What is Cloud Backup, How it works, and the Top Cloud Backup Providers

Yandex is a Russian company known mainly for its popular Yandex Search and Yandex Email services, but they also have others like Yandex Disk. It offers 5 GB of free cloud storage for anyone who creates an account. 10 GB of free online storage space is provided by Box (formerly Box.net). There are sometimes promotions where you can early more free space by doing something simple like signing up from the mobile app.

After years of testing, we think Backblaze is the easiest to use and the best cloud backup service for most people. IT professionals often describe backing up to the cloud as filling a swimming pool with a paper cup regardless of the method. While available bandwidth is rapidly catching up with the huge demands created by enormous data sets, the initial backup is usually the worst, and subsequent incremental backups are much easier and faster. Some vendors make that initial seeding process easier by first backing it up to an external hard drive at the customer’s site—a much faster process since it’s on a local network.

Backblaze Business

These cost $89.99 and $124.99 per year, respectively, and include unlimited storage for a single device backup. The Premium plan also gives you an additional 1TB of storage, and you can add additional devices to both plans. A backup service isn’t much use if it doesn’t make the process of restoring or recovering your data quick and simple. Backup services should offer search tools for finding files in your backup, for example. It’s also desirable to be able to replicate an entire folder-tree structure so that it can help you recover from bigger data losses. For this to work, the copies of your files must be updated regularly.

  • Arcserve UDP Cloud Direct melds an extensive feature set with an interface that should be easy for most IT professionals to use.
  • IDrive also has a courier service which refers to the physical delivery of your data, which can be useful if your backup is huge or you’re located far away from IDrive’s data center in the U.S.
  • Once at the destination and deemed “at rest,” the data should be encrypted using the most potent form available.
  • From unlimited versioning to advanced scheduling, multithreading, block-level uploads and support for a vast range of device types, CloudBerry has pretty much everything.
  • You won’t find a better price per terabyte for backing up your devices than with IDrive.
  • Backblaze is an inexpensive option for storing loads of data that’s also fast and simple to use.
  • By default, Dropbox stores all of your individual files, including early versions of files, for a full 30 days—or 180 days for Dropbox Standard, Advanced, and Enterprise plans.

The total storage is actually shared with other Google services, like Gmail and Google Photos. If you don’t use these services, you can utilize almost all the space for Google Drive alone. Keep in mind that your file from Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Photos, Gmail, etc. all compete for that free allotment. The only real difference is that Carbonite doesn’t back up everything by default. It selects what it thinks you need to back up, then leaves the rest up to you. It’s pretty successful selecting data if you use the standard locations (My Documents, etc.), so most users won’t need to provide additional input.

Cloud Storage bucket in 4 mins

Even companies that still require local backups have pivoted their strategies, since most of the workforce—and their data—has largely left the building. In turn, this trend has brought about significant changes for IT pros responsible for data backup. But for all its power, we found iDrive’s apps very easy to use, and our speed tests revealed backup performance was a good match for Google Drive and the top storage contenders. Your data stays on those remote backup servers until you need it, and with luck, you never will. Most cloud-backup services offer generous amounts of storage for a subscription fee that is much cheaper, gigabyte for gigabyte, than an online-syncing service. Think of the syncing service as the hub on a spoked wheel, with all your linked devices at the ends of the spokes.

cloud backup services

But while all of the contenders received the same high verdict, each product has its own unique selling point. Our primary concern here is backup, but we do note other roles that a service can fulfill, such as sharing, multi-device support, and emergency-restore options. SpiderOak One Backup is another service that straddles the line between online backup and traditional cloud services. Because it offers extensive file sharing and syncing functionality, it’s a great choice for users who want those features in addition to standard backup functionality.

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That will keep bandwidth needs low, too, but it’ll directly affect performance. You might also consider running backups over their own virtual LAN (VLAN) or using some form of Quality of Service (QoS). This will manage the bandwidth a backup operation uses, so you know those backups are happening. A virtual, software-defined architecture lets providers create a large storage pool and parcel it out among their customers. Not only can they then manage the whole resource down to the byte level, but they can use multi-tenant architectures to make sure that accounts are entirely separate.

cloud backup services

In addition to other data security features, it can scan data located in third-party public clouds for malware. Another critical consideration when choosing a cloud backup provider is where, specifically, your backups are stored. Many businesses must comply with regulatory requirements https://www.globalcloudteam.com/the-best-cloud-backup-services-for-business/ about keeping data in-country, so be sure your vendor can meet your requirements around data sovereignty. You can access files from other platforms, though with mixed success. The web interface covers the basics, for instance, but doesn’t have the easy style of Google Drive or Dropbox.

Customer-managed

Some users may appreciate having such a fine degree of control, but this method is only effective if you remember to run the backups regularly. Glitches happen, and so do hacks, theft, and physical damage to a device. Your business documents and your files, photos, videos, and music all deserve to be protected. LiveDrive is suited to everyday people who want a simple backup choice, though with a few caveats. Its price is quite high compared with similar apps, and the lack of standard encryption features is going to disappoint security and privacy enthusiasts, though it does result in faster upload speeds. The following solutions back up data from cloud services, such as Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.

cloud backup services

Once that data is over on SpiderOak’s servers, no one is going to know what it is without the encryption key, and unlike other services, you don’t have to give that to anyone. The service is not as fast next to some of its competitors and you’ll be spending $149 a year for 2TB of storage, but you can upload data from unlimited devices. That price may be worth it for the peace of mind that there are no eyes on your data. The unlimited capacity makes it a strong option for those with a lot of data on one machine, but Backblaze is also a great tool because of how it works.

Our pick: Backblaze

Carbonite is a well-known name among business cloud backup solutions. Its Safe product line offers backups for desktops, laptops, and servers, including remote file access. Its security features include 128-bit encryption, ransomware recovery, and FERPA, GLBA, and HIPAA compliance.

cloud backup services

Arq Premium gives you full control over how backups run, when they run, where files go, how long it keeps files, and more. Judging from reader comments we’ve seen on this guide over the years, many people have found IDrive’s customer service lacking, often failing to help with basic troubleshooting. For more about data protection, read The Best Backup Software and Services and The Beginner’s Guide to PC Backup. Just because an app can get your data into the cloud doesn’t mean it’s doing it safely.

Livedrive – Most polished cloud backup

These 11 cloud-to-cloud solutions back up your organization’s data so you’ll be covered in the event of deletions, malware or outages. PCloud, which has been in the cloud storage business for a while, launched a backup component to its software. The result is a messy hybrid of syncing and backup that we think leaves it more open to user error. At $100 for 2 TB, it’s more expensive than iDrive, and pCloud charges https://www.globalcloudteam.com/ an extra $50 a year for client-side encryption, a feature we view as a must-have. We like that pCloud has lifetime plans, which bring the cost down significantly, but its hybrid style of storage makes it too difficult to set up securely. As for security, Arq Premium supports two-factor authentication on its accounts and pushes you to use a private encryption key during the setup process to encrypt files.

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