MozyHome stiffs unlimited users MozyHome, EMC's cloud backup service for consumers, is changing its free unlimited backup plan to a paid-for service. Now you get 2GB for free, after which you pay for data. Users are angry and competitors like LiveDrive salivating. Mozy said it had been forced to institute charging because users were backing up significantly …
I got the e-mail yesterday and immediately re-read the recent article on online-backup:
http://www.reghardware.com/2011/01/17/gt_online_storage
So I then selected Carbonite as my new backup service (3.9GB backed up so far...)
I haven't bothered to try and argue with Mozy - the first they will find out is when they suddenly stop getting my money.
@GettinSadda Good luck with that. I tried switching to Carbonite last year, but my backup seemed to stall once I hit around 100GB with their "unlimited" plan. Eventually I decided that Carbonite would never finish my initial backup and switched back to Mozy. You might want to Google "carbonite limit" or "carbonite throttling" to see a few other people's experiences...
It seemed clear enough when I looked at their website before ordering:
<quote>
The current maximum upload speeds are as follows:
* The first 35GB of data can achieve upload speeds of up to 2 mbps (megabits per second).
* Between 35GB - 200GB of data can have the upload speeds reach up to 512 kbps (kilobits per second).
* 200GB or more of data can be uploaded at up to 100 kbps (kilobits per second).
</quote>
OK, point of fact first - they've always offered a free 2GB service, in the usual Freemium way.
At the time I signed up, the unlimited package was a good deal (nicely discounted if you bought two years in advance), and more important, they had a working Mac client before some of their competitors. And it's worked well - backups work, restores work, and I've happily recommended them to anyone who'll listen.
I found out about this change via Twitter yesterday. About 24 hours before they sent me the email, which suggest that I need to pick a renewal plan (no chance).
I'm one of the "marginal" customers who stores well over the 150GB their new top-level service allows. And an extra $2 per month per extra 20GB would make the service far too expensive (cheaper to buy a new HDD every few months and store a full backup away from home).
I've got a year or so left on my package, so I'm in no rush to move. My concern is not that Mozy have given up on the unlimited package for a fixed price, others will follow.
Funny, you'd have thought EMC could afford some extra storage....
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<quote>
It's a *backup* service, meant for important stuff like documents, photos, home vids, etc, not a general dumping ground for your program files, Windows files, and any other files you feel like.
</quote>
I have a digital camera. My wife has a digital camera. Both take video as well as photos.
This means I have over 40GB of photos and home videos (not counting anything still stored on DV tapes)
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I am a home user, and I currently have over 400GB backed up. A lot of that consists of RAW files from my digital cameras (big files, you know) and my music files (combination of iTunes purchases and rips from my own CDs, which I'd hate to have to do again). I don't back up apps, but I *do* backup downloaded installers for applications I've bought - not all of these can be easily replaced.
What I *choose* to back up is my decision - there's no degree of self-deception involved. I certainly don't make any money out of my home computer use, so I don't fall under the "business" heading, either.
Your view appears to be that if you don't need something, nobody else does either, and if they think they do, they're wrong, so there.
I'll be departing from Mozy. Based on my current use, and a finger in the air projection of future growth, my renewal cost for two years would rise from a very reasonable $207.90 to an excruciating $1,049.79. I'd have been prepared to pay more for the service, but not *that* much.
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If I needed to restore, providing Mozy upload at a decent enough speed, 400GB wouldn't take that long at all. Then again, I get a decent speed here. I've gotten through 400GB on a good game/tv/movie month before.
Just because YOU trust your mate round the corner enough to have them store an entire copy of all your family photos of your kids/partner/family/life on a networked (wtf) drive - doesn't mean the rest of us normal people would!
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The bottom line is that in this day where terabyte drives cost outfits like Mozy much less than $100/TB in bulk makes the justification bogus. Mozy's business strategy is the old "frog in the pot on the stove" strategy. Just as frog will sit in the pot as the temperature rises until it is cooked, Mozy is counting on "most people are too lazy to switch" if the price rises are gradual.
I can break 100 GB without sweating- Can you say "ripped DVD collection"? However, I wouldn't even DREAM of trying to backup the ~2 TBytes of data I have to a cloud service- besides the storage fee, there's also the technical obstacle of trying to push that much data over a residential cable connection- my ISP would be Displeased with me if I tried that little stunt.
But I digress.
People are apparently of the opinion that they can get something for nothing, and while that may be true in some cases, I'm more cynical. But then, I'm also more then willing to pay a reasonable amount of money for the goods and services I use.
"People are apparently of the opinion that they can get something for nothing"
How is that then? I've been paying "something" for "something" for a while - then suddenly they want 2 times the "something" I've been paying, but only delivering half the "something" they were delivering before... so surely that's them wanting something for nothing?
If you can't break 100GB, then you clearly don't have 1 or more kids, 2+ digital cameras or smart phones, a digital video recorder, or any music files you've BOUGHT and don't want to lose. As for your cable company being displeased, in the UK at least, the only cable company here doesn't give a crap - I've happily uploaded more than that in one go before (strangely enough, to Mozy).
"If you can't break 100GB, then you clearly don't have 1 or more kids, 2+ digital cameras or smart phones, a digital video recorder, or any music files you've BOUGHT and don't want to lose."
Let's see: I have 1 kid, 2 digital cameras / smartphones, and a DVR. All of the music files I have, I've bought - though I'll admit I am not much of a collector, with only a couple hundred or so.
I'm backing two laptops up to Mozy at the moment. I'm using the free service[1], with its 2GB limit. And I'm currently using about 1.2GB of it.
Demographic parameters don't say anything about how much storage someone needs.
[1] Free service because it doesn't limit the number of machines connected to the account. The $6 plan is for a single machine, which isn't useful for me; and the $10 plan limited to three, which would become an issue if I ever decide to use Mozy to back up my non-critical boxes as well. In the meantime, I don't need to be paying even a negligible $10 month.
"Let's see: I have 1 kid, 2 digital cameras / smartphones, and a DVR. All of the music files I have, I've bought - though I'll admit I am not much of a collector, with only a couple hundred or so."
A couple of hundred songs alone would take you past 1GB alone... add to that digital photos from 2 different cameras and I'd say you arn't backing up what you think you are. I'd check my settings if I were you.
http://blog.livedrive.com/ (mentionned in the article) are offering a 25% discount to disgruntled mozy users, with a promise not to do the dirty a la mozy.
I've got 400GB backed up with mozy too, which took over a month to upload. Have bought an account with livedrive, hoping it'll be smooth!
I am a HOME user, not a business yet I currently have over 300gb on Mozy servers. Music, pictures, 1000's of scanned Paperport documents, family movies (stop sniggering!!). Its very easy to rack up huge amounts of data. I chose Mozy because they made a big deal about it being GENUINELY unlimited.
Like others, I would be happy paying more for the service as on the whole, it works well now but the amount they want to charge me at renewal time is ridiculous.
Well I'm one of mozys customers too, and I love the service. however like most I was extremely displeased with the new pricing strategy and it came about just before I selected a renewal plan so affects me immediately.
I have 169 gig backed up with them which is mostly photos and digital footage from my camcorder, and my ripped cd collection (lossless), whilst It could be argued my music collection can be recreated it is not feasible for me to rip that lot again (over 2000 cd's) The problem here is the limit is simply set way too low, 300 - 500 gig would have been better, the current limit is clearly designed to catch maximum amount of serious users to monatise the service better, that is EMC's choice but most people will not wear this price hike.
the same storage for me trebled in price over night and that is quite frankly disgusting, mozy still do not support backing up from a network share with mozy home which is an equal glaring omission.
I've stayed for now primarily because my personal circumstances at the moment mean I have no time or inclination to look for an alternative but i WILL leave mozy next year, its now too expensive, I wouldn't mind paying but only for a reasonable limit, 20 gig chuncks is a joke, I can generate that in an hour with a HD camcorder,.
I found out about this via Lifehacker a full 36 hours before Mozy deigned to e-mail me. Ironically their e-mail came through after I'd cancelled my account. I realise that storage isn't free but this increase is extortion. I could buy a shiny new 3Tb HDD for the annual fee I'd have to pay to back up a couple of hundred Gb...
Paris, because she knows how to give a good shafting.
I also received this email in surprise. I signed up for $88 for 2 years and saw that this was moving to $125. It did serve as a timely reminder though. I logged in to my account and saw that it was due to renew in a month so quickly got in and cancelled my account. I was more than happy to do this, given the fact that Mozy has never successfully backed up the full 60GB of data I assigned to it. I switched to a WIndows Home Server 6 months ago...
And remind themselves of precisely how and to what extent these service providers are liable for protecting your data. For most, if there's any guarantee at all, it's limited to the price you've paid for the service.
Next, consider what it's likely to cost under a metered data plan.
Executive take-away summary: online backups are inexpensive!
My plan went is going to go from $10 to $60. Even better, I already had to have a conversation this morning with my IT Director, who I had recommended Mozy to.
If you log in to your Mozy support, it will tell you your files are in danger of being deleted because you don't have a valid plan.
I just rsync everything to an identical HD every weekend. Takes 5 minutes and has the extra advantage that if my system takes a crap, I just slot the backup drive in, and it boots. I don't have to install an OS somewhere to get to my backups on the net.
I'd think *this* crew would be the last to use cloudy online backups. I guess I'd be wrong.
There's that word again - "Unlimited"
–adjective
1. not limited; unrestricted;
2. boundless; infinite; vast: the unlimited skies.
3. without any qualification or exception; unconditional.
This is not specific dig at Mozy, but the worlds general acceptance of the use of the word "unlimited" e.g. mobile phones.
"Unlimited" lives in the same space as infinity. Infinity (unlimited) and finite numbers DO NOT occupy the same space. There are rules about the description of goods and services that are sold, and it's about time companies were forced to comply. You cannot offer an "unlimited" service, then caveat it with a finite limit - it is no longer unlimited - it has limits.
Rant over for now.
For all you Mac and Windows people who are after an excellent cloud storage provider, I recommend Backblaze.
$5m per month for unlimited backup. The client doesn't let you backup program files or system files but for documents, media, install files and the like it is very good. They'll also courier you a hard-drive if you want to restore but don't want to wait for it to download.
Looks like most people found out after Mozy emailed around, very poor show to start with, never mind the HUGE price increase.
Have been looking around for an alternative, but might not bother. My internet is depressingly slow, have just finished my 175GB backup with Mozy after starting in August. The thought of doing it again to another provider?? No thanks.
I think I might be safe enough with rsync to a server in my loft, which is going quite well. Still leaves the risk of total disaster, but Cheshire doesn't get that many hurricanes/floods etc etc
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