Online Backups for the Mac - Several Imperfect Solutions
Michael Arrington yesterday wrote about a new online storage solution, Carbonite, which offers some compelling features … for Windows machines. The unlimited storage, incremental backups, transfer encryption and background backup / upload activity for $5/month sets a new standard in the growing group of online backup solutions. The problem for Mac users is that the Carbonite backup software only works for Windows.
One commenter on Michael’s post suggests that many online storage services may now be wary of the forthcoming Time Machine in OS 10.5 Leopard and the probably bundling of an integrated and enhanced online storage offering from Apple or other vendors. That argument makes sense if you’re looking to offer more of an end-to-end service model - storage, backup software, file sharing, media streaming, etc. - for which you can charge slightly more.
However, there are many - myself at the front of the line - who simply want to pay for secure off-site easily accessible storage that we can access via WebDAV so that you essentially have a network drive mounted on your machine. Sharing, media streaming and hosting are nice, but I’d like to have a lower-priced service that focuses only on storage.
The two services that comes closest to this today as far as I can see are OmniDrive and Jungle Disk.
OmniDrive has a Mac client that allows your external storage to integrate into the Finder as just a regular drive. They also allow you full editing capability on your remote files - you can open, edit and save the files directly from the remote drive without having to download them first.
(screenshot taken from the OmniDrive website)
OmniDrive is currently in public beta and are accepting requests to be included in the fun. I just submitted my request, and will wait to see how they respond. It’s unclear to me what their pricing strategy will be.
JungleDisk offers a flat rate $0.15 per GB stored and $0.20 per GB transferred, and is offered as a service from Amazon. JungleDisk creates a virtual drive that attaches to your machine just like a real drive. You read and write files to this virtual drive, and then the JungleDisk software securely uploads and downloads from the servers in the background based on the changes you make to your virtual drive.
Had JungleDisk been available at the beginning of this year I probably would have gone with them. In stead, I purchased the Streamload MediaMax service. Streamload offers a very compelling 25G of free storage, and charges on a storage and bandwidth basis. Their paid plans include $5/month (100G storage / 10G transfer/month), $10/month (250G / 25G) and $30/month (1TB / 100G). Streamload has just migrated all their users to their improved MediaMax service, which enhances the user interface, refines some of the sharing and hosting features and standardizes the pricing plans above.
I’ve been satisfied with Streamload, but the Windows upload and download clients they provide are very rudimentary and unstable. They don’t offer a Mac-specific client but do support ftp access, allowing you to easily upload backup sets created with another backup program, e.g. Retrospect Express.
Carbonite indicates on their website that they’re working on a Mac version, expected by the end of 2006. OmniDrive states their service will officially launch at the end of 2006. Streamload suggests they are working on a Mac client but do not provide any details.
So what is the ideal solution today for Macs? I think JungleDisk is probably best at present, though there are some interesting possibilities coming, including what surprises Apple may offer with Leopard and Time Machine. For now, I’m staying put on Streamload - mostly because I payed for 12 months - but will keep my eyes open.
Carbonite is working hard on a Mac client and we’ll have one out in just a few months!
Great news, Swami. I can’t wait to try it out. let us all know when it’s ready for beta and I’m sure you’ll have plenty of folks who will sign up!
Yep, MediaMax Dl really really sucks! It’s always hanging “Preparing” and “Connecting” while you want huge files uploading. Their FTP solution is being bad too. Omnidrive now allows english filenames only. Carbonite can only provide one to one system backup solution. I haven’t found any satisfied big storager.
you don’t talk about the biggest thing- SECURITY
what is it, who insures it, it is like your checkbook, it is valuable data
who makes sure it is right, backed=up and always available?
greg - you’re exactly right. I’ve been experimenting with some other solutions and I’ve thought more about security. First, there’s the aspect of data integrity and preservation as you mention. There’s also the aspect of security / encryption during the online transfer and then the security of the online service itself from hackers.
Should the data be enrypted on the online backup server? Who is responsible for encrypting the data - me before I send it? the application I use to send it? the service provider at the server itself?
Good questions, I’m thinking about what the best answers are. Any ideas? I’d love to hear them.