So I’ve been using AllWay Sync tool for a couple years now to keep laptops synchronized (free for home use). I recently downloaded the latest version to help me back up the HTPC harddisk before pulling it out and moving it to the ReadyNAS NV+ as an iSCSI device (a story for another time). In the back of my mind, I’ve also been contemplating various offsite backup strategies. My photo and home video collection is nearing 1TB, and after seeing the San Mateo gas fire, I’m a little more motivated to get those offsite.
It turns out the latest version of AllWay now supports Amazon S3! This basically gives you an unlimited storage solution for $1.20$1.11/GB/yr using S3 RRS. Or $10 $9 a month for a TB of backup. The beauty is you only pay for what you use, so 250GB is only $2.50 $2.25 a month, or $27/yr. The AllWay tool can do scheduled synchronizations and after the initial sync, it only pushes new files and deletions.
Now the Internet backup providers like Carbonite are running right as low as $55/yr for unlimited backup, so you may be able to pay a little less for a more feature rich solution if you are over .5TB but if you have multiple PC’s (or a NAS). That said $55/yr only gets you 1 PC and I don’t know if it will backup network shares. Furthermore they don’t recommend the $55 solution for anyone with more than 200GB. In fact, in their FAQ they mention something about bandwidth throttling at 35 and 200 gig.
Finally, Amazon has been consistently dropping the price on S3 storage every year, so it will only get cheaper. Allway includes integration with Windows Task Manager, so scheduled backups are a breeze. As soon as I get all the drives reorganized, this is definitely the next task on the list.
Sounds great, but moved the family to a iMac and an Ubuntu workstation. Mac is the main home computer, but I use the ubuntu one a lot.
What is the recommendation there?
On Linux I use a Python tool called s3cmd, which also has the capability to keep a directory sync’d to an S3 bucket. Of course, you have to add your own cron entry to keep it up to date. You can download that from http://s3tools.org.