Most providers frame the comparison of online backup entirely in terms of storage provided. There is some merit to this approach considering it’s easy to become lost in the menagerie of technical details regarding online backup. Unfortunately, comparing only storage space leaves out important aspects that affect performance, and hence your ability to protect valuable data. In addition to storage, bandwidth is the most important factor to consider. We’ve conducted a series of tests to illustrate this point.
First, I’d like to provide a quick note about how the tests were completed. Several factors that affect performance were held constant: data set, test system, Internet connection, and even time of day. New accounts were used to minimize, or eliminate altogether, the effects of caching algorithms and so on. In short, to the extent possible, we isolated raw upload speed for evaluation.
KeepVault Online Backup Speed Test
This graph displays the time (in minutes) to upload a single 2.27 gigabyte file. Carbonite was intentionally left out of this display it skewed the graph (demonstrated below) and made differences less obvious. Viewing the graph in this state, however, we can see that KeepVault Pro, at 3.1 Mbps, is 395% faster than iDrive, at 0.646 Mbps. You may be editing photos and videos, or you may be storing patient records. Either way, this speed translates directly into your ability to protect the files that you value.
Our final graph really illustrates our main point: Bandwidth Matters. This graph displays the same data as above, but includes Carbonite, whose measured average speeds came to 0.4592. As the graph demonstrates, Carbonite took 575% longer than KeepVault to upload the same file. Are you really protected if it takes almost 12 hours to upload just over two gigabytes? What good is an online data protection plan if (through throttling) you cannot protect your data? In the spirit of fairness, Carbonite is open regarding their throttling policy, which can be viewed here.
KeepVault Online Backup Speed Test Including Carbonite
Many of our customers come to us after being frustrated by the empty promises of our competitors. We love what we do and, here at KeepVault, we believe in providing a superlative service at an honest price. We offer a range of plans, so you can pay for only what you need. Moreover, you can add storage as you need it. If you’re not already a customer, go ahead … give KeepVault a try.
Last week I was attending a meeting with an important OEM client, only to find that I’d forgotten to move a PowerPoint file (that was a major part of the presentation) from my desktop PC to my presentation/travel laptop. That’s unlike me; usually I’ve triple checked before getting on the plane. Perhaps this time I was distracted by the heavy snow, the thought of missing sledding with my 4 year old, or the 1am and 4am wake up calls from our 6 month old! Either way, the file wasn’t there.
