Online Backup Tools

SpiderOak (spideroak.com) has quickly carved out a place as one of the most innovative online backup services, with a focus on providing a centralized storage location at which users or groups of users can consolidate files from multiple devices.  SpiderOak also advertises a proprietary fault-tolerant system that prevents any type of file corruption or transfer error.

The Basics

SpiderOak works with Windows, Mac, or Linux systems, offering essentially the same features for each platform, which can’t be said about some other online backup services.  It’s also one of relatively few of these providers to support Linux files.

Unlike other online backup services, SpiderOak doesn’t offer tailored plans for individuals or businesses.  Instead, SpiderOak is available at a standard rate of $10 per month per increments of 100 GB.  SpiderOak also offers 2 GB of free storage space, so you can use this as a way to test the service out if you’re interested.

The Pros

SpiderOak is perhaps the most fully-featured of all current online backup services.  While other services such as Mozy and ElephantDrive typically offer a basic service package at about $5 a month, SpiderOak seems to be positioning itself as the high-end service.  They charge more, but they offer more in the way of unique features.  One of the most important of these is the ability to back up files from an unlimited number of sources with a single account.  This means that you can back up files from multiple computers, USB drives, network drives, or external hard drives in a single, centralized location, whereas other online backup providers require you to pay extra fees for each additional device.

The smooth user interface of the SpiderOak client is an improvement over the clunky software that accompanies some of the other online backup packages.  SpiderOak also allows you to save an unlimited number of versions of the same file, which are date-stamped for your reference, and it has a “Recycle Bin”-type features to guard against accidental deletion of files.

SpiderOak also boasts a “zero-knowledge privacy policy.”  This means that no SpiderOak employee has access to your encryption information.  Theoretically, this makes it impossible for anyone other than you to access your files.  The actual encryption used by SpiderOak isn’t technically all that different from what other online backup providers use, but the zero-knowledge policy is an important difference.  On the other hand, a sceptic could point out that there isn’t really any proof that this is actually the case.

The Cons

The main drawback to SpiderOak is its cost, which can add up quickly if you need to back up large amounts of data.  Some of the competing online backup services offer unlimited storage, which makes SpiderOak’s limitations in this respect seem even more unfortunate.  Also, SpiderOak’s client doesn’t automatically upload hidden application data such as Outlook files or certain browser settings, among other things.  In order to back up these files, you have to know exactly where they are, whereas other online backup clients are designed to find these types of files on their own.

The Verdict

Whether SpiderOak is the right online backup service for you or not depends largely on the extent to which its extra features appeal to you.  For users who would like to be able to upload data from multiple devices, SpiderOak is an especially good option.  In these cases, SpiderOak can actually be more affordable, as other providers like Mozy will charge you extra to upload from additional devices.  For users who are primarily interested in backing up large amounts of data, Carbonite may be a more appropriate choice.