http://www.backupreview.info

http://www.memopal.com

Backup Review Rating:

(4 stars out of possible 5)

Reviewed on June 30, 2009

Summary

Note: Our last year’s review of Memopal is found here

The track record of Memopal is impressive. The company was started in December 2007. The Windows, Mac, Linux and iPhone versions of the application were released in 2008. MemoPal’s applications have evolved and matured into robust efficient backup and storage applications, while some online backup service providers have joined the deadpool, like: Xdrive, OmniDrive, HP Upline, and Yahoo! Briefcase. MemoPal has votaries in Chinese, French, Finnish, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish and English and several other languages, as it is available to the speakers of these languages in their own native tongue!

Memopal Chief Information Security Officer, Andrea Cecchetti, describes the company’s service as “security and cloud computing” service. The online backup service provides users with File backup, Storage and Sharing services in a secure environment that goes beyond merely copying files from the computer to the storage server. This file system termed as Memopal Global File System (MGFS) is designed to be highly reliable, scalable and is made available at the lowest cost per GB. The features of this technology are:

• Up to 100 million Terabytes storage
• Up to 10¹⁵ Files
• Transparent Read-Write Compression
• Transparent Cipher
• Native Indexing
• Hot-Add Scalability
• Native Hardware Health Monitoring

›› Continue reading Review: Memopal Online Backup Service

http://www.backupreview.info

http://www.datadepositbox.com

Backup Review Rating:

(4.5 stars out of possible 5)

Reviewed on October 26, 2008

Summary

While the vision and mission of a business is critical its success, the security of its data is critical to its very existence in the market. Data Deposit Box offers a non-intrusive, secure backup system that ensures data security with a minimum of investment in IT and IT related resources.

Setting up an account with Data Deposit Box can be completed in two simple steps. The first requires the organization to register for the service and make the necessary subscription. The next step is to download the software and install it on the machines to be backed up. The backup then happens automatically and securely and the organization is free to pursue its business unhampered.

Data Deposit Box is owned and operated by Acpana Business Systems Inc. The company is headquartered at Toronto, Ontario in Canada and has an office in New York, USA.

›› Continue reading Review: DataDepositBox Online Backup

http://www.backupreview.info

Backup Review Rating:

(4 stars out of possible 5)

Reviewed on Sep. 26, 2008

Summary

Keepit.com is part of a group of companies, under a parent company called Cohaesio. It is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. Cohaesio’s core competencies in managing infrastructure, support for a large number of customers and complex storage solutions allowed Keepit.com to easily enter the online backup industry.

“The less clicks the better” is the mantra that governs the service offerings of Keepit.com, the online backup service provider. The company strives to serve its customers by ensuring that complication in the software is not the reason why backups fail to happen. Keepit.com’s explicit strategy is to differentiate on simplicity and ease of use, and they certainly deliver on this promise.

There are no unnecessary clicks or complex settings to go through during the set up, backup and restore process.

Presently, Keepit.com offers services in the following languages: English, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Finish. In the coming months, Keepit.com is planning to add services in French and Spanish.

›› Continue reading Review: Keepit.com Online Backup Service

http://www.backupreview.info

Backup Review Rating:

(4 stars out of possible 5)

http://www.MemoPal.com

Summary

MemoPal is positioned as a windows (Mac was released in June 2008; Linux and IPhone versions are on the drawing board) client backup and cloud storage application, launched by an Italian group of software engineers. MemoPal started developing its applications in December 2007 and in short period of time, in April 2008, it officially launched.

Considering the age of the company, we are very impressed with its growth and its track record so far. As some online backup providers, like MediaMax (formerly known as Streamload; and recently known as TheLinkUp), OmniDrive and Xdrive slowly joining the dead pool, MemoPal is growing and excels not only in English, but also in many other languages. MemoPal is currently available in Chinese, French, Finnish, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish and English. MemoPal is planning to add 24 additional languages in the future to eventually provide online backup solutions in 35 languages, making it the leading site in multi-language services in the online backup industry.

›› Continue reading Review: MemoPal Online Backup

www.backupreview.info

Backup Review Rating:

(4 stars out of possible 5)

http://www.idrive.com

Summary

IDrive, is a service offered by Pro Softnet Corporation, an ASP and Internet Solutions Provider, based in Woodland Hills, CA.

IDrive offers 2GB of free online backup space to its clients with every subscription. For this free 2GB offer, there are no backup and restore restrictions or bandwidth limits or restrictions on file type. The backups are automated, with remote backups of files/folders and IDrive boasts of world-class infrastructure for the data centers and advanced data encryption.

IDrive is one of a handful companies that also provide online backup service for Mac. This review does not include their Mac offering.

›› Continue reading Review: IDrive Online Backup

www.backupreview.info

Backup Review Rating:

(3 stars out of possible 5)

www.dell.com/datasafe

Reviewed on June 27, 2008

Low price, short on features:

It’s good to see the world’s leading PC company getting into online backup. We believe that in a few years, most PCs will be shipped with online backup. HP acquired Opelin which they re-launched as Upline, and Carbonite recently announced a deal to pre-install Carbonite on all Packard Bell computers.

›› Continue reading Review: Dell Data Safe Online Backup

www.upline.com

Backup Review Rating

(1 Star out of possible 5)

Reviewed on May 03, 2008

Tries to do too much:

Please click here to download the PDF format version of this review

Hp Upline used to be called Titanize and was the product of a company called Opelin that was acquired by HP last year.  At $59 per year for unlimited capacity, it’s $10 more expensive than Carbonite and $5 more expensive than Mozy Home.   There is a “Family plan” that backs up 3 PCs for $149/yr, and a Business version that starts at $299 per year for 3 PCs.

HP Upline tries to do too much - backup, file sharing, photo sharing, publishing, and so on.  It doesn’t do any of them really well.  We gave Upline 1 star out of 5. As a backup service, it lacks most of the basic features and ease-of-use of pure backup services like Carbonite and Mozy.  For collaboration, file sharing, syncing, publishing, and so forth, it isn’t nearly as slick as the new SugarSync or BeInSync products.

When we first signed up, their whole system went down for several days.  HP said that they had an “isolated problem”, but blogs indicated that a customer who was attempting to restore his data actually got someone else’s data - if true, there’s probably nothing that could be worse for a backup company and not likely to inspire confidence.

›› Continue reading REVIEW: HP Upline Online Backup

www.carbonite.com

Backup Review Rating:

(4.5 stars out of possible 5)

Summary

As the guys who designed the iPod undoubtedly appreciate, it’s hard to design a simple product. In the world of online backup, Carbonite has succeeded to a remarkable degree in making a truly simple service. For the consumer, SOHO, and very small business user, Carbonite is just about perfect, though it is still missing a few features that some users may desire. Carbonite’s “backup for dummies” approach to product design hides what is actually a rich set of features and technology. Carbonite says that backup “ought to be like an insurance policy” – you pay your money and they protect your data. It is, in fact, almost that simple

The most recent magazine review of Carbonite was in a four-product bake-off:

PC Plus Magazine, Jan, ‘08
5/5 stars, Editor’s Choice Award
“Most online back-up services require you to learn a whole new interface, but Carbonite keeps the extra hassle to an absolute minimum. Restoration is just as easy.”

Importantly, Carbonite has the backing of a couple of Silicon Valley heavy-hitter VCs. They have raised a lot of money – $27 million – and they are clearly out to build a brand name for themselves with paid endorsements from the likes of Howard Stern, Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura, and tech gurus Kim Komando and Leo LaPorte. It appears to be working and the company reports that they’ve had 18 successive months of double-digit month-over-month revenue growth.

›› Continue reading Review: Carbonite Online Backup

www.mozy.com

Backup Review Rating:

(4 stars out of possible 5)

Please click here to view this review in PDF format

Summary

Mozy and Carbonite lead the market in consumer and small business online backup. Mozy has two products: Mozy Home and Mozy Pro. Carbonite has yet to release their business backup service. Both appear to be very well engineered and solid. From the perspective of the home or SOHO user, Carbonite has a slight edge due to its simplicity. For the technically sophisticated user, both products are about equivalent and a decision will come down to a matter of personal taste in one’s approach to the user interface. Mozy’s approach was to take traditional IT backup features and boil them down to something manageable for an individual. Carbonite’s approach seems to have been to ignore everything that came before in backup, start with a clean slate, and design something new with the consumer and SOHO user in mind.

Mozy was recently acquired by enterprise storage giant EMC. The good news is that EMC is a big company and Mozy is not likely to go out of business with a parent like that. The bad news is that the innovation and drive that has gotten Mozy this far may dissipate now that the founders and technical wizards are just drawing a paycheck from the big guys out East. EMC is strong in the enterprise space, but has a poor track record in the consumer market.

›› Continue reading Review: Mozy Online Backup

www.sparebackup.com

Backup Review Rating:

(3.5 stars out of possible 5)

Please click here to view this review in PDF format

Summary

SpareBackup Backup will do a good job of backing up your PC. It is fairly easy to use, and the new release 4 is a big improvement. Nevertheless we wouldn’t put it at the top of the heap in usability, though that is a subjective judgment. In terms of usability, it has a few idiosyncrasies and performance issues that affected its rating. These are not serious flaws, however.

Prior reviews of SpareBackup include:

PC Mag.com – 2.5 out of 5 (4/24/06)

• Intelligent selection, access from any Internet-connected PC
• Takes time to check for updates, full file upload versus just changed parts, slow recovery from online interface

TechWorld (11/6/06)

• Pros: Excellent security design; Usable once you get the hang of it; good value for money
• Cons: Interface could be clearer; backing up any useful quantity of data is very slow; Restore is fiddly

›› Continue reading Review: SpareBackup Online Backup

www.swapdrive.com

Backup Review Rating:

(3 stars out of possible 5)

Please click here to view this review in PDF format

Summary

It’s not clear that SwapDrive really wants to be in the market of selling directly to end users. Their web site says that “SwapDrive provides aggressive wholesale storage pricing to our Partners, allowing our Partners to determine appropriate retail prices, packaging, and marketing strategies for their product or service.” Their retail pricing, posted on the web site, is off the scale compared with most of the other services we tested: $500 per year for a mere 2GB of storage. It would seem that SwapDrive is being careful not to compete with their resellers who market SwapDrive under their own brands and probably at much lower prices. 2GB per year for $500 doesn’t stack up very well against vendors like Carbonite and Mozy which both offer unlimited backup for $50-60 per year. So we’ll put aside the issue of value and concentrate on product features and performance. If we were to take seriously the pricing on SwapDrive’s web site, we would probably give SwapDrive a much lower rating since it would represent one of the worst values of any backup service on the market.

›› Continue reading Review: SwapDrive Online Backup