CloudBerry Backup for Windows Home Server
Pete Cullen | Nov 20, 2009 | Comments 2
It would be a blatant lie to say that this post comes “hot on the heels” of my Windows Home Server for Small Business. I had planned to write it quite some time ago, but time is something of a precious commodity at the moment.
Today I am looking at Cloudberry Backup for Windows Home Server from Cloudberry Lab.
Of course it goes without saying that any form of data requires some kind of backup solution, preferably more than one. For a long time I have run with a system of having all of my machines backed up by Windows Home Server as we all being imaged by Acronis True Image to both a NAS and USB hard drive. Then data files (company documents, etc) are also backed up online via Carbonite. Over the top? Perhaps to some but believe me, once you lose a hard drive full of data (which I have done, several years ago) it only happens once.
CB4WHS is a plug-in for WHS which allows you to back up your data to Amazon S3 storage in the “cloud”. The application presents itself in the WHS console and sticks with a simple interface to get you up and running with as little fuss as possible. All you will need is an Amazon Web Services account, and all the relevant keys and passwords for it.
My personal favourite feature of the product is that it allows your to select and backup files on network drives, not just locally on the WHS itself. This is a small limitation of Carbonite, which can only backup files that are stored on your local hard disk.
My backup plan contains locally stored files on the WHS server, and documents from a NAS box which is the perfect “set and forget” solution for myself. Running costs are also kept fairly low, as Amazon’s S3 fees are incredibly low and after an initial backup of large files you are charged on bandwith used. For my documents those charges are minimal.
So if you have a Windows Home Server and are looking for a very simple, low priced and easy to use off-site backup tool it is well worth taking a look at the Cloudberry solution.
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Great mini review. I’ve just started using CloudBerry Backup for WHS and am very impressed with it also. My favourite feature is the ability to backup a configurable number of versions of a file which is great if a file gets corrupted or you need to revert to a previous edit of the file. It also has a great user friendly interface.
Even though I’m not rockin’ a WHS, this post does make me think that I need to do A LOT MORE as far as backup goes. Thanks for the reminder Petey!