Online Backup: Carbonite

Online backup of your personal data is as essential as ever. A year ago I recommended Mozy for online backup, but recently its competitor Carbonite released a new version that I believe has given it an edge. I have kept 46GB of my photos, videos, and documents backed up for several months now with Carbonite.

Drawbacks to Carbonite include:

  1. It won’t backup USB drives.
  2. Backups aren’t encrypted (for those paranoiacs out there).
  3. After trial period you must subscribe by the year, not month-to-month like Mozy.

Drawbacks to Mozy include:

  1. GUI not integrated; not as easy or convenient to use.
  2. Many complaints heard about restore problems.

Note: For small amounts of data you may find JungleDisk more economical.

8 thoughts on “Online Backup: Carbonite

  1. theitguru

    While i agree with much of what u say.. http://www.OnlineBackupVault.com is a superior product, at least for business. We have tested out all the systems and for residential other guys might have edge, (however i do NOT feel comfy giving even my personal stuff to a company that has never made a profit–do u want them going under with all your data?) however as far as my office goes OnlineBackupVault.com offers SQL EXCHANGE Oracle etc etc clients to backup ones server….
    good luck all

    Reply
  2. zoogmo

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    Reply
  3. David Friend

    Hi, I’m Carbonite’s CEO and would like to respond to your posting about Carbonite. Carbonite is (and always has been) encrypted using Blowfish with a 1024-bit key, stronger than any of our competitors. Encryption takes place on your PC before the data is sent to our data center. The data transmission itself is sent via SSL, so it is doubly encrypted at that point. Our data center is 24 guarded and fingerprint ID is required for access. We have a hacker firm that attacks our data center daily to find vulnerabilities (no successful penetrations to date).

    As for USB drives, that feature will be available in Carbonite Pro due out early next year. Existing users will be offered a discounted upgrade.

    As for the free trial, we don’t believe in the 2GB-free-forever trial model. Ultimately your paying customers have to subsidize all those freeloaders. That’s one reason that Carbonite is $10/year less expensive than Mozy.

    Carbonite is proud of its quick restore process that puts recovered files back into the right place automatically — no zip files that have to be unpacked and reinstalled manually.

    Thanks,

    Dave Friend, CEO
    Carbonite Inc.
    Carbonite Online Backup

    Reply
  4. federalist

    Hewlett Packard just launched an online backup service called Upline. This may have advantages over Carbonite, including:

    – Lower prices for multiple computers (under the Family Plan)

    – Easier access to files from other computers: Upline lets you explicitly share files, and access them individually through a web interface. Carbonite requires you to transfer the backup subscription to a new computer if you want to access any files.

    However unlike Carbonite it does not yet support backup of open files (e.g., Microsoft Outlook .PST), nor does it store multiple revisions of a backed-up file.

    Reply
  5. federalist

    Note that for the base packages Carbonite’s backup speeds are currently as follows:

    • 2Mbps for backups <= 35 Gb
    • 512kbps for backups <= 200 Gb
    • 100kbps for backups over 200GB
    Reply
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