I’ve made several attempts at online backup over the years. All of them failed. It always felt to me as if online backup was not quite ready for prime time. The Mac clients often felt clunky and the required bandwidth wasn’t there.

One of these failed attempts included a brief dalliance with Backblaze a few years ago. Since then my cable provider improved my upload speeds and Backblaze continued to refine its Mac client. A few weeks ago I gave Backblaze a new try and, finally, I get it.

I backed up my key data from my internal iMac HD. Here are a few timestamps on the data upload:

2011-11-05 14:45:39 - 137,239 MB

2011-11-06 08:20:33 - 123,057 MB

2011-11-08 06:58:42 - 78,046 MB

20111-11-10 17:19:54 - Done!

Every previous attempt at cloud backup required weeks and (sometimes) months for the initial upload. Backblaze got the job done in five days and I didn’t notice any latency. Version two of the software includes (obviously) faster transfer speeds, automatic throttling during peak times, and unlimited file sizes for as low as $4 a month.

I still don’t believe online backup should be your only solution but there is nothing wrong with a belt to go along with those suspenders.