Cloud based backup service

[squeegee]

Can anyone comment on a service they like and why?

I'm looking for a good service to backup about 5-6 computers and a network drive.

TIA for any opinions.

Squeeg

[Fresh Baked Printing]

I can't comment on any specific cloud service but the killer for me is how can I backup up a computer that ALREADY has 10+ gigs of files? Would take forever and timeout before it ever completes the backup, no?

[Command-Z]

A buddy of mine is on the cutting edge of this. Before he started his own business, he was IT guy for a large advertising firm and he set that company up on cloud-based servers. The whole company, that is, except the creative department. Multi-layer Photoshop files and huge video files are simply too much for the cloud. Right now, it's great for backing up business documents, not so much for big art files.

Even for the business files, they had to send a disk to the cloud server company for the initial backup, then subsequent backups are done online.

[ZooCity]

We have biz docs, data stuff, etc. in the cloudiness but all the art files are on the workstations hard drive, backed up by a time machine drive. 

I'll be jumping on this as soon as it's a feasibility.  I think our problem here in the U.S. might be how dismally slow and ancient our internet service is.  There's a PBS documentary on this that's interesting.  Apparently our tax dollars paid for the upgrade but we were never delivered the goods.

[squeezee]

I've got a bit of cloud with 1.5GB in it, no big artwork files - just not practical - but it works OK, it's just a disaster insurance programme.  It backs up on the fly and just resumes the session when back on line so there is no real limit to the sizes.
Bear in mind that your download speed is often 10x your upload speed, I have a 10GB service, but the upload speed is only 1GB.

[mk162]

I have everything backed up online, we have to.

Doesn't surprise me that something went wrong with our tax dollars.  The government is bloated to follow up and won't care if they get what they paid for, it's not their money.

And frankly, better internet won't create jobs here.  It will just make it faster and easier to send everything to China. 

[SkylinePrints]

  Apparently our tax dollars paid for the upgrade but we were never delivered the goods.

Surprised?

I've been using Carbonite for a few years now.  It has saved my a** more than once.  Works fine for pc backup but the last I checked, it wont read a network drive.

The initial backup takes days.  It's a combination of your internet upload speed plus throttling on Carbonite's part to ensure their network doesnt bog down.  Once the initial backup is done, it auto synchs files everytime something is changed.  I have mine set to only run when the CPU is idle and I'm not working on something. 

On site, I have a network server running two 2 terra drives in a RAID configuration.  It provides a good onsite solution for backing up but since it's a network drive, i'm still looking around for an offsite automatic solution to back up the server.  I take images of the drives once a week on DVD's and take them home but an automatic solution would be better.

[mk162]

I am still working on perfecting our backup system here, but carbonite is a life saver, and at $5 a month, it's more than worth it.

[squeegee]

I did find this comparison chart, but haven't had time to really go through it.  My main hangup with Carbonite was as mentioned, no support for network drives.
I know bandwidth is an issue, but it seems once the intial backup is done, that bandwidth wouldn't be a problem. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_online_backup_services

Backing up to external harddrives is time consuming and because of that I don't do it enough.

[SkylinePrints]

squeegee,

i just got off the phone with these people. 

http://www.ibackup.com/

multiple pcs and NAS drive support.  might be the solution.  worth checking out i think

[mk162]

and that is the case, once the initial backup is done, it runs in the background and it very efficient.

[squeegee]

squeegee,

i just got off the phone with these people. 

http://www.ibackup.com/

multiple pcs and NAS drive support.  might be the solution.  worth checking out i think

Thanks dude, I will check into it 

[tpitman]

I am still working on perfecting our backup system here, but carbonite is a life saver, and at $5 a month, it's more than worth it.

I use Carbonite also, but I just got an email from them regarding the new Mac Lion OS. As of yet, Carbonite isn't compatible, although they are working on it. Just a heads up for any Mac users thinking of the upgrade.

[GraphicDisorder]

Not a fan of cloud based back up.  Too slow often, and too small the rest of the time.

I prefer to keep an in house server to  back up our data.  We have over 10tb of data here, which is a lot for just 2 people.  But we do a ton of design work so our customers files are very important to them and us.  They know if they lose it, we wont!

[tpitman]

I've got an older firewire case with a smaller drive in it I'm thinking of re-purposing with a 500GB drive and using Apple's Time Machine utility to back up. It isn't off-site, but it'll back up everything on my MacBook, and the main reason I use Carbonite is to save my work files. I could get this Mac or a new one up and running in a day or less. Lose the work files, and I'm screwed.