Remote backups. Any recommendations?

[feppe]

Just to expand on my previously mentioned pessimism - is anybody worried about security? I would be reluctant to upload much of anything - eg photos, personal info, financial stuff, etc, without some serious encryption. And that's just another level of PITA.

Mozy has built-in client-side encryption. Whether that's actually credibly secure protocol and implementation of the 448-bit Blowfish cipher (practically unbreakable on paper) used is impossible to gauge since they don't publish the source code or protocol (protocol is usually the weakest link, not the cipher itself).

The only way to be sure is to backup up encrypted files to your own server, as I'm confident none of the services allow any level of security auditing of their encryption protocol, and almost as confident that all of them have vulnerabilities or backdoors.

[Graham Mitchell]

Mozy has built-in client-side encryption. Whether that's actually credibly secure protocol and implementation of the 448-bit Blowfish cipher

Crashplan offers this too. Different plans have different levels of encryption. Either 128 or 448 bit. Both seem more than enough for a photo which, if copied, still couldn't be used legally.

[Bernhard]

I am currently using SuperDuper to perform a daily smart local backup which is working great, but I am starting to feel that I should invest in a remote backup system. All the local backups in the world are no good if all the disks are destroyed in a fire, or stolen, etc.

Something like Time Machine, but using a remote server would be ideal. Would be a bonus if the system used compression and encryption.

So far I have found Crashplan (www.crashplan.com). Seems very close to what I am looking for. Is anyone using it? Is there a better solution out there?

Thanks for bringing this up, I'm having the same thinking here in Iceland. Need to have mirrored data in the office and back home. I was thinking of

2x Drobo FS and use DeJa Vu combined with Back to my MAC from Apple Me.com

then just the biggest fiber channel connection available

Crashplan doesn't work if it leaves a compressed and unreadable files on the other end, wright

best,

Bernhard Kristinn
www.bernhardkristinn.com

[Graham Mitchell]

Crashplan doesn't work if it leaves a compressed and unreadable files on the other end, wright

By 'unreadable', do you mean 'encrypted'?

[Graham Mitchell]

You might want to have a look at these folks too: http://cubeglobalstorage.com/

Thanks, I just emailed them.

[Steve Weldon]

In addition to my 'in-house' backups I've recently started using Amazon S3 for online storage.  Their servers are as fast as my connection (16mbps) which here in Bangkok isn't that fast by modern standards.. but I'm told they go to 50mbps.. and they have different 'grades' of storage available, all can be encrypted, and I've found them very easy to use with something as routine as Norton Ghost..  many syncing programs work as well.  The initial backup took a bit of effort, but the daily increments go unnoticed.  Amazon S3 is primarily targeted to web professionals (which I'm not), but anyone can make and account and you only get charged for what you use..