Online-backup company Backblaze (Windows | Mac) announced on Tuesday that it has opened its service up to businesses. Backblaze will charge companies a flat fee of $50 per computer per year.
Backblaze's service mimics other, more popular services like Mozy (Windows | Mac) and Carbonite (Windows). Users need only to download its uploading software to their computers and create an account. Once complete, Backblaze starts backing up the contents of the user's computer to its data center.
Backblaze backs up all files on the computer, except for the operating system, temporary files, apps, or files over 4GB in size. Uploading is encrypted throughout the process and works with Windows PCs and Intel-based Macs.
If trouble strikes and a user loses some or all of his files, he can simply go back to Backblaze's site and download the required files. Backblaze already has a consumer-oriented service that costs $5 per computer per month for unlimited storage.
As compelling as its service might be, Backblaze is competing in a crowded space. Both Mozy and Carbonite are doing a fine job of attracting customers. But by using a flat rate, Backblaze is hoping to set itself apart from competing services that charge based on the amount of data that's uploaded. Mozy, for example, charges companies a standard fee of $3.95 plus $0.50 per gigabyte per month for its service.
While online data storage is becoming more commonplace, it is still a risk. For its part, Backblaze said: "Backblaze goes to great lengths to ensure data is safe and to ensure customers are happy. While we would certainly give a business a refund if data was lost (simply out of good customer service)...we don't believe anything can actually cover for the value of the lost data."
Check out Webware's hands-on review: "Backblaze: Possibly world's easiest online backup"
Updated at 1:15 p.m. PST with comment from Backblaze.
I just got the preview for Backblaze, yet another online backup service. Or to use the current vernacular, cloud storage. It's a nifty service in that it does but one thing: back up your PC (Macs coming). Setup is so easy my cat could do it: you grab the software, run it, enter in an ID and password, and you're done.
By default, Backblaze begins to backup your PC in idle times, grabbing everything on your disk except the contents of your system and program directories, and your temp files. There's no storage or bandwidth limit, and it will store files up to 4GB in size. Backblaze costs $5 a month--quite reasonable.
You can't beat Backblaze's simplicity.
If you want to change the default backup directories or filter out files by type, you can do that in the control panel. You can also change the backup schedule so the app isn't constantly waiting for idle time to send data. The service, as simple as it is, also gets geek cred for giving users the option to set a private encryption key for their data; if you use this option, even Backblaze won't be able to recover files if you lose your password. On the other hand, Backblaze can't access open files, which means it won't back up your Outlook e-mail unless you remember to close the app. Mozy handles Outlook better.
If you want a highly configurable backup solution, there are plenty of competitive options (Mozy, for instance, or Carbonite, which I use). Backblaze is the backup app you recommend to your mom, or anyone else who should be backing up their computer but is either too scared of the technicalities or too lazy to do the work necessary to make sure the app grabs all the files it needs to.
Backblaze will let users access files they've backed up from its Web site, but it is not designed for that. It's not a sharing or a syncing platform. And I'm not impressed by the restore services. Since the app doesn't back up your entire PC, you can't use it to do a bare-metal rebuild of a machine from backup. You can't even do a restore of all your data over the Web: You can get up to 1GB of data downloaded at a time (in Zip files--not exactly user-friendly), or 4.7GB on a DVD (for a fee), or, in a real catastrophe, up to 160GB on a USB hard drive sent by overnight mail to you (for more of a fee, but not a usurious one).
The service is still in private beta, but you can get access to the trial (15 days free) at https://www.backblaze.com/webware.
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