| WHAT IS CLOUD BACKUP |
Online Cloud Backup is now being offered by most of the Cloud Backup Providers in which backup can be taken to remote data storage using Internet or other private or public network. It is also termed as online backup. It provides services to store our data either personal or corporate onto remote storage through Internet or other public network. Basically, it is stored in various connected resources those are part of a cloud.
Mostly, Cloud backup services are available on subscription basis either on monthly or yearly basis.
| WHO PROVIDES ONLINE CLOUD BACKUP SERVICES |
IDrive, CrashPlan, SOS Online Backup, Carbonite, SpiderOak, Backblaze, MozyHome, Nero BackItUp, OpenDrive, ADrive, Amazon Cloud Drive , Apple iCloud Drive, Bitcasa, Box, Cubby, Dropbox, DumpTruck, Google Drive, HiDrive, Microsoft OneDrive, pCloud, SpiderOak, StreamNation, Syncplicity, EMC MozyHome, Acronis True Image Cloud, SugarSync, Just cloud, Degoo, Zip Cloud, acronis are some name of those companies who provides Online Cloud Backup Service. Most of them offers some free space to use and feel the experience. An small comparative tabular data has been prepared to show cloud service providers name alongwith free data (if any) and their official website address.
Cloud Backup Solution Provider | What is Free | More Information |
ADrive | 60 Days Risk Free Trial | http://www.adrive.com/ |
Amazon Cloud Drive | 5GB free in S3; free unlimited photo storage for Amazon Prime customers | http://aws.amazon.com/s3/ |
Apple iCloud Drive | 5GB | https://www.apple.com/icloud/ |
Bitcasa | 5GB | https://www.bitcasa.com/personal/ |
Box | https://www.box.com/ | |
Cubby | 5GB | https://www.cubby.com/ |
Dropbox | 2GB | |
DumpTruck | 5GB | |
Google Drive | 15GB | |
HiDrive | 5GB | |
IDrive | 5GB + | https://www.idrive.com/ |
Microsoft OneDrive | 15GB | |
pCloud | 20 GB | |
SpiderOak | 2GB | |
StreamNation | 20GB | |
Syncplicity | 10 GB | |
CrashPlan | No Free | https://www.crashplan.com/en-us/ |
OpenDrive | 5GB | https://www.opendrive.com/ |
EMC MozyHome | 2GB | https://mozy.com/emc/ |
Carbonite | N/A | https://www.carbonite.com/ |
SugarSync | No Free | https://www.sugarsync.com/en/ |
SOS Online Backup | No Free | https://www.sosonlinebackup.com/ |
Just cloud | 1GB | |
Degoo | 100GB | |
Zip Cloud | 1GB | |
Acronis | N/A | |
Backblaze | N/A | https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup.html |
| WHAT ARE THE THINGS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED BEFORE TAKING CLOUD BACKUP SOLUTION |
1. Speed of Backup
Online backup require high speed of internet connection specially upload speed. Backup to cloud is much slower than local backup as different factors work while keeping backup at remote location like variable speed, bandwidth availability and latency etc. There is loss of bandwidth utilization also as backup is normally planned in off working hours only.
2. Cost of Service
Normally, Cloud Backup Solution provider asks for initial upfront amount and then some subscription amount either on monthly basis or quarterly basis. Although it is not required to plan for additional hardware procurement or additional expenditure on the same for bigger backup size but downside is that as backup size will grow cost of backup on cloud also will grow.
3. Flexibility of Restoration
In financial organization and big corporate, it is required to keep one set of backup at offsite location for disaster situation and for recovery purpose. But in case of cloud based backup, offsite backup is not required as it is already at offsite storage. Flexibility of restoration is a benefit of the cloud backup because no additional hardware is needed for the same but it should be checked with the solution provider at initial stage only.
4. Security
Security is the most concerned point while we talk about backup. Cloud backup is secure in such a way that even failure of local physical HDD, backup can be recovered from cloud. But premises are concern. In cloud backup all the storage devices are not in own premises so physical security is with service provider only. Still most of the organization does not prefer to keep their critical data at cloud storage.
5. Sustainability of Solution Provider
Symform discontinued their cloud storage service on July 31, 2016. It was providing ample amount of free space on cloud. Screenshot of this company’s official website is given below which is giving message with heading “It has been a blast, but all good things must come to an end”. So, sustainability of cloud backup solution provider is also a big question mark that should be considered before taking the service.
HIVE is another cloud storage service provider that was discontinued on 15th October 2015. It's home page displays now "HIVE SHUTDOWN NOTICE"
Comments
Post a Comment