Cloud Storage/Backup

I have about 3 TB of images that I want to back up to the cloud, in addition to a few hard drives. Am just beginning to do some research on companies and I need one that will allow unlimited storage (e.g. Carbonite, BackBlaze, etc). Was wondering what others experiences are with these type of companies and any other thoughts on this? Thanks in advance.

Might want to post in Digital Topics

ronzie wrote:Might want to post in Digital Topics

Moved!

As for the original question, you may want to measure your upload speed and then do the calculation of how long it would take to upload 3TB and if your ISP even will let you upload that much data without either cutting you off or significantly slowing your internet down.

The average upload speed for cable internet (DSL is much slower) in the US is about 10 mega bits per second which is about 1.25 mega bytes per second.  So 3TB would take 2.5 million seconds or 42,000 minutes or 695 hours or 4.1 weeks of continuous upload.  Anything else you would do on that network during that time would be severely slowed and also slow your upload severely.  Of course depending on your level of internet service, the time it takes to do the upload can vary widely.  Also make sure you use the UPLOAD speed in the calculation.  Most internet services give you much faster download speeds than upload speeds so make sure you don't use the wrong number.  Also realize that the number your ISP quotes you is a best case number that few, if any ever actually achieve.  I use a smart phone app to measure my internet speeds directly.

Cloud storage is great for a few gigabytes of data but for 3TB, it would take a long time.

Funny this question should come up.  I just signed up for Backblaze.  I am backing up roughly 10 TB (I know, not a very good deleter!)

The control panel and web controls are very informative.  The website initially told me I was in trouble and guided me to set the upload throttle at a higher level.  My Comcast Blast connection gives me between 7 and 10 mbs upload and I have given Blast 5 for the initial back up. 

It will be interesting to see what happens with Comcast with this amount of traffic.

I'll post again either when it is done, or when I give up.

Mike

It can be worse than EJ's calculation.  When I talked with one provider, I heard that as the upload progresses, they slow the rate down to where my 1 TB. Would have been about 3 weeks.  The tech suggested it was not what I would like.  

Pablo

I have read that the Amazon cloud storage service allows you to ask Amazon to send you a gizmo (basically a Hard-disk, with a network interface) by mail. So in a first step, you copy all your stuff onto the gizmo (via your local internet connection, which can be 1 GBit/s - so cable from your PC's network card to your router, and cable from your router to the gizmo). Then you send the gizmo back to Amazon by mail, and they upload all your data onto their cloud.
After that, you only have to send via the network your new data - which is much more manageable that sending all of your archive in one go.

To me this makes sense, but I have not tried it myself.

mikeojohnson wrote:Funny this question should come up.  I just signed up for Backblaze.  I am backing up roughly 10 TB (I know, not a very good deleter!)

The control panel and web controls are very informative.  The website initially told me I was in trouble and guided me to set the upload throttle at a higher level.  My Comcast Blast connection gives me between 7 and 10 mbs upload and I have given Blast 5 for the initial back up. 

It will be interesting to see what happens with Comcast with this amount of traffic.

I'll post again either when it is done, or when I give up.

Mike

It will take months at that speed!
8Mb/s = 1MB/s
So 10TB = 2777 hours or 16.5 weeks!

pablo wrote:It can be worse than EJ's calculation.  When I talked with one provider, I heard that as the upload progresses, they slow the rate down to where my 1 TB. Would have been about 3 weeks.  The tech suggested it was not what I would like.  

Pablo

Yes, as I said, some ISP's slow your rate if you are a really heavy user - many have that policy which they don't tell you about when you sign up for their service
"... if your ISP even will let you upload that much data without either cutting you off or significantly slowing your internet down."

I often wonder why people want to backup their entire collection of images in the cloud?
Clearly anyone who has been photographing for years must have identified the best images in their collection.
Why not backup only the best images?
Why spend money and time saving ordinary/duplicate images to the cloud?
Normal backup routines should be good enough for the rest of your collection.

E.J. Peiker wrote:

ronzie wrote:Might want to post in Digital Topics

Moved!

As for the original question, you may want to measure your upload speed and then do the calculation of how long it would take to upload 3TB and if your ISP even will let you upload that much data without either cutting you off or significantly slowing your internet down.

The average upload speed for cable internet (DSL is much slower) in the US is about 10 mega bits per second which is about 1.25 mega bytes per second.  So 3TB would take 2.5 million seconds or 42,000 minutes or 695 hours or 4.1 weeks of continuous upload.  Anything else you would do on that network during that time would be severely slowed and also slow your upload severely.  Of course depending on your level of internet service, the time it takes to do the upload can vary widely.  Also make sure you use the UPLOAD speed in the calculation.  Most internet services give you much faster download speeds than upload speeds so make sure you don't use the wrong number.  Also realize that the number your ISP quotes you is a best case number that few, if any ever actually achieve.  I use a smart phone app to measure my internet speeds directly.

Cloud storage is great for a few gigabytes of data but for 3TB, it would take a long time.

Honestly that part of it is not something i had even gotten around to considering. I have no idea if my provider (Time Warner) has any clause about maximum use or slowing down as you go. I certainly would not want to tie up my internet for 4 weeks. Thanks for the good input.