Product Name: Backblaze

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Posted 08/24/09    
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Description: An on-line backup that will back up your data continuously or on-demand. When you need to restore you can download a zip file, or have a dvd or disk sent. Cost is $5/month.

Review: At first glance, Backblaze is a no-brainer. Seems easy to use and of course, a necessity if you are not already backing up. It has some nice features, including incremental back-ups, de'duplicating, and being able to either have continuous or scheduled backups. The limit of 4gb for one file is waived for photo libraries such as IPhoto, Lightroom and Aperture. It keeps 4 weeks versions of a file.

On the other hand, the idea of downloading a zip file of all my data is not appealing. And the price for the DVD or Disk is $99/$189. I could buy my own USB disk at that price and run the OS backup, such as Time Machine on the Mac. They have a handy comparison chart comparing using an Internet solution versus your own external drive. Frankly, I"m not convinced, except for the fact that it is stored remotely. I'm also not so sure I want my files being backed up continuously. Feels like overkill to me.

However, the real turn off is discovering that you need to download software. For me, a true SAAS product has no download at all, so it disqualifies Backblaze in our estimation. That being said, it does use the Internet for its backup, so we'll include it. However, it seems to me that there are better ways to do this important task.

Overall Rating: 2