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Backblaze's storage facilities

In our first story, we discussed backup philosophy, common misconceptions of what constituted a backup, and the criteria nosotros'd use for developing a comprehensive fill-in policy. This article focuses on online/cloud backup services and compares three of the acme solutions on the market today — Backblaze, Mozy and Carbonite.

The explosion in "cloud calculating" every bit a moniker has made it difficult to distinguish the difference between various types of services. We propose three basic categories: File lockers, online backup services, and online archives. Archiving services are across the scope of this series and are currently marketed towards businesses, not consumers. Amazon Glacier attracted a great deal of attention when it launched a few weeks back, but it'due south not intended for just anyone to use. There's no direction console of any kind, and data transfers are handled via Java or .NET scripts. This commodity uses the phrase "online backup service" and "cloud backup service" interchangeably.

The divergence between file lockers and cloud/online backup services lies in how these products address file sharing and information locality. File lockers like SkyDrive, Dropbox, and Google Drive emphasize content sharing and collaboration. Online backup services typically permit customers to search their fill-in sets online and offer browser-based consoles to facilitate data retrieval from any system, simply are not designed to share backup contents with groups of people. As for information locality, most file lockers allow users to upload content and delete the local re-create, provided that synchronization is turned off for that particular binder. Online backup services don't allow this; if you delete a file locally, information technology's wiped from your backup set xxx days later.

The megabyte myth

When comparing online backup companies, total storage capacity is an obvious metric — and a poor place to start. According to Speedtest.net, the average US download speed is 15.04Mbps, while average upload speed is just 3.97Mbps. In many areas, this ratio is even more lopsided. In semi-rural New York State, where I live, my real-world sustained download speed tops out at ~10Mbps, while my maximum upload rate is 0.95Mbps.

If your cyberspace speeds look similar mine, it'll take you approximately 19 days to upload 200GB of information (Carbonite throttles upload speed subsequently you hit the 200GB mark). Uploading 1.5TB would take me around 160 days. At the 3.97Mbps charge per unit that Speedtest reports equally average, 200GB is a reasonable five days, only ane.5TB still takes more than than a month. That brings united states to the next major factor: broadband caps.

AT&T and Comcast provide high-speed internet to some 22 million American households and both companies have monthly usage policies. For AT&T, the cap is 150GB for DSL and 250GB for U-Verse customers; Comcast recently raised its monthly cap to 300GB from the original 250GB. Upload and download bandwidth count against the meter. That'due south important if you're planning a cloud-based backup.

Backup bandwidth consumption

The data above is from my own organisation. Even my 1Mbps harbinger works out to 8GB of uploaded textile per day, or 240GB uploaded per month. Faster uploads, in this case, work out to even higher bandwidth usage.

How much this matters depends on who your service provider is. AT&T definitely cracks downward on people who punch through their bandwidth cap, while Comcast has suspended its policy to try out new plans but says it still contacts users regarding excessive usage. Other companies, like Cox Communications, also state that they contact users for excessive uploads. Suddenly uploading hundreds of gigabytes of data could trigger an investigatory flag on your account, even if your Isp doesn't have a formal limit.

Finally, in that location's the locality issue. Because Mozy, Backblaze, and Carbonite all require that you continue your data locally, your maximum online storage capacity is equal to your local HDD chapters. Delete your files, and they're wiped from company servers also.

Side by side folio: Comparing each service's features

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