02
Nov
11

The Online Backup Solution I Need Doesn’t Exist

I’m a simple man with simple needs. I assume there are others out there with similar needs. In a free market, one would assume that the needs of a viable consumer base would be met, perhaps even prior to that consumer base being aware of their own need. And yet I have been looking for two years for an online backup solution that either; 1) does not exist, or 2) is so poorly marketed that after two years of searching I cannot find it.

All I want is an online backup solution that; 1) gives me 2-3 TB of space, 2) allows me to automatically back up data on external drives, 3) works for Mac. Apparently it ain’t Carbonite, SugarSync, Mozy, or Dropbox. And yet it seems like any one of these companies or a score of others could easily add this service. How hard is it to allow me to backup external drives? It can’t be that hard. Most of these services already work on a Mac, so that’s not an issue. And yet virtually all these services either put a limit on the total data I can back up, or they limit me to only backing up the data I have on my internal hard drive. Why? I’m willing to pay for more space. SugarSync gives me 500GB of space for $40/month. I might not be willing to pay six times that for 3 TB of space, but I might be willing to pay 2.5 times ($100/month). Is it really not profitable to offer 3 TB of online backup for $100/month?

Surely this service will be offered within the next few years as bandwidth and data storage become cheaper. But why not now? Why not three years ago?

If there is a service out there that provides what I need and I just haven’t run into it, please enlighten me and point me in the right direction.


5 Responses to “The Online Backup Solution I Need Doesn’t Exist”


  1. 1 Jeff Nov 2nd, 2011 at 11:34 am

    If you find it let me know!

    -JB

  2. 2 Bernd VanSkiver Nov 2nd, 2011 at 11:59 am

    Not quite 2-3 TB, but IDrive offers 1TB for $80/month, I’m sure you can go above that but I’m not sure about pricing. I personally am on the IDrive family plan and like it the best of all the options I’ve seen.

  3. 3 Cody Hilton Dec 15th, 2011 at 8:28 pm

    I use Backblaze. $5/month, with an iMac (Lion), and 2TB external drive. Although I’ve only backed up 1TB of it. Nothing in their TOS limits the storage assuming it is for non-commercial use. They also publish on their blog the specs to the hardware they use in their data center. I’ve used them for over 2 years after ditching Mozy.

  4. 4 Joshua Dec 17th, 2011 at 9:14 am

    I use CrashPlan+ Unlimited to backup my laptop, server, and my family’s computers, and I believe it does attached drives as well. I prepaid for a whole year at $119, and it’s been fantastic so far. You may want to check them out.

    (Wow, sorry to resurrect an old post, this just came through Reader for some reason and then I saw the dates!)

  5. 5 Mike Smullin Feb 1st, 2012 at 3:57 pm

    megaupload was super cheap until fbi closed them down

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