Finally, an Honest to God Internet Backup that Works

I’ve been on a search for the best off-site backup service.  I’ve looked at using my web servers and rsync, tried various well known services like Carbonite and AT&T Remote Vault, and finally found OPENRSM CloudBackup. This is a review of the backup features only at this time. Later we’ll do a seperate article about the network drive functions.

This is the bottom line. The software is free, and that’s good for lifetime updates and unlimited installs that share a single account. It costs only 4 bucks for the first fifty Gig of data and low per Gig storage fees beyond that. So, if your going to back up a 80GB of data we can anticipate a little less than $10 for the  cost.

Fully Featured OPENRSM CloudBackup is indispensable for doing offsite backups. The ability to do block-level updates and upload resume are both key to cutting down bandwidth costs. The same account can even back up many computers (your entire network of computers actually).

Firstly, OPENRSM CloudBackup has to be a running process in order to back up your computer. It will wake your computer from sleep, but if your user is not logged in or OPENRSM CloudBackup is not running, the backup will be delayed or skipped. It runs as a Windows Service, and an OSX and Linux Daemon which isn’t a bad thing. Just like any other online backup… It can only backup as fast as your broadband carrier allows.

There is a bandwidth choke, so you can set the speed limit back on upload and/or download speeds according to your needs. Everything else just works. You can create multiple backup jobs, choose the files you want to back up, set up rules and schedules.  Having the option of removing files I delete on my own systems and rulesets for keeping previous versions of changed files are all advanced features.

For my first month of backups, I expected a bill of around $30. And it didn’t cost anything extra at all (I only had 32GB once I remembered to delete my temporary files folders). Considering that this is including a first-time upload that I won’t have in subsequent months, that was a pleasant suprise. I have loads of images and cellphone videos, so it’s a good thing to get those backed up off-site in addition to my regular backups.

One truly unbelievable feature that may go unnoticed is that OPENRSM CloudBackup implements 256bit AES Encryption. That’s what alot of government agencies use to keep files safe and it’s about as strong a system as you’ll get for online backup. This means that your files, folders, videos, etc. arn’t going to be stolen. That’s just so hot it’s cool. And when you use it on multiple computers, it keeps each computers data totally seperated. And if you have to restore, just make sure to use the same system name on the rebuilt machine and CloudBackup will do the rest.

I’ve been so impressed with OPENRSM CloudBackup as a service. When doing backups, CPU usage has been minimal, and on my cable modem, web and email speeds haven’t suffered at all, if any.  And if I ever do it’s simple to use bandwidth throttling to let me do other things while my online backup goes on uninterrupted.

The fact that this is usable on Windows, MAC, and Linux is proving to be a real convenience as it lets me use just one solution instead of many to maintain my home and work networks.

Tags: hi speed internet connection, faster smarter browsing, faster internet speed, boost internet speed