Choosing an online backup vendor is a challenge because of the changing landscape of providers.  Just 3 or 4 years ago online backup was a novel idea, but now there are easily 30+ alternatives to sift though in selecting one that makes sense.

During this short history another important development has been price competition that in recent years has significantly lowered costs.  As a result online backup solutions are now easier to justify when compared to traditional backup alternatives like tape- or other removable-media- based systems.  We had already evaluated a number of online backup providers and developed specific experience with two, when we initiated a more recent review of providers that ultimately focused on a dozen, and then two, of the most viable services.  You can see some of the comparative data we reviewed at the following locations:

           Title - Top 10 reviews  
Description - An informative side-by-side comparison often (10) major online backup service providers. 
                     At: online-storage-service-review+toptenreviews+com/ (For this and subsequent links, copy, paste and replace "+" with ".")

           Title - Consumer Search – Online Backup service reviews
Description - In-depth reviews of a dozen or more online backup services
                     At: www+consumersearch+com/online-backup-services 

           Title - PC Magazine – Recommended Online Backup
Description - Detailed reviews of 132 products for online backup or that include online backup.
                    At: www+pcmag+com (<-- Find by searching here with the above title)

           Title - Computerworld – Review: 4 Online Backup Services Protect Your Data:
Description - A review of just four ‘business-oriented’ services.
                    At: www+computerworld+com/s/article/9142655

Key in this evaluation was adherence to our advice for backup rules-of-thumb:

1. It must be simple! Complex backup schemes tend to be too much trouble to use, or worse they're too complex to work when its time to restore from a backup.
2. It must generate several slices of your data! Backing up just the files as they were yesterday or last week is NOT enough.  Problems with files come unexpectedly and sometimes files from Tuesday, or a week before last will, be the better choice.
3. It must run itself!  Backups that need to be attended by humans more than once-a-day, even to change tapes, disks, or CD's, etc. are destined to fail at least occasionally.  The more automatic the better!

After reviewing the major players and based on our own ‘first-hand’ experience we found ourselves being drawn in by services that complied with our rules-of-thumb and also offered 'best pricing’.  Maybe needless to say, we also wanted to be sure any company we choose would be highly creditable and likely to stay in business.  In our situation, then a potential, and now fairly well-established reseller, ‘Mozy’ seemed the best fit.  It offers some comparatively 'attractive' pricing which currently (March 2011) is:

• Desktop Licenses: $3.95 + $0.50/GB per month
• Server Licenses:    $6.95 + $0.50/GB per month

With competitive base pricing, discounts offered to resellers (Our clients are paying about $5.00 per Gigabyte per year), and management tools to help us help our clients, Mozy Pro became a winning recommendation.  Last year (March 2010) we had NO business clients using online backup.  Now, as we write this guide we have nine (9) clients benefiting from the Mozy Pro software and service, not to mention a host of folks we've referred directly to their 'Mozy Home' services.

For more information see our related guide titled "Computer BackUp for Small Bus.-The What, Why & How?"

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