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 wanted to revisit some of the products that didn't work for me yesterday, since my personal demo demon seems to have moved on.
I'll start with Titanize, the unknown online backup product. Titanize competes with services like Mozy and Carbonite. But it offers features that the others don't, and it is worth serious consideration if you're looking for an over-the-Net backup service.
For basic backups, it's much like Mozy and Carbonite. It's easy to set up, and it runs in the background, sending your new and changed files to its secure servers. But Titanize also will back up your files to local storage like an external hard disk or a drive on your home LAN. This makes it a very good solution if you're looking to set up layered backup, using local drives for convenience and speed and off-site backup for disaster protection.
Titanize backs up data, shares it, and publishes it on the Web
(Credit: CNET Networks)Titanize gives you Web access to your files: it lets you access your entire backup set from any Web browser. You also can share files in your backup with people via e-mail, or you can "publish" any file to the Web and Titanize will give it a static, public URL. XDrive and Box.net have similar features.
The system also will keep data synchronized between multiple PCs. This is very useful for people who use both a desktop and a laptop, although Titanize does not let you specify which folders get synced and which don't. For that, see Foldershare or BeInSync.
I like Titanize, yesterday's glitch notwithstanding. I've found that, in addition to offering a complete set of storage features, it's also very fast to back up. There's a 5GB, 30-day trial available for free; 10GB of storage costs $60 a year; an additional 40GB is another $40 a year.
Also check out the innovative Crashplan if you want to set up your own secure backup network among family or co-workers.
- prev
- 1
- next
