S3 Backup Software: The Complete Review
Looking for the best S3 backup software ? You’ve come to the right place! In this article, we’ll help you get the information you need to make your decision and find the perfect product for your needs. With the help of this complete S3 backup software review, you can use your existing infrastructure to quickly and easily backup data from your on-premise servers to Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). If you want to keep your data safe, secure, and in sync with Amazon Web Services (AWS), check out these helpful resources.
Why Backups Are Important
If you’re an online business owner, you understand how important backups are. You store all of your data on your servers and computers, so if something were to happen to them, it could spell disaster for your business. In fact, over 80% of companies that experience a major data loss never recover from it. That’s why having S3 backup software is so important.
What Makes a Good S3 Backup Service
Storage space. You want enough storage that you’ll be able to keep at least some of your data on your own servers, which will make it easier to retrieve if something goes wrong. You also want a tool that can back up different types of files, such as databases and media files, not just text documents. This is especially important for businesses because many have plenty of valuable file types other than Word documents and spreadsheets.
Support. It’s no good backing up your data if you can’t actually retrieve it when you need to. As such, look for a provider that offers 24/7 support via email, phone and live chat. Some even offer remote assistance so that they can help walk you through how to get your data back.
Price. You can expect to pay a premium for any S3 backup service because of its reliability and high level of security. However, there are some providers that are more expensive than others, so you’ll need to do some research before picking one.
Integrations. If you’re using other tools to run your business, it makes sense to look for a provider that offers integrations with those platforms.
How to Choose the Right S3 Backup Service
When it comes to online storage, AWS’s Simple Storage Service (S3) is king. It’s an inexpensive, reliable, durable and secure way to store your information in a third party location. However, not all S3 providers are created equal—some offer more features for your buck than others. If you use Amazon Web Services (AWS) as your backup provider of choice, selecting an S3 backup service can be tough.
There are dozens of backup services that claim to protect your information and help you recover in case of a breach or natural disaster. However, with so many cloud storage providers to choose from, how can you be sure which service is right for your business? And how do you go about choosing? Here’s a quick rundown on what to look for in an S3 backup provider.
There are several factors to consider when choosing an S3 backup service, including security and data retention. How your backup provider stores information is just as important as how much it costs and how easy it is to use. Don’t get locked into a long-term contract without checking out all of your options—by comparing different S3 backup services, you’ll be able to find a solution that will meet your needs at a price you can afford.
How Does Backblaze Work?
Backblaze takes an entirely different approach to cloud backup. Rather than using a software client that runs on your computer, Backblaze uses its own proprietary hardware—basically a hard drive array—to store customers’ data.
One of Backblaze’s major differentiators is that it backs up all of your data, including system files. Unlike many other backup providers, Backblaze doesn’t require you to choose what to back up. Instead, it backs up everything and then compresses that data down to make it as small as possible before uploading it to Amazon S3.
Best Features and Pricing
S3 backup solutions, by and large, offer similar core functionality. It all comes down to a few key factors, including cost and ease of use. These are two important factors to keep in mind when deciding on an S3 backup product. In terms of pricing, there’s no clear winner; most S3 products don’t charge much more than $10/month.
For ease of use, some S3 backup products feature a wizard that helps you set up and configure storage for your data. Wizard-based interfaces can be especially helpful for first-time users who have never worked with an S3 solution before. Unfortunately, wizards are rarely as robust as web-based consoles and can be difficult to use on mobile devices. For example, if you’re configuring a Backblaze backup solution, you won’t find much help in the way of wizards.
Drawbacks of Backblaze
Backblaze keeps all your data private, but it also means there’s no way to access it. If you want to pull a file from Backblaze, you need to download it via another client. Backblaze is also not a cloud storage service in that data isn’t automatically synced across devices—you can only upload files manually, one at a time.
For some, Backblaze’s limitations could be a deal breaker. You can back up as much data as you want on one computer, but if you want to access it from another device or share files between computers, you need to use a third-party client. That makes Backblaze more like an external hard drive—except one that costs $50 per year.
Because Backblaze doesn’t charge for storage space, it caps your upload speed at 5GB per day.
Alternatives to Backblaze
Backblaze is a great service and we highly recommend it, but it’s not perfect. If you’re looking for another S3-compatible backup provider, here are our top picks.
CloudBerry Backup – CloudBerry is an affordable, easy-to-use backup solution for both Mac and Windows users. While its interface isn’t as intuitive as some others on our list, it does a very good job at backing up files and restoring them when needed. It has both client software for your computer and web portal access so you can manage your backups from any device. We also like that it offers 5GB of free storage space.