory drives in the low reliability scale - even more if the source is unknown.

simon14

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#436857 8-Feb-2011 15:58

Oh well, there goes that idea...

meesham

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#437060 8-Feb-2011 22:43

I've been using Crashplan for 5 months now and found them to be very good. My backup is around 130GB and have a single PC license, I backup from the workstations to my Linux server which then runs the Crashplan client. The speed to their servers is good - I can saturate the upstream on my TCL cable connection and the test restores I've run have been at about 1MB/s, not the fastest speed possible but not terrible speeds either. Good levels of security and they have a client for Windows, OSX and Linux. I tried out most of the big ones before I finally settled on Crashplan (Mozy, Carbonite, Jungledisk and some others) testing the backup and restore speeds - the only other backup service I would consider using is Jungledisk, but they're substantially more expensive when storing 130GB.

reddragon

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#438326 11-Feb-2011 15:29

What I don't understand when everyone is looking at backups is why are we all looking at overseas sites. I wouldn't expect to get a quick return time if you need support. What legal comebacks do you have with a backup company in another country. Who knows how many people have troubles restoreing data.
I always think you get what you pay for?

You should look at things like, Retention Policies for files. Deleted Retention. Does it backup SQL & Exchange by the log method. How far back in time can you go. How quickly can you get that data back if its large. Stuff trying to restore a 30 Gig Exchange DB from overseas.

If anyone wants any advice on best methods of backing up data i would be glad to give you some help.
It is my speciality.

Talkiet

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#438334 11-Feb-2011 15:44

reddragon: What I don't understand when everyone is looking at backups is why are we all looking at overseas sites. I wouldn't expect to get a quick return time if you need support. What legal comebacks do you have with a backup company in another country. Who knows how many people have troubles restoreing data.
I always think you get what you pay for?

You should look at things like, Retention Policies for files. Deleted Retention. Does it backup SQL & Exchange by the log method. How far back in time can you go. How quickly can you get that data back if its large. Stuff trying to restore a 30 Gig Exchange DB from overseas.

If anyone wants any advice on best methods of backing up data i would be glad to give you some help.
It is my speciality.

It might be your speciality, but you seem to be overlooking the fact that no single backup choice constitutes a backup strategy.

My storage background includes building storage systems, servers and backup systems in the 90's for the GCSB, several government departments and ISPs, as well as RAID recovery and creation of backup systems.

I use Backblaze to backup all my files (over 1.2TB of digital photos and disk images of my boot drive + personal data)... However, this is in addition to:

- Having a HDD replacement schedule that sees all my HDDs migrated out of use after about 2 years and replaced with new drives.
- Having a server at home with a proper (Eonstor) RAID system attached in another room with daily backups from the main machine.
- I have a couple of 2TB drives that get rotated between my desk drawer at work and home to be updated every month or so or after a large event
- I have a (now defunct to be honest) set of backup DVDs at a 3rd address in town.
- Finally, Backblaze running backing up everything to their datacentres.

My data isn't sensitive (It's hundreds of thousands of sports images mostly) so I don't worry about encryption, but on all media I could encrypt if I wanted. In Backblaze for example, the data is stored encrypted, and I can't access the backups without the key.

$5/month is well worth it for me as it's not my only backup... In fact, I don't think it's possible to be safe with just one backup, so even $200/month wouldn't make me feel any safer.

I can download any or all files, and I can specify what to DL - or I can order HDDs full of backup to be couriered to me. It might take a week or so, but I could grab any stuff I needed on demand online, and get the huge mlump of data delivered back on a HDD later.

Don't diss overseas online backups - they have economies of scale working for them that no-one in NZ could hope to compete with.

METHODS of backing up data are easy, the philosophy of doing it properly is, unfortunately something you can't teach, it needs to be learned through bitter experience.

I was fortunate that for quite a few years I had to help many many people with their own catastrophies and I learnt without having to lose my own data, but that's rare.

The number of people that _really_ understand how important a good wholistic backup strategy is that haven't lost a lot of data themselves is very very small.

Not saying you're not one of them, but dissing an element of a backup strategy that provides inter continental distribution of data seems wrong to me. Telling people they shouldn't rely on it as their only backup method is fine, but that also applies to ANY backup method.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

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reddragon

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#438336 11-Feb-2011 15:56

Hi thanks for your reply.

I'm definately not dissing an overseas backup.

What I see every day is that many people use that as their only option and try to compare that with online companies that work in new zealand by price and only price. What I'm saying is that how important their data is to them.

Yes use many different methods at your disposal. But don't go relying on the cheapest method. There are negatives to every method.

What i find so funny is that people pay huge money to backup their physical assets like desks, computers, plant etc etc. But they complain about spending a fraction of that money to backup correctly. Backing up correctly and offsite is like their Insurance policy for their data.

With out that data 50% of business will generally close after 2 years. Thats scary stuff.

Talkiet

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#438337 11-Feb-2011 16:01

reddragon: Hi thanks for your reply.

I'm definately not dissing an overseas backup.

What I see every day is that many people use that as their only option and try to compare that with online companies that work in new zealand by price and only price. What I'm saying is that how important their data is to them.

Yes use many different methods at your disposal. But don't go relying on the cheapest method. There are negatives to every method.

What i find so funny is that people pay huge money to backup their physical assets like desks, computers, plant etc etc. But they complain about spending a fraction of that money to backup correctly. Backing up correctly and offsite is like their Insurance policy for their data.

With out that data 50% of business will generally close after 2 years. Thats scary stuff.

Agreed on almost every point.

However, you say "don't go relying on the cheapest method"... In this relatively special case, I would lay EXCELLENT money that an NZ provider targetted at NZ users offering unlimited backups couldn't do a decent job for $5/month, or $20, or $50.

The truly global players in online backup will always have a vastly superior economy of scale to anyone trying to cater to a small market.

Backblaze at $5(USD)/month is one of the cheapest, but it's also a profitable company, not burning VC cash, and there's no NZ based competition at anything close to the price...

Cheers- N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

reddragon

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#438341 11-Feb-2011 16:15

Sorry I would have to disagree partially.

To do a quality job of service and monitoring also. I am very certain that It is impossible to do pricing locally at $5 a month for the cost of hosting your own servers, storage and network traffic and then unlimited size.

There are NZ companies. That give A high level of service that will contact you if your backups aren't working for any reason. eg. Network outage, Someone always turning off their computer when backups are running(eg Large Files - Outlook", monitoring their account size growing. (eg. some idiot putting movies into their folders they want backed up).

You have to pay for service.

If there is no monitoring - Install help, Help desk, quick friendly help. Then maybe you could do it on the cheap. You would have to be hosting it at your house under your bed and with no redundancy or replication to different parts of the country.

meesham

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#438344 11-Feb-2011 16:31

reddragon:
To do a quality job of service and monitoring also. I am very certain that It is impossible to do pricing locally at $5 a month for the cost of hosting your own servers, storage and network traffic and then unlimited size.

As mentioned economies of scale helps the big US/European backup services get their prices down, not everyone's backing up terrabytes of data. I don't see how talking about someone hosting their own servers is even a valid comparison.

There are NZ companies. That give A high level of service that will contact you if your backups aren't working for any reason. eg. Network outage, Someone always turning off their computer when backups are running(eg Large Files - Outlook", monitoring their account size growing. (eg. some idiot putting movies into their folders they want backed up).

You have to pay for service

Just because they're a NZ company doesn't make them any more favourable in my eyes. There's quite a few companies who provide excellent service, and there's ones who are severely lacking (*cough* TelstraClear *cough*). It would be nice if I could use a provider in NZ but I haven't found one that's suitable or at the right price. Having backups overseas can also be a good thing, we are a small shaky country so who knows which data centres might be taken out by the next big quake (I'm in Christchurch and was thankful for my current disaster recovery plan when I left Chch for a week after the initial big quake).

If there is no monitoring - Install help, Help desk, quick friendly help. Then maybe you could do it on the cheap. You would have to be hosting it at your house under your bed and with no redundancy or replication to different parts of the country.

Most of the services have a client that shows you what's going on, Crashplan for example emails me a report each week and lets me know if backups haven't run in a few days. When I was doing support consulting I'd train the users what to look for in each report, anything out of the ordinary and they'd email me.

Sorry to sound cynical reddragon but are you a reseller for a NZ backup service? Your initial message sounds like a sales pitch to me.

reddragon

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#438349 11-Feb-2011 16:42

Yes I do work for A backup company. But I'm not trying to sell it. Only a support Tech. I just see so many bad practices out there and would like to do my bit to help.

If I can save one person from loosing their data I've done my job.
(note : i'm not on a comission)

Ragnor

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#438380 11-Feb-2011 17:54

Your argument doesn't make any sense to me for two reasons:

1: The big names in backup in the US are all fairly reputable, especially Backblaze (imo).

2: For average home/smb users just having any online backup in place is MUCH better than where they are at now with NO BACKUP at all.

Current domestic providers are a good option for larger businesses but are cost prohibitive for the average home or smb cases imo.

freitasm

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#438381 11-Feb-2011 17:55

And remember Mozy is actually EMC - no small name in storage solutions...

reddragon

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#438391 11-Feb-2011 18:16

No disagreement. Mozy and others are great for home users. And yes something is better than nothing.

When it comes to SME's I'm just saying look at what NZ providers can offer and don't just look at Price.
Look at the different features that can be provided. It totally depends on what each business is looking for.

From what software/online backups I have tested some are very detailed in settings, features and have more options and some are very basic and limited.

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