Mozy Online Backup Solution Review

Unpredictable hard drive crashes, virus attacks, laptop thefts and natural disasters are all too frequent incidents now. Such fractious crack-ups take a toll on the important financial documents, email, digital photos, music and more.   On the follow, there has been a increased demand for online backup systems, especially those which are free. We had already reviewed the Carbonite Online Backup, now we are back with a similar online backup system, Mozy. It provides a online backup solution to store the copy of files in a remote location. It is sill in the beta version. Mozy provides automated online backup for home users as well as businesses at an affordable rate. The price may be attractive, but we need scrutinized the backup tool to know the real value.

Mozy offers two types of backup - Mozyhome for home users and the Mozy pro for businesses. Let’s deal with the key features of both the versions

Security

The backup system uses a 128-bit SSL encryption during the backing up process. This encryption technology is usually used by the banks to secure data. For the files in storage, it uses 448-bit Blowfish encryption or 256-bit AES encryption.

Scheduling

The user has the options to set either automatic or scheduled mode of backup. Scheduled backups can be set daily or weekly at a specified time of day.

File detection

Every slightest modifications in the files are instantly saved.

E-mail Protection

Mozy backs up the Outlook files providing email protection

Block-level incremental backup

Even after the initial back up, Mozy continues backing files that are added or changed. This makes subsequent backups lightning fast.

Supports Two Operating Systems

The service supports both Windows (2000, XP, 2003, and Vista) and Mac (10.4 and 10.5, desktop and server).

Backup for open/locked files

It backs up all open and locked files that includes the Outlook PST files.

Mozy Pro

Mozy Pro is designed for the professionals and businesses. It includes all the features of the home version plus some advanced features to assist a office manager, or a businessman. Mozy has to two types of license for computers that you would backup. The desktop license and the server license.

The server license includes Microsoft Windows Server OS support, network share support, and backup & restore of Exchange and SQL.
Mozy Pro offers SQL, Exchange, and network drive support that allows back up of data residing on virtually any machine.

Pros

• The foremost advantage of the software is the 2GB of online backup free

• It offers additional free space for referring others to the service

• Mozy can retain multiple versions of the file for up to 30 days. It also tracks the changes in background.
• Since it is a month to month plan the businesses can test the service before signing a long-term contract

Cons

• The technical support consistent and may go slow
• The restore process can take a long time.  It takes nearly 24 hours for Mozy to restive the backed up files before beginning with the restoration.
• All versions of backed-up files except the latest expire if no backup for 30 days
• The software is bug prone and there may be connection errors to backup servers once in a while. It hogs resources, slowing down the system in turn
• It offers limited number of restores per month
• The software lacks file-sharing features
• The the backup quota is reached, the backup fails. The process should be checked regularly.

Conclusion

Although, Mozy Pro is not an ideal backing up solution, still may serve as affordable backup solution for small and medium businesses. It can serve as a backup solution for those companies that are not involved in extensive IT works. Overall it can be a better solution for home users or small entrepreneurs.