Mozy is an online backup provider that primarily focuses on storage features and top notch security. It offers budget-friendly prices, useful backup features and mobile apps. It has two plans: 50GB for $5.99/month and 125GB at $9.99/month. An additional $2/month is charged for every 20GB that a customer wishes to add. Free accounts with 2GB of space are available.
LiveDrive is also a notable online backup service that gives limitless storage space and first-rate features. It has mobile apps and file sharing features for selected plans. Its most affordable Backup plan starts at $7.95/month. The Prosuit Plan costs $24.95/month contains all its features. A 14-day trial is available free of charge.
Features
Mozy excels in data storage and has useful features such as scheduled and automated backups, mobile access, file versioning and lately file syncing. It is still trying to come up file sharing features. All backup tools are present in all its plans.
LiveDrive’s best features include limitless storage space, compatibility with a wide array of devices and user-friendly interface. Installation is quick and easy. It also has automatic back-ups and bandwidth control. However, only its Briefcase and Prosuit plans have file sharing and syncing features.
Security
Mozy prides itself with excellent security. It utilizes both a 128 SSL encryption for internet transfers and a 448 Blowfish encryption when storing data. All data is kept highly guarded in Mozy Data Centers located both in Europe and USA.
LiveDrive’s security includes a 256 SSL encryption during transfers. Issues about security have surfaced since no additional encryption is done once data is inside the LiveDrive servers, which are primarily located in London.
Customer Support
Mozy gives its customers a searchable knowledgebase, FAQ’s and online tutorials easily accessible from its website. Paying customers have the privilege of live chat services. Email support is available for all its clients. It doesn’t have any phone services
LiveDrive also provides a knowledgebase and FAQ’s. Email support is available 24/7. It doesn’t have any phone or live chat support teams.
Conclusion
Mozy with its decent backup features and tight security is a good option for people who mainly want a place to keep its data safe.
LiveDrive also provides great storage features with its Backup plan. However it costs more and its security isn’t as tight as Mozy’s. It would be great if LiveDrive allowed both backup and sharing features in its more affordable plans. Bit since it doesn’t, Mozy wins this match up.
Now you know the outcome between Mozy and LivDrive’s comparison. Click here to see if they can win against other storage providers such as IDrive and IBackup!
Archive for the ‘Online Backup Info’ Category
Mozy vs LiveDrive, Which Provider Wins?
Check out our Twitter account!!!
Today we made a twitter account for Online Backup Finder! Check out OnlineBackuptwt for our latest blog posts and other news!
Yeah!
Online Backup: Dropbox Adds To Referral Plan
Image by Magnus Jonasson via Flickr
Dropbox is making some moves! They have recently expanded their referral program allowing users who recruit their friends to get an extra few GB's! This is a pretty sweet deal for Dropbox customers as adding a few friends can really make your account storage capacity very large!
Check out this excerpt about their new product:
Free users of Dropbox know that they can increase the 2 Gigabyte of storage that they get when they sign up through referrals. When you refer someone else to Dropbox, a certain amount of Megabytes are added to your Dropbox storage.
Dropbox isn't just hooking up the free users, they are also hooking up their paid customers offering them HUGE referral bonsus where you can increase your account by up to 5 GB's! What makes this deal even sweeter is that if you have already referred users you can still cash in.
As seen here:
What about existing users who already have referred others to the service? Dropbox will automatically adjust the ratio accordingly. If you have referred 10 users until now, your extra free space of 2.5 Gigabytes will be automatically raised in the next days to 5 Gigabytes. No questions asked.
Pro accounts, that is paid accounts, get 1 Gigabyte per referral….More at Dropbox Invites Now Good For Up To 16 Gigabytes Of Extra Space
Dropbox is already considered on of the best, if not the best, cloud storage service on the internet. Deals like this just sweeten their image making them look even better in the eyes of reviewers like us.
Dropbox already has the best free service, and now it is even better! We highly recommend checking out their product and giving it a test run. If you like it, refer it to your friends and cash in on a huge account! Check out their review here!
More Reading
Mozy Imposes New Prices On Their Services
New Mozy Pricing
With the new demands in data backup, Mozy found it necessary to adjust their prices recently in order to serve their customers fully at their full potential. Mozy, in contrast to almost all data backup companies decided to increase some of their rates instead of maintaining their unlimited plan for a constant price with some restriction.
According to Mozy President Harel Kodesh, the constant demand for data and the advent of technology in producing more vivid pictures and videos that consume more data space has pushed them into making these changes. Mozy has maintained a constant price on their services since 2006 and it has only been up to this year that they decided to change their pricing. The increase isn’t that big as Mozy stresses that for most of their customers it would only be a dollar per month. Of course as your data plan would increase, so is the rate of increase in terms of pricing.
Other Companies’ Responses
Many companies have responded differently compared to how Mozy responded with the problem. Due to increase in data demand, many companies weren’t able to cope up with this; hence, they decided to stop their services. Some companies on the other hand continued to have their unlimited backup with still the same price but they imposed bandwidth and file density caps to their customers. According to Mozy, they didn’t want to “choke” their customers or even have a “façade of seemingly unlimited data plan” that’s why they decided to increase their prices a bit to still continue serving their customers. Moreover they told the press that service is their utmost priority and that is why they are willing to increase a bit so as not to sacrifice service, security and ease of access.
New Pricing
Mozy’s new pricing now takes away the unlimited data plan and they made plans more flexible. The most basic is $5.99 with 50GB storage in a single computer. The 250GB storage plan however is more expensive with $9.99 a month which can be shared with up to three computers.
Online Backup System: How Do You Choose Your Company?
Last time, we talked about the different data plans of backup systems available online. Now that you have a general idea on which data plan to take, the next step is to decide the right company where you can avail your online backup system. That is then the purpose of this article- to guide you in the process of choosing an online backup company. This topic is quite lengthy but I’ll make sure to keep it concise and newbie-friendly as much as possible.
Online backup of one’s computer files is not a new thing for many computer techies or businessmen. Although this might sound necessary at first but online backup is very crucial in one’s business and career. Backing your system for possible corruption of data or attacks from web hacker is a common thing in the field of business, education or internet marketing. However, it isn’t just enough to know how much data you should backup or which data you will be backing up. You should also follow some steps and standards in choosing the right company where you can obtain your backup system.
COST
This is the very first factor that you should look into. If you are a student or a regular employee, it is highly recommended that you avail of services that are very affordable. No other standards asked- a more affordable plan is better for students and regular employees who do not use online backup that much (lower than 20GB of data used regularly). But it never hurts to purchase a more expensive plan, albeit the functionality that you want to achieve is just the same. However, if you are into business, job classified data, server files and other data-heavy activities which can be highly classified and crucial, a more expensive company would be better. Although the high cost might not entail good service, an expensive plan in a well known and top-downloaded backup company can mean some good service. But don’t base your choice through this standard alone. Read other standards below before you finally choose the company you want to avail your services into.
FREE TRIAL VS PREMIUM
If you are not a heavy data user, a free trial will do for trial purposes only. Look at the service and see if it’s worth a premium or not. If you are handling a company, a premium account is very much recommended. Don’t avail a free trial service obviously if you use a lot of data.
SCHEDULED VS AUTOMATIC BACKUP
Some prefer those companies where you can set a scheduled backup. This gives the user more space to think during which hours the backup will be initiated. However, the only disadvantage of this is that you must really be online so that the company can back your system up, else you might lose some data.
Different companies on the other hand prefer automatic and continuous backup in order to have an up-to-date data backup. This can be more convenient for those companies who need their data backed up from time to time. This can be costly though and it can slow down your system performance from time to time. However, if your server and company computers are fast, then you wouldn’t have any problems with this service.
COMPRESSION AND ENCRYPTION
Choose a company that allows your files to be compressed. Some companies don’t allow this since their revenues might become lower if they allow users to compress their files into smaller data packets. However, choose a company that allows compression of data in order to lessen data traffic and bandwidth. On the other hand choose a company that encrypts all of your data at its highest form. The encryption of data should be higher than 256 bits so that you can be sure that you are safe from online piracy, spying, hacking and stealing.
CHECK THE COMPANY SERVICES
Given those kinds of standards, got to websites that review company products and services and try to compare and contrast one company from the other. Try to evaluate which services you want and which you don’t want. After that, you can now choose which company you would be subscribing to in online backup.
Dropbox or SugarSync Comparison
When it comes to picking two of the better cloud providers, it can be a difficult choir. There are many similarities while also several differences that separate the two services.
SugarSync offers tons of services, they supports almost every major operating system (Windows, Max, etc), it offers file synching of multiple folders between multiple computers and can integrate with Facebook. SugarSync is a service for those who love features and are computer savvy.
Dropbox is a simpler service in many ways and doesn’t offer as many features, but is easy to use and can be accessed from anywhere their is an internet connection.
We won’t fluff this up with words, so straight to the point here is a compare and contrast of the two services:
Features
SugarSync: Offers cloud storage, cloud backup, file and folder synching, Facebook integration, mobile device synching, file editing for basic files, shared folders with passwords protection and many of the basic features like automated backups and file versioning of backups.
Dropbox: Offers cloud storage, cloud backup, file and folder synching, mobile synching, remote access, works offline and offers the basic features like automated backups and file versioning of backups.
Pricing
SugarSync: 5GB free, 30GB $4.99/month, 60GB $9.99/month, 100GB $14.99/month, plus SugarSync for businesses. 100GB for 3 users $29.99/month.
Dropbox: 2GB free, 50GB $9.99/month, 100GB $19.99/month, plus “Teams” pricing for multiple users like businesses. “As much as you need* for 5 users at $795/year.
*Account starts with 1,000GB’s and can be scaled up as needed.
Setup
SugarSync: The amount of features does require a longer setup and a steeper learning curve. There are mutliple folder to setup in order to utilize SugarSyncs synching service. The setup is longer but also offers more features. A simple trade off.
Dropbox: Has a really simple set up, download the file, install it, sign in and that’s it. All you need is one folder and the majority of the service is offered through the cloud meaning little space on your computer is actually used. It is a very simple and easy-to-use service.
Security
SugarSync: Transmits files from your computer to the cloud by an SSL-secured connection and encrypts files with an AES-128 bit encryption after they arrive.
Dropbox: Also uses an SSL-secured connection and encrypts your files with an AES-256 bit encryption that secures your file before they are sent to the cloud.
Conclusion
SugarSync offers more features and at a better pricing. They are more complicated to use but if you are comfortable with technology the are a great service. The only big knock is encrypting data after it arrives. While it is unlikely you will ever have to worry about this, it is still a concern.
Dropbox is a simple and easy-to-use service that is very functional and works very well. But being simple isn’t better in this case. They are more expensive and offer fewer features which is a big knock. Truly their clam to fame over SugarSync is encrypting data before it is sent to the cloud.
As promised, a short and to the point comparison.
A New Service From Mozy
Mozy's Cloud Backup "Stash"
Mozy has released a new synching with their standard online backup service called “Stash.” It is accessible to all current standard consumers and business users. It is a free service that allows you to synch files across multiple devices including your smart phone, tablet and obviously your computer too.
If you already have Mozy it is easy to add on, if you don’t it is easy to get with Mozy. Just install Mozy and it is part of of the setup. Mozy puts a folder on your computer and you just have to log into Mozy to change, add and remove documents, pictures and video and instantly have them sync to all the attached devices. Smart phones and tablets can access the info through a website.
It is good that Mozy has added this service as many of their competitors have already been offering synching services. Companies like Sugar Sync have based their business off of this service. The cloud backup market is competitive and it is cool to see each company change and adapt to the competition.
Mozy may be well know, but like other major online players like companies like Vonage they still have a ways to go.
SugarSync Has A New Look!
Sugary Sync has been using basically the same platform for over 3.5 years to connect your computer to the their cloud backup service. After having pretty much the same look for years, Sugar Sync is filling catching up to modern times with a modern look.
Sugar Sync has revamped their entire site with more a more creative look and easier to use navigation. They have updated their logo into the sign up a hummingbird.
This icon can be seen in their menu tray icons. When the service is idle the humming bird will appear, when the service is in action a syncing button will appear.
Visit their site here to check it out.
Why do only some online backup servicers offer unlimited data?
This is a good question, why do some providers only offer a limited amount of data? Research done by an Indian researcher, Sidhu Pawan, found that the average computer in 2010 had a 250GB hard drive. Finding out the exact use of each computer isn’t information that we have found though. We asked the question why would a company only offer 60GB’s when they know the average hard drive is 4x bigger than that? We believe it has to do with their own research (which we wish we had) that must state how much data the average computer user has stored.
My personal computer has a 500GB hard drive and almost 85% of it is used. I am a movie buff though and I store all my legally purchased DVD’s (I mean if you love the movie, spend money to support it!) on my hard drive. It takes up a few GB’s, especially the HD movies. The owner of the the website is also a musician and has one of the biggest music collections I have ever seen and he uses a combined 650 GB’s! He is smart though and has them separated onto several different hard drive (keeps the computer running like a Swiss made clock). We are both extreme example because we are both techies and practically live on our computers.
I would venture to guess most computer users use a fraction of what we use. Probably around the 60-100GB mark. With the increase in photo quality and thus size of the file with digital cameras and services like iTunes which makes purchasing music easy, plus other service it would seem most would not brooch this mark. So most services do not need to be more than 100GB’s. I would say though to make sure if you sign up for a service you have room to grow. If you are using 90GB’s, don’t buy a service that only offers 100. If you are using only 40GB’s you pretty much have an open door. Personally I like the idea of the unlimited account, but that is because it works for me. Think about your computer user and what works for you!
Save Money With MyPCBackup!
Did you know you could save 35%? by signing up with MyPCBackup? It is easy, if you are paying attention! At the bottom of their page is a secret link where if you go through that link you can save yourself money! With MyPCBackup you already get a great service at a super cheap price. Starting out at only $9.95 for unlimited data is a pretty sweet deal. That puts the regular, month to month price at $6.95 a month! Sweet, right?
MyPCBackup is also offering a 20% discount for users that have a free account and want to move to a paid account. So basically right now you can save a ton of cash with MyPCBackup. Might as well take advantage of it while you can!
