Well, free it is. At least for storing your personal files. Now mind you, this means electronic files. Warning: don't haul your cardboard boxes full of paper files to one of those self-storage building places and ask for free service. They'll sic their junkyard dogs on you.
Instead, store your computer files free with Mozy. All you do is create an account, download a storage application file, and then upload your documents, photos, tunes or whatever from your computer. You don't need a credit card, because you aren't going to pay anything. That's what free means.
You like the idea of storing your files offsite. After all, hard drives crash, files get deleted and then you want them back later, and who knows what kind of damage computer viruses can cause. But perhaps you are concerned about having your files on someone elses server where they might be found by others. Mozy addresses this. They use 128-bit SSL encryption to upload your files and keep them secure during transit. When they go into storage, your data is protected by 448-bit Blowfish encryption. That should keep the hackers at bay.
The other beauty of this Mozy service is that once you set it up, it works automatically. You tell it what time to do the backups and the system takes it from there. No more having to remember to do a Sunday night backup to CD ROM. No more sinking feeling when that disk gets damaged or you just can't remember where you stashed it. This service does the remembering so you don't have to.
Now one little caveat. The Mozy free file backup service is available for your home PC. You get 2 GB at no cost. For many users, this may be plenty. But if you like the way it works and want more, you can get unlimited backup for a small monthly fee.
Businesses are also in luck. There is a Mozy Pro service that offers desktop and server licenses for low monthly license fees plus a small amount per GB of storage per month. Price it out and compare with what it costs you to keep backup data spinning on hard drives or the cost and effort it takes to keep burning CD-ROMs or DVD-ROMs. Don't forget that you really don't have a backup if your duplicate data is kept at the same facility as your online data. When disaster strikes, it all gets destroyed.
Mozy Pro can also help businesses and organizations comply with both the HIPAA privacy and HIPAA security rules, if those apply to you. There's helpful information about doing this available on the Mozy Pro website.
