

I've started offering an online backup service with SFTP, rsync and more. - meroliph

After I got really annoyed with current services for backups, their custom programs and limitations, I've started my own 'company' offering this sort of service.<p>I've designed a page myself over at http://www.royalbackup.com/ where I'm offering the service. I'm not selling small allocations since it would be a hassle to deal with too many customers for a few bucks.<p>More info is available on the site, and you can e-mail info@royalbackup.com for a free 100mB trial account for 7 days to take it for a spin.<p>Any opinions or suggestions are more than welcome.<p>More info: Public service has only been offered since yesterday, but I've had the service running for a while. Current uptime for bishop is &#62;60 days, though it does get taken down from time to time for regular maintenance (security updates and such).
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jgrahamc
I'm planning to switch to using tarsnap because of the robust security
involved. Do you encrypt the backup and how? Who controls the keys?

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meroliph
It seems like the guys at tarsnap have made their own application. The files
are stored unencrypted, and it is the user's responsibility to encrypt them as
the user sees fit, removing any limitation and not forcing the users to use
only one protocol or application to store encrypted backups.

Using duplicity with a GPG key you can store your backups in an encrypted
fashion.

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rphlx
+1 duplicity. It can backup to IMAP, meaning it can backup to gmail. Why pay
$10+/mo to an online backup provider when Google provides 7GB of free storage
(per captcha) inside some awesome tier1 datacenter?

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IgorPartola
1\. The tech details are great. However, maybe not on the first page. I
understood them, but do people that use for example Mozy.com know what RAID6
is? A picture is worth 1k words.

2\. What are your typical upload/download speeds? What could I expect in terms
of latency?

3\. I would suggest that people set up their own encryption before they upload
the file(s). I don't think many people have considered that as an option.

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meroliph
Added a link with more RAID6 info and a diagram.

Speeds can go up to 100mbps, but it varies based on how busy the server is,
distance between your server and RB servers. You can ping
bishop.royalbackup.com to get a rough idea of latency.

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rlpb
It looks almost exactly what rsync.net provides. They're established. Why
aren't you telling me why your service is better than theirs?

Your prices do appear to be cheaper but as you've said with a much larger
minimum quantity. Is cost the only significant differentiating factor?

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meroliph
There isn't a lot to compete on, and trying to make a table that has a lot of
green checks under for our features while the competitions has less checks or
"limited" features seems a bit silly.

There is a larger minimum quantity, but when you look at it, you might want to
have archives for your backup as well as synced up backups, so you'll need a
bit more storage, and the space can get used up pretty fast.

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F_J_H
You mention on your site that the servers are in "an N+1 redundant
environment". Is it your own data center or is that outsourced?

Also, I would second jgrahamc's question re: encrypted backups.

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meroliph
No, I don't own the datacenter, as I probably wouldn't bother with backup
services if I had millions to throw on a datacenter, and instead I'd be
selling rack space and bandwidth ;).

Regarding the encryption: the files stored are not encrypted, it is your task
to encrypt them, with whatever method you choose, as I believe this removes
some of the limitations I might impose if I were to forcefully encrypt
everything, though I understand this can make it harder for newer users that
are inexperienced.

