{"id":13319,"date":"2009-01-22T11:44:39","date_gmt":"2009-01-22T18:44:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2009\/01\/22\/online-backup-goes-mainstream.html"},"modified":"2009-01-22T11:44:39","modified_gmt":"2009-01-22T18:44:39","slug":"online_backup_goes_mainst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/01\/22\/online_backup_goes_mainst.html","title":{"rendered":"Online backup goes mainstream"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

There have been a variety of companies providing online backup services over the past few years. I’ve been using BackBlaze<\/a> myself, which has been working quite nicely.<\/p>\n

Now the competition is heating up a bit, with Comcast, as a broadband provider, entering the market<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Comcast insiders have informed Broadband Reports that the cable giant will soon be launching an online backup and storage service called Comcast Secure Backup and Share, for which customers can pay a monthly or yearly fee. The plan is to offer several storage options: 10GB worth of storage for $4.99\/mo or $49.99 per year; 50GB for $9.99\/mo or $99.99 year; or 200GB for $19.99 a month. When launched, users should be able to try it for one month free.<\/p>\n

Once the service is purchased by a primary Comcast account holder, everyone in the family can use the service with their own individual “lockers,” though their use contributes to the storage total.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The pricing is … pricey. For $5\/month, I have unlimited storage, though I have to pay for each computer. There are other companies that are in both ranges. The model is as yet not very mature.<\/p>\n

Now, this also provides “sharing” of that data, within certain bounds (no music files). I can’t do that with my service — but don’t have a need to, either. <\/p>\n

\n

If the Comcast broadband account is canceled, users have fourteen days before all content is deleted permanently.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That, right there, is the key to why Comcast is getting into this business. Getting backups loaded to the network is a slow process (if you make it as painless as you can). So it becomes one more barrier to someone hopping over to a different broadband provider.<\/p>\n

That said, it also makes sense for Comcast to be in the business, since they control the pipe to the house.<\/p>\n

\n

A Comcast spokesman in the comments below confirms<\/a> that the service will<\/b> count against your monthly cap. That’s probably a necessary move by Comcast, given that excluding this service would have riled up the network neutrality brigades. Still, including it would seem to limit its usefulness.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That’s not that big an issue, really. Most people use a fraction of their 250Gb\/month transfer cap. Even the top-end plan — assuming you could put 200Gb up there within a month — wouldn’t push you over. (It certainly hasn’t caused me any problems with BackBlaze.)<\/p>\n

Anyway, a smart move by Comcast, providing a (very useful) service, for a hefty (but not too hefty) price that makes it less likely that people will change to a competitor for their real bread-and-butter service. Hard to go wrong there, at least for them.<\/p>\n

(via Les)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There have been a variety of companies providing online backup services over the past few years. I’ve been using BackBlaze myself, which has been working quite nicely. Now the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35,20,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-business","category-hi-tech","category-my-computer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":49452,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/31\/long-day-sorting-kitchen-stuff-pre-reno-with-margiekleerup-fragolakat-classing-as-available-backup-cold-storage-and-dumpdonate.html","url_meta":{"origin":13319,"position":0},"title":"Long day sorting kitchen stuff pre-reno with @MargieKleerup & @FragolaKat, classing as Available, Backup, Cold storage, and Dump\/Donate.","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 31-Jan-15 5:12pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Long day sorting kitchen stuff pre-reno with @MargieKleerup & @FragolaKat, classing as Available, Backup, Cold storage, and Dump\/Donate. View on Twitter","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133888,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/19\/comcast-tells-one-story-to-the-fcc-a-different-story-to-its-investors.html","url_meta":{"origin":13319,"position":1},"title":"Comcast tells one story to the FCC, a different story to its investors","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 19-Jul-17 8:04am","format":false,"excerpt":"Did Title II and Net Neutrality reduce Comcast's capital investment in telecommunications?If you look at what it's saying today to the FCC, then, yes, it led to fear, trembling, apprehension, and a massive scaling back of spending because who would possibly invest in internet and broadband if they couldn't throttle\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6813,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/12\/27\/comcast_dvr_and.html","url_meta":{"origin":13319,"position":2},"title":"Comcast DVR and TiVo","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 27-Dec-04 5:12pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So today, aside from the usual work stuff and building a few web pages and considering what I needed to get done this week, I started doing a lot of...","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131610,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/22\/ooooh-municipalish-1gb-broadband-color-me-intrigued.html","url_meta":{"origin":13319,"position":3},"title":"Ooooh. Municipal(ish) 1Gb broadband? Color me intrigued","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 22-Sep-16 5:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Not that our cable is grotesquely slow, but it's hard to argue with More Speed. Also, a private\/public partnership around municipal broadband sounds like an idea I want to encourage. Especially to give Comcast a poke in the nose.http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2016\/09\/22\/centennials-gigabit-internet-service-pre-orders\/ Centennial\u2019s gigabit internet service now taking pre-orders Three years after Centennial\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131002,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/07\/06\/netflix-will-show-up-natively-on-comcast-cable-boxes.html","url_meta":{"origin":13319,"position":4},"title":"Netflix will show up natively on Comcast cable boxes","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 6-Jul-16 5:19pm","format":false,"excerpt":"We actually access Netflix presently through a native app in our Sony BluRay player, but having it added seamlessly to the Comcast X1 box is even more convenient. Now if we can get Amazon streaming in there, I'll be really happy.(Yes, Comcast, this is a way to stay relevant --\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41147,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/18\/no-incentive-to-improve-service-just-raise-rates.html","url_meta":{"origin":13319,"position":5},"title":"No incentive to improve service, just raise rates","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 18-Feb-14 2:21pm","format":false,"excerpt":"When the cable company is also the primary broadband provider, it has no incentive to improve broadband; indeed, given that its actual cash cow is cable TV, it has every incentive to restrict broadband (by quality or price) so as to discourage folks from cutting the cord.Which brings us to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13319\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}