Backblaze – Unlimited Offsite Storage
I just signed up for the cloud based offsite data storage service Backblaze. If it works the way they say, the service is actually pretty unbelievable since you get unlimited offsite storage for only $5 a month (less if you prepay for 1-2 years).
Their application works much the same way Apple’s Time Machine works, just over the internet. Your initial backup will send all your files to the Backblaze server. Backups after the initial backup will be incremental, only sending files that have changed since your last backup. All files are encrypted for security. Like Time Machine there are a number of settings to determine what is and isn’t backed up.
Restoring files that have been lost is as simple as going to the Backblaze website and selecting the files you want restored and downloading them. If you’ve had a total catastrophie and lost all your data you can have Backblaze send you a DVD or external hard drive will your data. There are additional charges for this: $99 for a DVD that holds 4.2 gigabytes and $189 for a USB drive that holds 400 gigabytes.
Right now I’m in the process of uploading two terabytes of data. Based on my math (which if you’re smart, you’d never base anything on my math) and a guestimate of the average upload speed I’ve been seeing over the last day this should take about fifteen days. And despite the high transfer rates I’m not exeperiencing a noticeable effect on my internet service. Browsing and media streeming (Netflix, etc) are all working fine. Of course, those are mostly download uses. If I were to do some heavy uploading on top of the Backblaze backup things would slow down.
There is an option in the Backblaze preferences that lets you throttle how much bandwidth Backblaze can use. Right now I have it set to maximum bandwidth to help the initial backup finish as quickly as possible. Additionally, I’m not seeing a noticeable impact on my system performance. According to Activity Monitor, the Backblaze processes aren’t taking up much CPU or memory.
I’m looking forward to using Backblaze and testing it out to make sure it works as advertised. Offsite storage is a very important aspect of any data backup plan. Once all my files have been transfered to Backblaze and I’ve had a chance to live with and test the service I’ll do a follow up review to let you know how it really performs.
If you use Backblaze or another cloud based storage service let me know your experiences.
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I'm a San Francisco commercial and editorial photographer who's getting started with video.
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I found backblaze based on your twitter update and looked into it. I am in the process of doing a backup as well. I have years of photos ( raw format, PSD ) and now Canon 5D movie files. It is hard to believe the price but I am trying it out. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
My only complaint so far is that my DROBO is not backed up. That is where I back up all my files and NAS is not supported. That would be my only criticism but I understand the reasoning for it.Oh well.
I’ve never used a Drobo. Doesn’t it show up as a directly connected drive?
Backblaze does support DROBO if you have it plugged into your computer with USB or Firewire. We have hundreds of DROBO users backing up in that way. If you are using it as a network NAS device, then it won’t get backed up. In the future we would love to support NAS devices, but we may need charge a bit more for them.
Thanks for checking out the service. We love hearing back from our customers.
-Casey Jones
Backblaze
Casey,
I am connected via firewire. I think my problem is my drobo has an old copy of time machine ( I considered using it for Time Machine ) and so I think having that folder called Backups.backupdb is making BackBlaze think its a time machine partition and not allowing me to use it. It is disabled. So I am spending the day taking all my backups off of it, putting it on 2 other drives, then Ill erase the drobo partition ( the only way to delete that folder I am reading ).
Sorry for the novel, but just wanted everyone to know that I do see the Drobo drive, but its disabled because of something I did and Backblaze seems to work just fine.
Thanks for the review and the idea … I’m definitely going to look into it!
Ive used Backblaze for over a year. Last Friday I would have lost over 400gb of multimedia iTunes files had it not been a click away on Backblaze. Best $50 I’ve ever spent! (plus the cost of the replacement hard drive)
Cool, glad to hear it works well. It’s hard to believe that for $50 + the hard drive you got back something that is probably invaluable and would have costs thousands with a data recovery service (and you probably wouldn’t have got all your data back).
Very helpful guys! This service sounds great. Now we need to cheer Casey and Co. on to stay in business … because there is no backup for that.
Yes… I think about that stuff a lot with all these new cloud based services I’m using (Evernote, Backblaze, etc).
Love Backblaze for archiving my photography. I use it for remote backups of my computers, using CrashPlan separately for local backups and NAS remote backup, but thinking about getting a Drobo that connects via FW to backup to Backblaze as well (moving data on NAS to Drobo).
Hey JSinger!
I am a media dude much like your self. I Was wondering how your 2tb upload went with backblaze? I am at about the same point as you and would love to do a backup with them if I knew it would work well. Are there any hidden limitations? I know they don’t do files over 9gb, but i think that is reasonable and can work around that.
What’s your over all experience with the 2TB upload?
David
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