Comments on: Everybody likes Mozy--except me. Part 2
Online off-site backups are a good thing. Mozy may not be your best choice, however. Part 2 of 2.
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About Defensive Computing
Michael Horowitz is an independent computer consultant and the author of several classes on Defensive Computing. He views Defensive Computing as taking steps, when things are running well, to avoid or minimize the inevitable problems down the road. It's about educating yourself to the level where you can make your own intelligent decisions about keeping your computers and data happy and healthy. If you depend on computers, yet are on your own, without an IT department or nearby nerd, this blog's for you. His personal web site is michaelhorowitz.com.
He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET.
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The features you mentioned in your comparison to 'the product you use' were interesting. Realizing this isn't an ad, how might we come by the name of that product?
I agree totally about the backup utility in Windows XP. To call it disgraceful would be kind. Haven't used the one in Vista. If I had to pick one backup program for general use, I would chose the free Replicator by Karen Kenworthy, available at www.karenware.com. As backup software goes, it mid-level, with the features needed by most people most of the time. I plan on writing many postings about backing up a computer.
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To pizzafoundry:
Go to my personal website, michaelhorowitz.com where my email address is and send me a note. My point in these two articles wasn't that I have the one great solution, there is no such thing. Everyone's needs are different. It was to show how the many recommendations for Mozy don't necessarily make it the right choice for you.
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To eilmark: 9GB is on the high side for online backup. Almost all broadband connections are MUCH slower uploading than downloading. Send me an email if you'd like to discuss this more.
A main thing with mozy is it syncs the local directory with a remote one.
with regular ftp . if you amend a file, you'd have to know what files you amended, and just ftp them. or you'd have to wipe your backup and ftp the lot.
BUT
What should a small business use?
Say less than 50GB of data ( in reality <10GB)
I get info from journalist / mag reviews but I am cynical
what do they really know and do they live and breath a business persons needs/ worries/ frustrations.
Your comments on mozy were very worrying- another reason to do NOTHING ! ?
Thanks
Frank
United Kingdom
Do not use software from the company that is storing your files. Doing so makes it harder to switch file storage companies and is always going to be suspect in terms of security.
Make sure your files are compressed and encrypted before they are sent over the Internet.
Check that the file storage company makes backups of your files, preferable at a different location.
Off-site backups have their place, but so to do local backups.
Michael Horowitz
It has a lot of foolish opinions such as "I don't like backup services that run constantly in the background." That's exactly the reason why Mozy offers more protection than traditional backup, because it backs up your files much more frequently. The backup strategy in this industry is moving in this direction, including backup for datacenters and corporate servers.
Let's see the other opinions:
1) "I don't like my computer doing stuff without me knowing about it". - Well, your computer is doing a LOT of stuff you don't know ALL the time, believe me.
2) "...my preference would be for a mature product. Something that's at version 11 and has been around for years" - How can the software industry thrive if everybody believes that only products with many years old are good. You can find lots of new products which are very good. And also you can find old products, with many versions, that are bad. I think everybody knows what I am talking about! :)
3) "Mr. Mossberg's description of the Web-based interface failed to point out that it can't be used for making backups, only for restoring files" - How are you going to use the web interface to make backups, if the files are in your computer and the web is interfacing you with the Mozy servers??
4) "If you delete a file by accident and don't notice it, Mozy will delete the backups of the file too" - The purpose of a backup service is not to save your old files, but to protect the current files. Every backup software does the same thing. This is how backup software should work. That's why you have versions. This is the same strategy that corporations use for their backups. The only difference is that they can keep versions forever. But, let me repeat myself, the purpose of a backup service is not to save your old files, but to protect the current ones.
5) "Even if you choose the encryption password, you are trusting the Mozy software not to externalize it, either on purpose or by accident. When it comes to backing up sensitive files, there is no place for trust in the equation." - Of course trust is part of the equation. Are you going to backup your precious files with a company that you don't trust? Anyway you can use their encryption key or you can generate your own, using their software. This looks fine for me. How are the other companies doing this? Are they different? But if you really need to encrypt your files without Mozy software, you can use a a product from another company. You encrypt them first, and then backup the encrypted files. I can suggest TrueCrypt, for example (http://www.truecrypt.org/).
6) "When it comes to restoring files, Mozy can be slow" - In my experience, using the Mozy desktop software, I can start recovering the files right away. Only when I use the web interface I have to wait for the files to be ready to restore.
7) "There are a couple things I don't like about the way Mozy backs up files. For one, their software copies open and locked files. No thanks, I prefer my files closed and unlocked when they are backed up." - This is one of the most absurd opinion I?ve ever seen in my life about backup software. This is a feature that used to exist only on advanced backup software. In the past you had to pay high to have this feature. This is SO useful, that only someone that knows nothing about backups can say such a foolish thing.
8) "They try to be smart about it and only back up the pieces of a file that changed, a feature they call 'block level incremental backups'. I'm a pessimist, and this strikes me as just something else that can go wrong. I prefer my backups simple, and backing up pieces of files and later putting all the pieces together, is complicated." - The previous opinion was one of the most absurd opinions. Well, this one is the same! It is *so* absurd that I had to read it many times to believe my eyes! Sorry, but the guy simply doesn't understand how software works. This is also an advanced feature, so useful that keeps the bandwidth low and makes backups faster. And it's not complicated at all to put all the pieces together.
It is really incredible that CNET has a blog at his level, so amateurish. It lacks a lot of computer science knowledge and helps nothing their users.
There's no reason for it always to be running. Windows and UNICES provides facilities for programs to be started periodically. Imagine you have 10 programs that only need to run occasionally. Why not have one program always running that starts them instead of always having them running.
5) Are you going to backup your precious files with a company that you don't trust?
Are you saying you trust every person who ever has and ever will have legitimate and possibly illegitimate access to your keys. That's why you should use your own encryption with the keys encrypted on your computer or stored on a smartcard. It doesn't matter how much you trust the people holding your files. If the file get subpoenaed they have to give up the files and they have the keys. Look at what happened with hushmail (http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/11/encrypted-e-mai.html).
As for security - As a software engineer for one of the top security suite companies in the US, I can tell you for sure that your data is far far FAR more in danger (both of security problems and of data loss) on your computer (even if you were to use the software I develop) than it is on Mozy's safe, secure servers.
p098uq409jf - your comment is wrong.
I'm very sorry, but this guy doesn't really know what he is talking about. Please refer to the comment by Jleme for a little more info. I would think that CNET would allow this kind of stuff...
I was wrong,
The DVD finally did arrive on Tuesday, however, I paid for 16.9 GB of data and they only sent me 8 GB of data. They forgot the biggest file, the Outlook file and this is what I wanted! I called them and I was on hold for 20 minutes, only to be disconnected. Called back and 10 more minutes on hold. Finally I went to live support and Rex tried helping me. He was doing a good job and he had someone from Mozy call me which they did. They claim they have the file I am looking for an will burn another DVD and send it to me. However, they said they missed the UPS pickup and it would not go out until Wed and I would not receive it until Thurs. When they called me, it was 4:30 their time. I informed her that the CD ws sent via Fed Ex not UPS and that UPS is available until 8:00 to drop off shipments. Mozy told me that they are in the middle of nowhere and could not call Fed Ex to pick it up. I asked if someone there had a car and could drive it to a Fed Ex drop off box and she told me no. Now I will not get my DVD until Thursday and our employee who needs the data, will be out of town for a few days come Thursday and he will not have the information he needs thanks to Mozy.
We pay between $75 - $100 per month for backup only to be charged $75 for a restore DVD which they take a week to send. Wish we would have done with Carbonite.
Comments like this are simply mind bloggling.
""There are a couple things I don't like about the way Mozy backs up files. For one, their software copies open and locked files. No thanks, I prefer my files closed and unlocked when they are backed up.""
are you kidding me?
Unfortunately, the author has little or no insight about backup. I am using Mozy before the posting date of this article and many of the service problems illustrated here is far from the reality.
Mozy is designed to automate the backup and to attack the "lazy user" problem. That's why it insists running on the background. But any poweruser (obviously the author is not one) can put Mozy into a manual mode with little environment and configuration changes.
Criticizing the deleted data retention policy of Mozy, clearly shows that the author has no idea about what "backup" means. Mozy is not a remote storage service, neither an archive. It's a simple synchronization policy based "backup" service.
BTW, author never talks about the binary delta capability of Mozy. This is a very advanced backup methodology which can dramatically reduce the required bandwidth between the client and server. For example if you just change a 128kbyte of your big 2GB file. Only 128Kbyte plus some overhead will be sent to server as "delta". Won't resend the whole 2GB file. Mozy stores that "deltas" or "patches" and thus let's you to reach a previous versions of any file within a 30-day time frame. And this exactly why restore operation is not real-time and you've to wait.
C'mon C|Net. Your reader base deserves much more educated and expert authors. Publishing rants about services with litte-to-no knowledge is for crappy personal blogs. That shouldn't be the style of C|Net.
CNET. Please don't allow people mr. horowitz this to mislead your readers. Rants like this belong on some personal blog - not on an informative technology website.
Possibly this service works well if you don't have much to back up. But what's the point of subscribing to a service offering unlimited backup space if that backup space simply cannot be used due to poor software design? Perhaps it was naive of me to expect to be able to back up 90 gb of files, but if that's the case, shouldn't Mozy be honest about its limitations rather than advertising itself as offering unlimited space, when in fact it does not?
The RAM usage is another problem that has been mentioned here. Why Mozy eats up huge amounts of RAM and slows everything else to a crawl is beyond me. But it does. So even if a big backup works perfectly, you might be losing a fair amount of productivity to it.
However, I am quite amazed that CNET allows content like this to be published. Its full of mis-information.
If back up software waited for files to be "closed and unlocked" it would be waiting for a very long time. Operating system files are locked by nature. It wouldn't be able to back up everything and would be an inferior product.
As far as criticising the block level backup.... Are you completely insane?
Lets say you have a 2.8GB (average size) PST file for outlook. Get one new email, and mozy needs to backup on the .2kb and its done. If it followed your ridiculous example it would have to upload and entire 2.8gb file every, single, time.
This isn't a complaint about your criticism of Mozy, its a rant about your completely uninformed, misleading reporting. This is a great shame as being posted on a reputable site people will read it and take it as Gospel. Go find another job I say Ed Foster.
I saw that I can get 250 GB of storage space for $60 per MONTH. GIven the discount coupon I have for Mozy, that's more than I'd pay for a YEAR of Mozy for UNLIMITED storage space!
In other words, oh sure, there may be Mozy alternatives that are superior in some ways, even some substantial ways, but shall we mention affordability? Dare I mention it? Not everyone is independently wealthy. Do you people criticize Kia automobiles and tell everyone they should just use BMWs instead?
- by jensantg July 23, 2008 9:24 PM PDT
- I agree that the original post shows that the writter does not have enough knowledge on online backup solutions. However, the point that "encryption is not adequate if the users let Mozy to choose the key" is correct.
- Like this Reply to this comment 1 person likes this comment
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (54 Comments)When it says Mozy can "help", that means it can decrypt your data any time.
Some software do not offer this "help", just because it is non-sense on security.