Need
Today's era is an era of uncertainty. With increasing uncertainty, and the rapid digitization taking place, the individual and not just the corporate are going digital. Loads of critical information is regularly fed into the computers but who knows next moment the hard drive crashes or suddenly an earthquake hits the area. Here is where the role of online backup provider ropes in.
Scope
What is the last time when you clicked a picture with the camera with a roll? When is the last time you listened to your favourite music from a cassette in a tape recorder? The times have changed and so have we. Our mobile phones, desktops and laptops have changed the rules of the game.
At individual level, these devices are brimming with our personal information ranging from digital pictures, downloaded music, our favorite movie collection and what not!
At the corporate level, companies today operate in multiple units across multiple locations and the business processes and flows have purely become digital. A lot of information critical to the business is simply stored in the office desktops.
Usability
Thus, creating a back up for our important information becomes important. If the information is manageable, it can be done in a local hard disk but what if a natural disaster occurs and one loses both the device and the hard disk ?
Online service providers are a clear answer to the above asked questions. They create an online copy of our information stored at servers at multiple sites. Thus, the whole information is risked from location contingencies and can be accessed from any other computer over the world with a simple Internet connection!
Advantages
- Eliminate the need to maintain bulk CD's and other storage devices
- Quick Online Backups after short duration's
- Boon for employees with work from home options
- Risks of corruption on online storage is less when compared to easy wearing out of CD's
- Information can be retained for long time
Services Provided
| Backup Features: | |
|---|---|
| Automatic Backup: | Just download a software and the rest will be taken care of automatically |
| Archiving: | Save specific versions in a file to restore original data while syncing or backups |
| Incremental Backups: | Save the files whenever changes are made |
| File Managers: | Organiser files for easy retrieval |
| Versioning: | Creates a version every time the document is saved. |
| Access: | |
| Remote: | Ability to access the data from other location |
| Mobile: | Access backup data through mobile apps |
| Security: | |
| Level of Encryption: | Strong codes protect data leaks during transfers and storage at servers. |
| Multiple Servers: | Lost data/corrupted data at one server can be backed by intact original copy at other server |
| Support: | |
| Customer Care: | Solve your queries on the phone |
| Online Support | Live Chat | E-mail us or chat with our representatives |
| FAQs: | We already have answers to most of your questions |
| Tutorials: | Step by Step procedures to clear your doubts |
Major Players
The major players operating under this category are
| MyPCBackup: Package | Key Offer | |
|---|---|
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| JustCloud: Package | Key Offer | |
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| BackupGenie: Package | Key Offer | |
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| Zipcloud: Package | Key Offer | |
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| BackBlaze: Package | Key Offer | |
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How to choose
Assess your needs
- Amount of storage space required : The plans and their prices vary on the plan depending upon the amount of storage space required. Certain providers even provide unlimited space with a discounted monthly or annual subscription.
- Mandatory and optional features : One must carefully evaluate the must-have features as per his individual requirements or the requirements of the company. Certain features come for free and others are priced at a premium.
Security and Reliability
- The provider should be reliable n careful handling of your critical data and should have good security encryption mechanisms for the safe transfer of your data.
User Friendliness
- Choose a provider which provides easy to understand user interface and tools.
Customer Support
- Stuck somewhere and do not know how to proceed further? A company representative should be accessible to you at every hour and location to guide you on the phone or over the web.
Latest Trends
- Virtualisation : Providing a virtualisation instance of the server from offsite backup.
- Application Online Backups: Integration with VM Ware, Hyper – V, Share Point etc.
- Online Backups to be aware of the hyper visor environment.
- Upgrading technologies to accommodate the adoption of cloud platforms.
- Imaging today is only at the level of back up appliance. Needs to be upgraded to online only backup solutions.
Disadvantages
- Data can be hacked if the security systems of the providers have loop holes.
- Any error in synchronisation may create confusion about the multiple versions of the file.
- Access becomes difficult if the internet connect is slow or not there at all in emergency.
Rubrik replaces conventional backup and recovery system with converged backup and globally de- duplicated storage in its single-box. Conventional backup method is expensive and complex for new world of IT. Company has stated that customers have to buy one box which has four nodes if they have a small infrastructure. If have large environment, but hundreds of boxes with four nodes but still manage a single system. Researcher IDC has estimated that businesses will spend $47 billion in 2015 on infrastructure to protect data, manage disaster recovery, enable DevOps and archive for compliance and long-term retention.
With the paper work from my small business piling up, I had to find a suitable way of storing my data and ensure that it would be secure and I could get it at any time and from any part of the world. I did a little research on various companies decided to use an on line back up service that would allow me to back up my data daily with no hassles, was affordable and better yet one that I could afford.
I have been using Just Cloud on line back up services for about two years or so now and I’m satisfied, their services really work for me. I needed a reputable and reliable on line back up service that would cater for my on line back up needs and Just Cloud has been able to do that.
I decided to backup my data in the cloud. After some research, I settled for MyPc backup, which was ranked as the best online back up provider in the industry. I have not had any issues with the services that they offer and they deliver the services as advertised.
Since it is not possible to predict the future, I decided to be better safe than sorry and decided to try an online data back up service for my small business. This has really come in handy as I can relax knowing that my data is somewhere safe where I can access it whenever I want to. I carried out a little research so that I could choose a reliable back up service that I could trust and more so at a reasonable price.
JUSTCLOUD
“In the cloud” backup seemed like a good solution for backing up data for my small company so I did a little on line research to choose a good reliable reputable backup service. JustCloud seemed to have good ratings and reviews at a reasonable price on quite a few web sites. And in choosing JustCloud is when my nightmare started!
The first problem was with purchasing the additional 5 GB of sync space needed to link my home and work computer. After numerous lengthy e-mails, hours spent trying to get the sync to work and being offered discounts on existing purchases and additional upgrades I received the following e-mail from the JustCloud User Experience Team admitting the problem with no fix date in sight!
Hi Mike, Thank you for your email. We are very much aware of these issues and our development team will be fixing it in the future, regrettably though as our priority is with backup other development priorities will delay a fix for this. I appreciate this is not ideal, we will be happy to upgrade your sync folder to 20GB when we resolve the bugs with it. Please let me know if there is anything else I can help with. Kind Regards,
Keith Steele
User Experience Team
After additional e-mails and more wasted time I finally received a full refund for the additional 5 GB of sync purchased. The refund that originally was supposedly was not refundable.
The next problem noticed was the fact that my computer was taking anywhere from 1 ½ hours to 1 ½ days to not even finishing at all, backing up my daily data to JustCloud. They claimed that after the initial lengthy backup the additional daily backups would complete in only a few minutes. Once again, after numerous e-mails and hours and hours of wasted time I received the following e-mail from the JustCloud User Experience Team admitting the problem with a fix date of mid to late February. And guess what, late February has come and gone without a fix!
Hi Mike, Thank you for your email.
We are aware of problems existing with file versioning and stalling backups. In mid to late February this will be fixed for definite. As far as I have been made aware this won’t require an update to the application, it will purely be a fix on the server side. We will compensate you for the time the service has not worked correctly and your patience is highly appreciated. Please let me know if there is anything else I can help with. Kind Regards, — Carl Palomares
User Experience Team
Again, after numerous other e-mails requesting a refund in full for a service that wasn’t working and being offered discounts on existing and additional upgrades we found a telephone number to contact JustCloud. After about an hour on the telephone with customer service, being told that we should not have received the above e-mail admitting the problem and that would have to pay a cancelation fee we finally received a refund in full for the 2 year agreement for the first computer but were denied a refund for the additional 1 year license purchased for the second computer. To date, JustCloud still owes me a refund for the second license that was purchased.
I don’t know who JustCloud pays to get these great reviews but from my horrible experience with them I wouldn’t recommend them to my worst enemy. This is definitely one of the worst scams that I have ever been involved with. My time while running a small business is extremely valuable and this scam bothered me so much that I took time out of my busy schedule to write this to warn others about JUSTCLOUD!