Hard Drive + cloud backup

[JTsyo]

I was asked advice about a hard drive and cloud backup for a business. From by understanding I was thinking a 2TB WD blue drive and Carbonite. $70 for the drive and another $60/yr for the service. Does this make sense or is there something better I should be recommending?

 

[UsandThem]

I was asked advice about a hard drive and cloud backup for a business. From by understanding I was thinking a 2TB WD blue drive and Carbonite. $70 for the drive and another $60/yr for the service. Does this make sense or is there something better I should be recommending?

I am currently trying out Backblaze for 6 months, and it has its pros and cons. For example, I can't manually select what I want to backup or save something like a system image. It automatically select what it wants to upload unless you manually exclude a file or folder. I'm not sure if I will renew after that period. Here's a breakdown where you can read a review, and the pros and cons of each service:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2288745,00.asp

Edit to add another comparison article to read:

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-cloud-backup,review-2678.html

I will likely try CrashPlan next.

 

[Elixer]

I was asked advice about a hard drive and cloud backup for a business. From by understanding I was thinking a 2TB WD blue drive and Carbonite. $70 for the drive and another $60/yr for the service. Does this make sense or is there something better I should be recommending?

It depends on what kind of business it is, and if any regulations are in play or not, if you want to encrypt everything or not, mission critical or not, downtime a issue or not, and so on.

I think it is better to do trials of cloud services, so you can test the water on the pros/cons of each of them.

 

[JTsyo]

It depends on what kind of business it is, and if any regulations are in play or not, if you want to encrypt everything or not, mission critical or not, downtime a issue or not, and so on.

I think it is better to do trials of cloud services, so you can test the water on the pros/cons of each of them.

The machine they have has an Intel motherboard and a i7-920, know of any compatibility issue with the current SATA connections? Are they backwards compatible?

 

[UsandThem]

The machine they have has an Intel motherboard and a i7-920, know of any compatibility issue with the current SATA connections? Are they backwards compatible?

Shouldn't be any issues. Current SATA drives are backwards compatible.

When you mentioned a hard drive and backup cloud service, I thought you were referring to an external local backup drive + cloud backup.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

As already mentioned by @Elixer you should be recommending the business give this a bit of thought. As soon as you involve a business that is managing other customer's data, you may be putting yourself at risk with compliance. Even if not looking from a Business perspective. For instance, people will mention Carbonite, Backblaze, and Crashplan as affordable options, but all 3 have explicit terms against commercial use of the the home versions. So you should be evaluating the Small Business or Business versions of each option. Doing otherwise is not only dishonest, but can, again, get you in hot water when auditing comes around.

The fact that you're asking about the motherboard and CPU as points for compatibility has me slightly concerned that this may be getting evaluated from the wrong perspectives. You shouldn't be looking at this from a compatibility perspective, but a compliance perspective. In fact, it would make me question if any of this data is being handled properly if such a backup system on what sounds like a commodity system is just now being evaluated.

So as mentioned above. Really any generic hard drive + Cloud (I like Crashplan myself) is a great base backup system for home use. As soon as customer data is involved, I would tread very carefully, and be cautious about how much advice you give your compatriots if you aren't certain they haven't worked their data strategy out. Friendly advice is one thing, but when business is involved, the laws are cold, and not necessarily fair.