Backup for free and prepare for Hurricane Sandy

The eastern seaboard of the United States is about to get hit with wind, rain, and possible power outages and flooding. We hope that if you’re in the path of Hurricane Sandy, you’ve evacuated safely and have reached higher ground.  For those of us who aren’t in the immediate path of Hurricane Sandy, this is a sobering reminder that disaster can strike at any time.

Protecting your home is the most important task – boarding up windows and tying down furniture is key to prevent as much damage as possible. What isn’t so obvious, however, is how to protect important digital files that you keep on your home and business computers (and external drives).

Disaster preparedness doesn’t have to cost a lot. Take advantage of our free 14 day trial to back up 50GB of your data and restore it to any PC or Mac. There is no commitment to purchase and no credit card required for download.

Click here to download your free account:

Free 50GB of online backup

Restoring data is easy. If you need to download SOS Online Backup’s software again, it can be accessed on our downloads page. Click here to visit the downloads page.

Stay safe!

The SOS Team

SOS Online Backup Releases Enhanced Backup and Restore Application for Android

At SOS our engineers have been hard at work perfecting, analyzing, and improving our Android backup and restore application. Since we first released the application earlier in 2012, a lot has changed (and gotten better)!

SOS for Android comes in two account sizes, depending on just how much storage you need. Keep in mind, the standard Android device storage is 15GB. Both are available in the Google Play store.

SOS: Android + PC Backup 5GB

This free Android backup application is available to existing SOS users as well as those who want to try SOS for free. There is no additional charge or licenses to download additional applications for backing up up to 5 additional devices. Use your existing SOS account!

SOS: Android + PC Backup 15GB

This Android backup application comes with 15GB for use on Android, PC, Mac, and even iPhones. This app is available for $4.95 in the Google Play store. It is free to download additional applications for backing up up to 5 additional devices. Use your existing SOS account to backup up to 5 devices.

SOS for Android has two primary functions: backup and restore. The Protect tool enables users to select which files on their device they would like to backup to their cloud. Pictures, videos, music and applications are backed up with a single tap on each. Other files on the device, including those on SD storage, can be selected as well. Also, unlike many services, including Dropbox and Google Drive, SOS uses “client-side” encryption in all cases – meaning files are always encoded and protected before being transferred over the Internet.

Restoring data is simple with the “My Cloud” function. In My Cloud, users have instant access to all of the files in their personal cloud including those from other devices and computers. Files can be downloaded then opened in any other app on the device for viewing or editing.

The new SOS for Android app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store. Current subscribers can access their existing account and new users can start a free trial in-app – new accounts can also be used to backup any other PCs, Macs or iPhones/iPads. Starting at $4.95/year for 15GB of backup storage, SOS is simple and affordable.

Carbonite Vs Mozy Vs SOS : SOS Online Backup Wins the Speed Test

There is a lot of talk about initial backup speeds – and usually these conversations are in the context of “initial backups are slower than molasses”. This is because a system designed to do small back ups is being asked to do a very large backup – like a business might do. It’s also because many online backup software solutions don’t want to move backups to the cloud quickly. It’s more expensive than moving it at a “slow as molasses” pace.

You know the old phrase “slow and steady wins the race”? That definitely doesn’t apply to online backup.

SOS Online Backup is designed to do fast initial uploads. We understand that you’re putting your data in the safety of the cloud because you want it to be secure. Getting data up into the cloud faster allows it to be secured and protected much more quickly.

SOS Online Backup conducted an off site speed test against Mozy home software and Carbonite home software. The results were surprisingly stark. SOS Online Backup won the speed test. SOS Online Backup was able to do an initial upload 20.2 GB of data in  just 23 hours and 29 minutes. 

We certainly recommend factoring in initial upload speed into determining the general quality of the online backup software you purchase for your home or business. A slow initial upload will mean that there may be additional hurdles and limitations yet to be discovered.

Click here to review the technical specifications of this off site speed test.

Have you heard? SOS Online Backup just launched a 15GB secure online backup plan for Android backup and PC backup! Download it in the Android market today for just $3.95 (this price is  good through March 12th).

How to Backup Android? SOS Online Backup Releases Android Backup Application With 15 GB of Secure Online Backup

We’ve all done it. We’ve lost our phones, broken our phones, dropped them in a toilet or done any number of embarrassing things to damage them. Maybe you had some photos and videos stored on that phone that were irreplaceable. Now it’s possible to back up and restore Android phone and tablet data with SOS Online Backup.

SOS Online Backup is proud to announce our newest brainchild – the Backup Android + PC 15 GB application. This app is available in the Android Market with a PC or Mac software download.

This app is the only Android backup and restore tool that comes with 15 GB of secure online backup. Like all SOS products, you can  access your backed up data in your cloud at any time, from any device.

This Android backup and restore application gives you truly total online backup:

• Backup 5 PCs
• Backup your Android SD card and applications
• Backup your 5 Mac computers
• Access backed up files from all of these devices in your account at m.sosonlinebackup.com

This new application from SOS Online Backup is only $4.95 in the Android Market – and you get SOS Online Backup for your home PCs too!

• Get 15 GB of online backup for your PC, Android and Mac
•  Access your Android, PC and Mac data anytime, anywhere
•  Android app backup and restore
•  Android SD card backup – including Android photo, video, and audio file backup
•  Backup and restore Android apps and files to any device – including a new Android
•  A total backup bundle for Android, PC and Mac

Don’t risk losing data of any kind – on your Android, your PC, or Mac. Download the Backup Android + PC 15 GB app today. Click here to visit our page in the Android Market.

Cloud Backup for Holiday Fun : Data Backup Options

The holidays are approaching quickly and I’m seeing the usual trends.  My work with residential clients is winding down for the year while my corporate clients are keeping me hopping with spending the last of the year’s budgets before the rapidly approaching deadline.  The funny thing is the fact that my corporate clients are generally on a pretty solid technology base, having had consistent IT support throughout the year, while the residential clients are actually the ones adding new technology without the thought of the infrastructure required to sustain it.

Infrastructure

Normally infrastructure is a word that people associate with corporate networks and information technology.  Infrastructure is the backbone of the network, the ‘back end’, encompassing the equipment, systems and processes that help keep the actual ‘front end’ equipment running smoothly.  What’s the difference?

Front-End

We all know the front-end equipment.  It’s what we use and what we play with at home.  iTunes, game software, printers and the sweet machine we’ve built to play the most modern and immersive games.  All of these devices have to be supported by the back-end.

Back-End

How does that multiplayer online game work?  From your PC, the data travels to a switch (if you have multiple devices) then to a router before flitting off to the Internet.  If any of those devices fail or are underpowered, the front-end experience suffers.

Let’s discuss some of the back-end equipment and systems I think every home user should be thinking about this holiday season.

Storage

How much storage space do you have?  These are your hard drives, where actual data is stored.  Data can be anything from the mass of songs purchased through the online music service to the photos and videos from your family event.

Ask these questions:

1. Do I have enough storage space?  Do I need to add an external hard drive for storage?

2. What happens if any of these devices fail?  Can I recover the data?

Backup

We gather data because we want to keep it.  Sounds like a simple concept.  We take pictures because we want to look at them later just as we download songs because we want to listen to them down the road.  The storage systems we use today in modern computing are prone to failure, so we have to have a system in place for that eventuality.

Ask these questions:

1. What am I willing to lose?

2. For the items not falling into question 1, how are you protecting them?

Keep Thinking

If you’ve read any of my articles in the past, you probably know that I’m going to give you a lecture about backing up your data.  You’re certainly in the right on that point, but I’m going to also give you some insight about where I’m coming from.  As a computer consultant with more years under my belt than I usually like to admit, I’ve found that the most effective thing I can do to as a business is to keep my customers happy.  Customers are always happy when I can provide the newest technology, bells and whistles.  It all falls down though if the fancy accounting system I installed crashes and all of their financial data is lost.  Recommending good backup strategies help me keep customers, both residential and corporate.  The biggest addition they bring to my bottom line is helping me keep that customer after disaster eventually hits.  I hate to tell a customer that they’ve lost data and I’ve had to do just that far more often than I like.

Think about your back-end at home.  You love the front-end toys and gizmos, so keep up the care and feeding of the systems that make them work.

— The Backup Master

The Value in Automating your Online Backup : Continuous Data Protection

A customer shared a story with me about his online backup and I thought I would share it with my readers.  I thought it was a unique use of online backup technology as the user was creating additional value to his already valuable backup service.

Troy and his wife Mary have three children and are involved in more activities than even I am, and I run my own consulting business.  From coaching soccer to visiting dance and music recitals, Troy and Mary tend to take a lot of pictures.  Through coaching of my own, the couple protects all of these pictures through online backup software.  Once the pictures are transferred from the cameras and the phones, they are immediately backed up securely and safely online.

Here’s where Troy has added value to his account.  Troy’s extended family lives pretty much all over the states, with some spread out overseas.  In the past, he had been using an online photo sharing website to share the pictures with his family, but making the time to upload the pictures and organize them was becoming too time-consuming.  He had been busy one week and hadn’t updated the shared photos for a while when his sister called and asked him.  She said she knew he was busy, but everyone enjoyed the pictures and she would help him keep it updated if she could.

After a little bit of though, Troy walked his out of state sister through logging into his online backup account on the web.  He showed her the directory structure, where the new photos were stored and how to ‘restore’ or download them to her machine.

As of now, some of the family still views the photos on the sharing website, while others simply download them from the online backup account.  Within hours of Troy transferring the photos to his computer, the family can log in and make yet another backup, to their own home machines for their own enjoyment.  No additional work for Troy, but a great deal of additional benefit for his extended family.

What are some creative ways you are using online backup?  The automated features of online backup services and the quick web-based restores have a wide range of creative possibilities beyond just the concept of insurance for your important data.  Think of your backup as a sort of automated online storage vault you can access from anywhere.  It’s backup and so much more.

— The Backup Master

The Seasons Bring More and More Cloud Worthy Data : Digital Data Backup Solution for Smart Phones,Tablets & Laptops

Seasons are changing and the holidays are rapidly approaching.  As I gear up my own family for the festivities, I’m also thinking about my clients.  With new Black Friday electronics coming into the home, I need to make sure they’re prepared for the reality of the care and feeding required.

Just like when purchasing a new pet for a child, I like to make sure my clients understand the responsibilities required when caring for these new toys.  While a dog or cat requires love and affection, feeding and regular visits to the back yard, new electronics have their own requirements.  As I talk to them about maintenance and warranty concerns, I also have to bring up the purpose of most of these consumer electronics.

Data

Just about all of these devices have one common goal or one side-effect as I sometimes call it.  They create data.  Let’s go over some of the most common new products you might be purchasing and what sort of data you will be creating that needs to be safeguarded through proper backups.

Cell Phones – The day of the old ‘brick phone’ is over.  Making calls is something the manufacturers don’t talk about as much anymore.   We all assume that call quality will be fine and that the other party will receive our messages.  The more advertising-friendly features of phones are their data-gathering capabilities.  We fill flash cards with photos of events, video clips and even have the ability to edit and create professional video on some of the newer devices.  Do these files languish on the phone?  The solution: Make sure your desktop or laptop has a reader that will directly support the flash card in your phone and save your files there.  Transfer them regularly to the trusty desktop, and make sure they are going to a folder that is being backed up by your backup software. Backup your Android and your iPhone with SOS.

Tablets – From the iPod to some of the newer Android entries, tablets have hit the market by storm.  Unfortunately, even in the process of using them as a laptop-replacement, many users are neglecting the fact that they are creating important home and work documents and treating the tablet as just another gadget.  The solution:  Make sure your files are being synced to another device, be it though a flash card or over your home network.  The tablet will cease being a fun toy as soon as an important file is lost forever.

Laptops – More and more school-age kids are carrying laptops.  From term papers to final projects, the files they create are just as important as business files.  There is nothing like the ability to reprint a project that was lost in the grading process.  The solution:  Backup.  For a very reasonable cost, these important files can be protected with online backup, without the intervention of the student.  As they use the machine, the files are transferred online and are protected from loss.

So here’s to a happy holiday season.  I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we’re creating more and more data every day.  Let’s keep it protected.

— The Backup Master