Friday, May 2, 2008

“Transport” moves your Time Capsule backup off-site

Time Capsule combined with Time Machine is a great way to backup your files, but a horrible way to protect them in cases of fire or theft. Odds are, any natural disaster that takes down your computer will likely destroy a Time Capsule sitting a couple feet from it, and odds are if someone breaks into your house to steal your expensive computer, they’ll grab the Time Capsule as well.

Macminicolo, the company that currently offers off-site Mac mini and Xserve hosting, has come up with the solution to this backup problem with their new Transport service. Basically, you buy a Time Capsule from them (or send in your own Time Capsule), and they store your Time Machine backup securely off-site in Sin City, Las Vegas. And as we all know, data that is sent to Vegas STAYS in Vegas, right? :)

The service sounds pretty cool, actually, as the hosted Time Capsule appears and functions as if it were connected to your machine locally. All Time Capsule’s features remain intact, so you can set up multiple users, password protect the data, etc, and you use the AirPort admin to set it up.

So, how much does all this peace of mind cost? Prices start at $29/month for 50 GB of bandwidth per month, and go up depending on options (that doesn’t include the $299 or $499 cost of the Time Capsule, of course). Of course, Macminicolo realizes your first Time Machine backup session alone might exceed 50 GB, so during the first month of service they give you 300 GB of bandwidth to do your initial Time Capsule backup/sync.

So, is it worth it? That all depends on what you are storing on your Mac. Personally the most important things on my computer are my digital photos, and I already have a “low tech” off-site storage plan in effect (I burn DVDs of all my photos and keep them at my office). While it would suck to loose everything else on my computer, the photos are the big thing that I would never forgive myself for losing, and more importantly, my WIFE would never forgive me for losing (or let me hear the end of). So for married men with kids, a wife, and a ton of digital photos, odds are it’s a small price to pay.

via Maceinstein

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