Add-In:KeepVault WHS beta 2.1 – An online backup service for your WHS
We reviewed KeepVault 2.0 in the past and was impressed and now KeepVault WHS beta 2.1 is available for download. KeepVault is an online backup service for your Windows Home Server. The software fully integrates into the Home Server console enabling you to select which shares you want to protect. It then monitors for changes/additions to these shares and automatically uploads them to secure storage servers hosted by DriveHQ. If this auto backup routine is not for you you can also upload once every evening (Midnight to 6am) instead. New in this beta is the ability to limit the amount of bandwidth used for your uploads and of course being an online/off site backup service you can access your protected files anytime via the web by logging into your account at http://www.drivehq.com.
This current beta includes a free account with 3GB of storage space, with a 10 MB download limitation but Pay-for accounts are available for higher storage needs. KeepVault are still tweaking the pricing for the WHS market but as an example, currently they are offering 13GB for just about $8/month. You can see all their pricing plans here.
A KeepVault spokes person hade this to say:
“We take the back-end storage reliability very seriously – so you likely won’t see some of the other outrages deals promised by other service providers simply because our reliability and data security requirements are pretty strict. We definitely understand the cheaper prices from the competition, but want to make it clear we’re definitely going to target users who value uptime and reliability of their backups – and we won’t throttle uploads in any way, unlike some of the other guys. With that said I hope you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the pricing when we roll out the service. Also keep in mind KeepVault is designed to protect the data on the WHS server, and we think it’s pretty easy to use.”
In their previous beta KeepVault were using MediaMax as their storage provider but due to reliability and API issues DriveHQ now provides the storage space.
Download KeepVault today for a trial run and let us know what you think.
NOTE: This beta version will expire October 1, 2007. File protection will stop and the WHS console will notify you that the beta software has expired. A final release version will be released after this date.
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Looks good. especially like the way that it is fully integrated into WHS to save any tricky setup.
I have always had the worry that if i relie upon my WHS to look after all of my computers’ backups and for central file storage and access to allow filesharing, how much trouble will i be in if the WHS dies. Okay duplication takes care of hard drive crashes but what if there is a fire, or as has been the case in the UK recently, a flood, and everything is lost. Online offsite backup fixes this, but not while limiting to only 13GB and even then its not that cheap.
I really hope we will see the oportunity for mass off site online storage soon, in the realms of 200-400 GB if not more. The first upload will take a long time, but if it is staged it shouldn’t be too bad, then further updates will only be on amended files.
Why not take a look at JungleDisk at http://ww.jungledisk.com It uses amazons S3 hosting service and is therefore very cheap and reliable.
Dave
A few folders of family photos/videos will soon eat into the available space!
I’ve found Second Copy a better bet, it will work over the internet and I have mine set up to do most folders every 24hrs and some ‘work’ related folders every 6hrs to a NAS device on my Brothers network in Derbyshire while he backs up his to a NAS here in Cambridgeshire.
Not integrated into WHS, but runs as a Service and easy to set up.
Colin
Colin, Is there just a one off cost for second copy (it seems that way on their web site). Surely they must charge for data?
Dave
Ah sorry I misunderstood what second copy does, you need your own network storage. Jungledisk seems like a much better option and Amazon S3 is really cheap, have you seen the pricing?
Dave
I was thinking about this just the other day… Wouldn’t it be nice if you could “share” 5,10,100GB with your friends and family who also have WHS, and in turn share 5,10,100GB with you?
Create an add-in that would sync all of your important data to one or all of those friends and family WHS, and vice versa. Make sure the connection is SSL and the remotely stored files are encrypted. Add to that scheduling and bandwidth throttling.
“Free” off site backups, while probably not as safe as one of these pay services, if you could replicated that remote data to multiple friends/family availability would be quite high.
Thanks all for your comments. MDS I agree off-site storage needs the capacity of 200-400GB just for the avarage user these days. Thanks to Davis Clark I shall be having a closer look at http://www.jungledisk.com/ for my off-site backups as well as software solutions including Second Copy as recommended by Colin Hodgson. I also like MattP’s suggestion something similar to http://www.crashplan.com/ and http://foreversafe.com/home.page but as an add-in for WHS users.