.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT ANALYSIS
.TITLE Trapped in Carbonite?
.AUTHOR David Gewirtz
.SUMMARY In space, no one can hear you scream. Apparently, the same is true if you’re Han Solo and you’re trapped in carbonite. It’s the whole trapped in carbonite theme that made us very curious about Carbonite, a company that does Internet-based backups. Their offer is compelling. Unlimited backup for $49.95 per year. But, we wondered, if you back up your data to Carbonite, would you then be trapped there? Just how unfortunate might the name Carbonite be?
.OTHER
In space, no one can hear you scream. Apparently, the same is true if you’re Han Solo and you’re trapped in carbonite. It’s the whole trapped in carbonite theme that made us very curious about Carbonite, a company that does Internet-based backups. Their offer is compelling. Unlimited backup for $49.95 per year.
But, we wondered, if you back up your data to Carbonite, would you then be trapped there? Just how unfortunate might the name Carbonite be?
The whole idea of Internet backups is simple, if somewhat flawed. Basically, rather than backing up to a local DVD or removable hard drive, you upload your files to a server located at a service provider. On the surface, the idea is a good one. Using one of these service providers, your PC just spews files up to the backup provider automatically. You never have to bring disks to the bank and otherwise pay any attention.
.CALLOUT There are two problems with this seemingly idylic answer to backup.
There are two problems with this seemingly idylic answer to backup. The first is that most backup providers only offer a limited amount of storage space, and uploading data, even over broadband, is slow. Staples, for example, is currently offering a 300GB Maxtor drive for the idiotically low price of $69.98 after rebate. With drives this cheap and files (movies, tunes, and the like) taking more and more space, backing up online seems more and more impractical — at least until upstream broadband gets a lot faster. It’d take you almost four months of constant uploading to make your first backup of just that one seventy buck drive.
.TEASER So, is this a good idea? Tap here and read the whole story.
The next problem is much more of a concern. What if the backup provider, the company that now has all your information, goes belly-up? What happens to your data? First, how do you get it back? And, second, how do you prevent your data from getting into the wrong hands?
The scenario is scary. Let’s say the service provider dies. What’s likely to happen? In most cases, the company’s furniture and fixtures go to bankruptcy auction, and the hard drives containing your data (and those of thousands of other customers) fall into the hands of the highest bidder.
If a company like Carbonite fails, you could well and truly be trapped in Carbonite.
It was with these sorts of concerns that we approached David Friend, CEO of Carbonite. He politely answered some of our questions. Of course, the big one, what happens if his business failed, was noticeably sidestepped.
.Q Computing Unplugged
Who holds the encryption keys to the content? Does the consumer and Carbonite have one?
.A Friend
The consumer has a password, just like in electronic banking. We keep the passwords in an encrypted form on a server that is off the network. The password database is in a separate facility with 24-hour guard and fingerprint ID access. Only my co-founder, Jeff Flowers, and two techs who have been with us for over 15 years have access to the database server. Internal procedures are modeled after the internal procedures at one of the major New York banks.
We will be offering the option of user-held encryption keys for customers who have a regulatory requirement (such as healthcare). We won’t encourage use of user-held encryption keys for other customers, however, because what others in our industry have found is that when users lose or mis-copy their keys, they are furious when they are told that there’s no way for them to get their data back.
.Q Computing Unplugged
What is Carbonite’s philosophy on how they would handle getting rid of servers with peoples’ personal information on it, whether they needed to get rid of them because of upgrades or other reasons? What happens to the hard drives and how can you guarantee their security if your company fails?
.A Friend
When a customer simply deletes a file folder from their hard drive, we keep the data for 30 days because often the deletions are accidental and they later want to recover these deleted files. If they want to purge all traces from Carbonite, they can open the Carbonite backup "drive" where the file will be shows as "Original file is deleted".
If you right click and delete the file from the backup, it will be erased from Carbonite and the disk space will be recovered and used for another customer. If a customer fails to renew his Carbonite subscription, we keep the customer’s backup on hand for 30 days before deleting it.
Meanwhile we contact the customer several times to tell them that their data will soon be deleted unless they re-up their subscription. If the customer wants all his data purged immediately, they can go into their Carbonite drive, right click on the highest level folder, and delete.
.Q Computing Unplugged
Unfortunately, that sidestepped our real question of what happens if the company closes and servers get sold. OK, well then, let’s move on. What are some of the common stumbling blocks that consumers run into when using Carbonite?
.A Friend
Biggest stumbling block is when people have backed up on an XP machine and try to restore to a Vista machine. Carbonite restores everything, but typically users have different folder names and structures on their Vista machine, so usually there’s a certain amount of dragging and renaming of folders after the restore process. Customer support often has to help people through this process, even though it’s not really a Carbonite problem. The next release of Carbonite will include an XP-Vista restore wizard that will make this process much easier.
.Q Computing Unplugged
How does it work with other external hard drives?
.A Friend
We don’t back up external hard drives on the standard version. Carbonite "Plus" which is coming out next month does back up external hard drives.
.Q Computing Unplugged
What other programs can cause glitches with the backup process
.A Friend
There are no known incompatibilities.
.Q Computing Unplugged
Just how unlimited is unlimited backup?
.A Friend
With regard to "is unlimited truly unlimited?", the answer is yes, it is truly unlimited. There is no maximum bytes/day either, as there is with some backup products. Our biggest user is somewhere around 350 GB. We lose money on this customer, obviously.
In my opinion, DSL is just too slow for anything over 100GB. My DSL is about 300kbps upstream, so that translates to about 2.5GB per day. I don’t think too many people want their initial backup to take a month or more, so it tends to be self-limiting. But some people appear to be very patient.
.H1 Our conclusion
This one’s tough to recommend. Obviously, at $50 per year for unlimited backup, Carbonite’s offer is almost too good to be true. But with really big hard drives, slower upload speeds, and no guarantee your data will be secure if the company tanks, it’s a risky bet.
In February 2006, the company got $2.5M in investment from two angel investors. [[http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/17/the-carbonite-solution-to-online-backups/|TechCrunch]] says they’ve gotten a total of $7M in investment as of September 2006. In May, they completed another $15M in Series B investment. That’s enough to outfit a data center, hire a staff, and run for a year or so.
The question you need to answer is whether it’s more risky to do backups the way you’re doing them now (or not doing them now), compared to some potential risk of another Internet bomb. After all, it’s not like we haven’t seen venture-backed companies fail before.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
Visit [[http://www.carbonite.com|Carbonite]].
Visit [[http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/17/the-carbonite-solution-to-online-backups/|TechCrunch]].
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
