The company started in 2007 as a way for a developer to backup a friends computer online.
Fast forward to the present, and it is used by over 500,000 customers.
Secure, business-grade online backup for everyone, no strings attached.
This can be a positive or negative, depending on your requirements.
Backblaze also won’t backup files created by other backup utilities like Time Machine.
The tool is a “set-it-and-forget-it” solution.
While file sharing is possible, the feature can only be accessed through the web interface.
Backups can be continuous and this is a default option.
They can also be configured to occur once a day, or just when you initiate them manually.
For instance, your Documents folder may contain irreplaceable data but your Pictures might not.
You also can’t fine-tune which folders within these directories are backed up.
On the plus side, there’s little chance of anything valuable being missed during backup.
As standard, unlimited versions of files are kept, though only for a period of 30 days.
This extends it to one year.
Because there are no subscription tiers, every account benefits from otherwise premium features.
Backblaze has built-in safeguards to limit the amount of bandwidth consumed.
Backblaze: Interface and use
The Backblaze desktop client targets simplicity over power.
In this case, Backblaze sits neatly in System Preferences within macOS for instance.
The Backblaze control panel can also be launched via a handy system tray icon in Windows.
There’s also a mechanism for sharing stored files to others that is exclusive to the web interface.
However, it is ultimately a different proposition so this comparison is, perhaps, slightly unfair.
Also worth noting is that users can pick between EU and US data centers.
Backblaze also says it usesOpenSSLfor generating the necessary encryption keys to do this.
While it’s not full end-to-end encryption, it’s certainly safe enough for most users.
These tests were carried out on aWindows 11virtual machine using the Backblaze desktop client.
The virtual machine was connected to the internet via a fiber broadband connection with a VPN server.
Throughout our speed tests, we consistently recorded an average upload speed of 70 Mbps.
However, Backblaze primarily functions as an all-or-nothing backup solution.
Therefore, our test files took just over a minute to upload.
We were also given the option to set up the Backblaze Downloader app.
Upon extraction, we discovered that the folder was organized within a directory structure mirroring our unit.
Despite this multi-step process, we successfully recovered all the files.
We chose to download the document as a ZIP file.
Once extracted, the document opened without any issues.
As expected, there’s no free tier since you get unlimited cloud backup.
Personal plans cost $9 monthly, $99 a year, or $189 every two years.
Business customers get similar pricing.
This is especially useful if you’re replacing tape backups.
This means if you only want to sync individual files and folders this could prove tricky.
Just be certain you know exactly what Backblaze is before you sign up.
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