Introduction
MozyPro Backup is the core product of Decho Corporation, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of EMC2 Corporation, a Fortune 500 company. Decho was founded in 2005. They are currently headquartered in Seattle, Washington, with subsidiary offices in Pleasant Grove , Utah; London England; Shanghai, China; Montreal Canada; and Bangalore, India.
Today, Mozy has more than 1,000,000 customers and more than 50,000 companies, managing a total of more than 25 petabytes of files – that’s 25,000 terabytes or 25,000,000 gigabytes!
Characteristics
Security options
MozyPro is an incredibly secure online backup solution. All traffic to and from Mozy servers is encrypted with 128-bit SSL encryption, which is the Internet standard. Once on the servers, your data is encrypted with either 448-bit Blowfish technology or your own AES 256-bit private key encryption. This is the best security available.
In terms of server security, data centers implement 24-hour on-site monitoring and security, state-of-the-art fire detection and suppression power distribution, and seismic protections that can handle a 7.5 magnitude earthquake.
Backup options
Mozy provides block-level incremental online backups and can be configured to perform backups on a schedule or invisibly in the background. In our tests, it took less than half an hour to back up 2 Gb of data to an 8 Mbps DSL line to upload and download additional data. Also, due to the block-level nature of the Mozy backup process, open or locked files can be easily backed up.
A progress indicator is available by clicking the icon in the system tray. When configured for the first time, Mozy Online Backup will back up all profile files for the current user, including documents, music, videos, and more. However, it is an easy task to add or remove folders and files to / from the backup profile. The Home editions do not allow backing up of network drives, although the Pro and Enterprise editions do. Neither version accepts removable media backups.
The commercial editions, MozyPro and MozyEnterprise, accept online backup solutions to manage Exchange server, SQL server, and LDAP directories such as Active Directory and Lotus Notes.
Restore functions
Restoring files is done by request in the web portal, the desktop app, or by right-clicking a folder and selecting restore. Once a restore is requested, Mozy packages all the requested files into a special archive and sends you an email when the restore is ready to restore. File version control is available on all backed up media, so you can choose to restore a previous version of any file that you have backed up. Files can be restored to their original location or to any location you choose.
Control and analysis
MozyPro Online Backup adapts to your needs by allowing you to manage how much CPU and bandwidth are accessible to the program. These can be easily targeted from the desktop application. Proxy servers are also supported and Mozy can be configured to use them through the desktop application.
All activity carried out by Mozy is logged and can be examined from the desktop application or through the web portal.
Interface
MozyPro provides a wealth of information and enables centralized configuration and logging, which is ideal for managing backups on PCs and laptops that are not even in the same office. Multiple accounts can be configured, as well as multiple devices. MozyHome provides a more controlled portal.
Device support
Currently, Mozy Online Backup only supports MAC and PC client backups. In addition, MozyPro backs up MAC and PC servers.
Limitations:
- MozyHome cannot be applied commercially.
- The basic free account is limited to 2Gb of storage, although this can be expanded by having others sign up. For each additional record, you get an additional 250 Mb of storage.
- There are no limits set on the size or type of individual files.
- There are also no limits on the amount of data backed up or restored.
- Mozy free allows you to backup 2 devices with 1 user account; MozyHome allows up to 5 devices, but each additional device will cost $ 4.95 per month per device.
- Both MozyPro and MozyEnterprise offer infinite devices and users, but there is a charge for each device.
- File retention (the amount of time a file remains available to restore after it has been ‘deleted’) is 30 days for all types of accounts.
File sharing and collaboration
MozyPro is not a file sharing or collaboration tool. It is a backup service. That said, it supports login, logout, and multiple levels of security for an individual file level.
Synchronization
You can sync multiple devices.
Web 2.0 integration
Mozy does not provide social media integration.
Customer Support
Mozy’s customer support is really good – they provide detailed user guides, comprehensive FAQs, and a knowledge base. There is also a blog and many accessible testimonials and case studies. Email support is available for all account types, but phone support is only available to MozyPro and MozyEnterprise users, and free users cannot use live chat.
Easy to use
MozyHome is very easy to use. You can go from registry to backup in less than 5 minutes and it really is a ‘set it and forget it’ method. MozyPro has a slightly more difficult learning curve, but this is understandable as it offers so many more features.
Summary
If you are looking for a reliable solution, set it up and forget it, that does not cost you the earth, that can grow or shrink to suit your needs and that is very easy to configure, Mozy Online Backup is your best solution. If you are trying to back up large amounts of information that changes on a routine basis, there are better and cheaper solutions available.