Top 6 Online Backup Services

Posted on February 20th, 2010
A blog post by DN (2 Comments)

Backing up the data on your computer is very important, especially if you run a business and keep all your information on one hard drive (like most of people do). Most of us never had (and probably will never have) any problems with their hard drives, that’s why we just don’t see the point in backing up all our data.

Just a few years ago, performing a backup of a few gigabytes was relatively expensive, as you had to at least buy an external HDD or flash drive or pay a monthly fee for a web server on which to store the files.

Nowadays, there are a lot of companies that offer secure, redundant file backup and sharing services via an easy to use web interface or specialized utility. Two, five or even more gigabytes of space are provided to you for free by almost every service, with the possibility to get a lot of additional space for a small monthly fee or for referring a few friends and relatives to their site. And with the Internet connection speeds getting faster and cheaper, there’s just no excuse left not to use them.

As you will be backing up important information, it is essential that you choose and use the best services available. By best I mean they must be safe, reliable and fast. There are a lot of new startups that last a few months at best, and when they fail, you data is lost and there’s little you can do. To avoid that situation, here’s a list of the best online backup storage providers, which have been in the business for a while and have the funding and knowledge necessary to provide the best service.

1. Box.net. This service has been around for a while and has millions of people using it, making it one of the most reliable and trusted. Box.net is like a mix between Mediafire and Dropbox, it allows you to easily backup any files (through a web interface) and share them with your friends or with anyone that has the share link. You get 1GB for free with a maximum file size limit of 25MB, which is a bit low, but good enough. Their paid plans are also the most expensive, and if you don’t need the advanced sharing features and extra redundancy and customer support, you can easily choose another service on this list.

2. Wuala. This relatively little-known service has a very innovative way of storing and sharing files – instead of storing everything on their own servers only, they created a “grid” where all the data is spread on other users’ computers AND backed up by their storage facilities. This allows for a much higher redundancy and speed, as the load and bandwidth is spread across millions of computers all over the world instead of only a few hundred in a datacenter. Users get 1GB absolutely free plus up to 6GB more for referring new users AND they get as much space on the grid as they share on their computer. So if you share 20GB on your PC for Wuala to use, you get 20GB for yourself on their grid. All data is encrypted and stored in multiple copies across hundreds of their own servers and millions of user computers, so there’s no security risk. And as the company has been acquired and is run by LaCie (a large computer parts manufacturer), you are guaranteed that Wuala will be active for years to come.

3. Dropbox. A new service that has become very successful and constantly gets positive reviews, Dropbox is very easy to use. All you have to do is install their application on your computers, which will create a folder named “My Dropbox”. You can use it just as you would use any other folder on a PC. Very easy and intuitive. They also have a versioning system that allows you to keep different versions of the same file, which can be very useful sometimes.

4. Mozy. The easiest and most automated online backup service. All you have to do is install their application, select which files you want to backup and let it do its job. The utility will also keep track of changes and sync the files accordingly. With over 50,000 businesses and millions of individuals using Mozy, you can be assured that your data is in safe and reliable hands (or rather, hard drives . Users get 2GB for free and 1GB+ for every friend referred. You can also opt in for a paid, $5/month plan, which gives you unlimited storage. A pretty sweet deal, I’d say.

5. Google Docs. Yes, starting February, 2010, Google Docs will allow you to upload and store any kind of file, which essentially means you can use it to backup all your important data. You get 1GB for free and can get more for just $0.25 per GB per year. If you are already using Google Docs, you may find this extremely useful, as you’ll get to have all your files and information in one place.

6. Microsoft Skydrive. With Microsoft’s offer, you can get 25GB of free storage for backing up and sharing your files with anyone you want. The only downside is the maximum file size limit of 50MB. Their web interface is also not one of the best, but this can be easily fixed by installing SkyDrive Explorer, a third party application that will allow you to use SkyDrive as a folder on your PC (just like Dropbox).

Choose a service, wrap up all your important files and set up a schedule for synchronizing the files on your computer with those on the backup server. You could also use two or more services at once, keeping a copy of your files on each one of them, which, while being a little harder to set up, will increase the safety, reliability and redundancy by a large degree. Good luck!