Backblaze has published a lengthly blog post were they carefully outline how they were almost acquired recently.
It’s no surprise that a company like Backblaze would be the target for acquisition. Their online backup service simply works, and their Mac client is a favorite amongst Apple fans. But just who were the suitors?
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Backblaze has announced version 1.5 of their online backup software with two major improvements:
Backblaze released version 1.0.6 of their client software this month, and users should be seeing the rollout very soon. To improve performance, the new version Reduces network traffic between client and Backblaze data center.
There are also improvements to the Mac client, handling errors during installation and other small fixes.
Read our Backblaze review for more about this top-rated online backup service.
Backblaze recently announced the first online backup service geared for businesses that allows for unlimited backup. Previously, businesses users had to pay per GB, creating monthly bills that were unpredictable. With business online backup from Backblaze, companies get unlimited storage for $50 / computer / year.
We’ll be posting a full review soon.
Great post over at TechRepublic on 10 things to look for in an offsite backup provider. Their list is:
Commenter JohnCameron3, an IT Consultant from Idaho, adds recovery time to the list:
Another thing to keep in mind is the time it takes to get all of your data back. It could take many hours to restore all of your files. Are you willing to be without your data for that long, especially in a business environment?
Downloading a couple of GBs of data won’t take too long, but what if you have 100′s of GB of data? Your backup provider should offer data delivery via USB drive or DVD (Backblaze and Mozy both offer this service).
Another common request in a backup provider is support for multiple platforms. If you’re an IT worker in charge of backups, I can see where this is a valid concern. However, for most home users, they’re only concerned with backing up whatever type of system they’re using (Mac or Windows).
Some of these items can be easily added to any provider’s service (such as E-mail alerts) while others require quite a bit of overhead and work (ex: 24/7 support).
So what are you looking for in an online backup provider?
When it comes to backing up their computer, many users don’t know whether to go with an online backup service or backup to an external hard drive. Both have their pros and cons
If you’re going to backup locally (meaning, to an external hard drive), you’ll need to buy the drive and the backup software before you can start. Acronis ($49.99 available from acronis.com) is a great backup product, and is easily configured to make full and incremental backups regularly. Of course, you’ll also need a reliable USB drive to backup to, such as the Western Digital Elements 1 TB External Hard Drive.
Backing up online, you need to signup and download the backup software (from Mozy, Backblaze, or another provider). Both Mozy and Backblaze are $4.95 / month.
The upfront cost of backing up to an external hard drive: about $165
The upfront cost of backing up online: about $5
Winner: Online Backups
While local backups have a much higher upfront cost, online backups have a recurring cost, which local backups do not have. You can expect to pay $5 / month for unlimited backup space with an online backup provider, whereas backing up locally has no ongoing cost (but it does have limited storage space).
Winner: Local Backups
You can sign up for a 2-year Mozy account and use a 20% off promotional code to pay only $83.16. If you do that again when you renew, you’ll end up paying about $165 for 4 years of online backups – the same price as your local backup set-up with Acronis & a USB drive.
Configuring the local backup software (Acronis) or the online backup software (Mozy, Backblaze) are essentially the same: you choose which files to backup and when to back them up.
However, with local backups, you’ll need to also install the external drive. Typically this isn’t an issue, but it’s an extra step to do with local backups.
Winner: Online Backups
The initial backup is the first backup you perform, where you make a copy of all of the data in the backup set. This is typically done while the computer isn’t in use, such as overnight. Backing up to a high-speed USB drive will take a couple of hours. Backing up to an online service will take days or weeks (figure out how long it will take you to perform your initial backup).
Winner: Local Backups
After your initial backup is complete, your computer will then start making incremental backups. What this means is the new files, or files that were changed since the last backup, will be saved to the backup location.
Incremental backups to a local drive should take less than an hour; time to complete incremental backups to an online backup provider varies, but typically takes a couple of hours. Since these are typically done when the computer is idle, there’s no clear winner here:
Winner: Tie
Restoring data is an important step with backing up your computer. After all, what good is a backup, if you can’t get the data out of it. Restores from both an external drive or from an online service provider work fairly the same – you chose the file to restore, and the service (or software) retrieves it and saves it to your computer.
Winner: Tie
Both local and online backups protect your data from hardware failures and user error. But if you’re unfortunate to be the victim of theft, fire, or other physical damage to your computer workspace, local backups will not protect your data.
Winner: Online Backups
When we tally the score, online backups wins on 3 points, local backups on 2 points, and the two options tie on 2 points. As internet speeds increase, the biggest downside to online backups, the initial backup time, will be less and less of an issue.
Even so, with the safety of your data being the most important point in the argument of online backups versus backing up with an external hard drive, online backups takes the win.
June is Backup Awareness Month and to honor this distinction, Backblaze is giving a 1-year license every day this month. If you haven’t read our Backblaze review yet, the gist of it is they offer unlimited backups for Mac and PC for $5 / month. They’re one of our top-ranked online backup companies.
Now if you’re reading this, you’re at least interested in backing up your data. However, 94% of computer users do not do regular backups daily, although each year, 46% of computer users lose electronic data including photos and music, from viruses, theft, and hard drive failures.
Help spread the word that June is Backup Awareness Month! Share this story on Facebook or MySpace and tell your friends.
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Not really new, but 
June is Backup Awareness Month and to honor this distinction,