Tag:

Backup

Test driving Backblaze online backup for Mac

by Philip Sellers May 1, 2009

written by Philip Sellers

I have been testing various online backup solutions for home. I really like the peer to peer backup solution , though I’ve yet to take up my buddy’s offer to host my backup drive at his house… Speaking of, I guess I need a larger backup drive. So, in the meantime, I’ve been looking at new options that come online. Backblaze is one of those solutions which has been around for the PC world for a while now, but they have a new Mac client. (Sorry PowerPC folks – Intel only). I downloaded and setup a trial account today.

The trial period is only 15 days, but you get the full experience of Backblaze for those 15 days. It is a true trial as opposed to a solution like Mozy which offers free accounts for up to 2G of data.

May 1, 2009 8 comments

Peer to Peer Backup solutions appearing

by Philip Sellers January 3, 2009

written by Philip Sellers

To the Napster (real, not pay-for) generation, such as my self, the peer-to-peer thing has always been enticing. That’s why I was so impressed when I stumbled upon CrashPlan last week. It immediately struck me as a great idea for backup. Peer to Peer backup really puts you in control of your data backup and potentially offers some features that the other online guys can’t. After looking into the topic a little more, I found that the idea has been tossed around by many students in academic papers and there are even a few additional software on the market for this – including Cucku.

January 3, 2009 7 comments

Apple

HP MediaSmart server now with iTunes, Time Machine support

by Philip Sellers December 29, 2008

written by Philip Sellers

HP is introduced a refresh to its MediaSmart home servers line. The software refresh included features such as iTunes streaming support and the ability to use the MediaSmart as a Time Machine backup destination. The two new models, the MediaSmart ext485 and the ext487, are both based on Microsoft Windows Home Server, but the ability for a Mac user to use these as their backup and media repository is very compelling reason to consider them, but it doesn’t come without downsides. For one, you still need a Windows PC to configure and setup the MediaSmart. In addition, the iTunes functionality basically just takes the files present on the MediaSmart and shares them out on the local network for access. It doesn’t go as far as integrating into iTunews to provide any sort of check in or sync between the two.

Per the reports I’ve read, HP will begin taking orders for the new systems in January. For additional details, head over to TUAW.

December 29, 2008 0 comments

Apple

Apple working on Home Media server?

by Philip Sellers December 29, 2008

written by Philip Sellers

9to5mac has a post that speculates that Apple is working on a Home Media server. I certainly hope so. This is the biggest issue to the multi-Mac household, like mine. We have three Macs in my house and the biggest issue we have is sharing our music and moreso video between our computers. We purchase all of our media under the same iTunes account and so each of our Macs are authorized to play, but keeping them in sync is the biggest issue. If only we had one large repository for all our photos, music and videos…

I’m sure I’m not the only Mac user who feels this way. It doesn’t need to be an enterprise quality server, but something to allow my Apple TV to retrieve content and a place for my individual Macs to keep a SINGLE copy of every item we purchase. A library, if you will, where each of my Macs can check out the content. Its also something that needs built in backup of some kind for itself, so I’m not sure I buy the whole Time Capsule on steriods theory from 9to5mac, but still that wouldn’t be a bad idea.

I’ve even gone as far as offering this suggestion via the online form in Apple’s website once or twice, so I’m hoping the rumor is true. And if its true, I hope we are all surprised with an announcement at MacWorld, though I doubt it will be then. For that matter, I hope we’re surprised in the same was as when the iPhone debuted and not in the way we were when the Apple TV debuted, though I’ll admit, I bought both…

December 29, 2008 1 comment

News

Prepping for Tropical Storm Hanna and maybe Hurricane Ike

by Philip Sellers September 4, 2008

written by Philip Sellers

My week at HTC has been filled with hurricane contengency planning and preparation. For the most part, HTC is in a good state with two connected datacenters about 15 miles from each other and real-time replication for much of our data.

Most of our planning is revolving around protecting the things that aren’t stretched or don’t have good roll-over plans between data centers. In the past year, we’ve closed the gap on a lot of things that didn’t exist or couldn’t easily roll between datacenters. VMware has been a big portion of that change and it makes disaster recovery much better.

Today we’re running full backups and preparing and full set of backup tapes to be physically taken away with one of our managers and preparing to move a few redundant servers to the contengency site as a safety precaution.

I’m interested – what are your preparations and what things would you be doing in our situation?

September 4, 2008 0 comments

Apple Datacenter Storage

My impressions of MobileMe

by Philip Sellers August 17, 2008

written by Philip Sellers

Its been a little while since MobileMe has been released and the dust has started the settle. There was a lot of attention to the botched launch and even the Steve has weighed in on it with an internal email circulated through Apple. And while the launch had major issues, the service is really impressive.

I should start with a disclaimer – I’m a rather light user at this point. However, that said, the service is working fantastic for me. The web applications rival that of Google, in my opinion. The calendaring application is particularly slick. It mimics the workings of iCal very well within a web browser.

August 17, 2008 0 comments