Mozy Review

Our Rating:

www.mozy.com

Share

Pros

• "Fast, simple, and relatively cheap" says Fortune Small Business
• Free (2GB limit) account with unlimited backup packages for $4.95/mo
• 15% off Promotional Code
• Local & online backups in one application
• Handles fixed USB drives
• Mac version available

Read the full review...

 

Cons

• Local backup requires successful online backup? We're still looking at this.
• Mozy's support system still requires overhaul

 

Complete Review

Summary

Mozy is one of the leading online backup services available, and their 2.0 version has helped them secure the first 5-star online backup rating here at OnlineBackupsReview.com. With data centers spread throughout the US and the UK, users can ensure their data is backed up safely, and securely.

Set-up

Installing Mozy has been made easier with version 2.0 - simply enter your email & password, or create a new account, and Mozy automatically scans your computer to find the files to backup, and presents you with a Summary of what will be backed up.

You can change this default backup set on the next screen, but for most users, this is exactly what they need backed up. Based on the size of your backup set, Mozy will now tell you an estimated time to backup. For most users, this is all they need to do to backup their computer with Mozy! It's one of the simplest set-up processes ever for an online backup service.

Settings

Some users may want to customize Mozy's settings, such as notifications, scheduling, and bandwidth throttling. Once again, this is simplified in Mozy 2.0. No longer will you see "Reticulating Splines" or other nonsensical & confusing status & error messages. Mozy has worked hard to make their online backup tool one for the masses.

Backing Up

Mozy's status window, showing you what's being backed up, is a great improvement over the previous version. The messages are clear & concise, and you can easily see Mozy working. The current file being transferred is shown, along with a percentage for that file. In addition, the total number of files backed up is listed, and the files awaiting backup.

This helps users understand that the process is, indeed, working! Previously, the total percentage would be shown, and in some cases, move very, very slowly. Now users can visualize their files being sent off to Mozy's data centers.

Mozy uses very little system resources when performing backups, consuming little memory & processing resources. In our test, Mozy was only using 20MB of RAM, and very little CPU processing during the backup.

Icon overlays are a favorite feature, allowing users to quickly & easily see which files are backed up, and which are not. Simply put, the red exclamation point means they're not backed up, and the green check mark means they are backed up.

Local Backup

While we're an advocate for online backup, everyone should also have a local copy of their backed-up data. Local backups are faster (faster to backup, and faster to restore) and sometimes more convenient.

Mozy now handles your local backups along with your online backups with 2xProtect. No longer do you need to run two different applications to run local and online backups. Simply enable local backup, choose which drive you'd like to backup to, and Mozy will create a "MozyLocalBackup" folder to hold your local backup set.

Remember, however, theft, fire, flood or many other disasters can destroy your data, and your local backup. Hence the reason for online backup.

Restoring Data

Backups are only good if you can get your data back, and Mozy handles restores with ease.

The simplest way to restore a file that you've overwritten is to right-click on the file in Windows and choose Restore Previous Version. A list of the previous versions of the file is shown, so you can choose which one to restore.

Another option is to go to the MozyHome Online Backup drive in your Computer, navigate to the file you'd like to restore, right-click on the file and choose Restore or Restore To and the file is saved back to your computer (Restore will restore the file to the original location, while Restore To allows you to specify where you want the file saved).

Finally, you can restore via the web, but unless you're trying to access files from another computer, I don't recommend this method. To do this, go to mozy.com and login, then click on the Restore Files link.

Support

Mozy's new online support system is community-driven, meaning users of the system can help each other. Often, Mozy users know more about the online backup service than scripted outsourced help desk services do. In addition to Mozy users helping each other, Mozy has customer support staff monitoring the message boards & answering user concerns.

Mozy in the UK

If you live in the UK, and want your data closer to you, you can choose to signup with mozy.co.uk or mozy.ie. The application & how it functions is the same, but your data will be backed up to a data center in the UK, and you'll be charged in Pounds, not US Dollars. EU companies backing up with Mozy in the UK will therefore comply with European Union regulations which require businesses to keep their data within the boundaries of the EU, and can have their restores shipped to them on an external drive (previously only availble to North American customers).

Take note, however, that in the UK, Mozy costs £4.99 per month, which is about a 50% premium over the $4.95 / month that they charge in the US. This price includes VAT and higher operating costs associated with operating the data centers and support teams in Europe.

Conclusion

With the improvements Mozy has made in version 2.0 of their online backup solution, we can confidently say it is the best online backup solution available today. Combining unlimited backup space, unrestricted backup speeds, local backup and more - all for just $4.95 / month, makes Mozy the top online backup service available.