Overall Rating
SpiderOak Online Backup is an backup & syncing service available for PC, Mac, and Linux platforms. Installation is simple and takes less than 5 minutes, after which you select the files to back & sync, verify your email address, and the upload process begins. Our initial backup was about 25 gigs of data, and took just a few hours without any issues. We found the backup process simple and effortless.
Users can install SpiderOak on as many computers as you’d like. You can get 2 Gigs Free, and pricing is as simple as it gets at $10.00 month per 100 Gigs. Only downside we see is that we are not sure 100gigs is a small enough increment. If you want 110 gigs you have to pay for 200 which could make the service kind of pricey compared to some of the alternatives. However, because you’re limited on how much storage space you have available, SpiderOak Online Backup supports the backup of data on external drives (unlimited backup services like MozyHome and Carbonite do not support this).
One important feature of SpiderOak’s online backup service is that older versions of a file are kept. So if you overwrite your project and don’t notice right away, restoring it from one of the many other backup services would give you the overwritten file. Only services which support Version History would give you the complete version, rather than the newest version (the overwritten one). In addition, if you delete a file, it’s moved to your “Deleted Items” folder in SpiderOak, and is only removed if you delete it from there (via the SpiderOak software interface). Like every other backup service, only the changes of the backup set are transmitted during a backup process. However, since SpiderOak runs across multiple computers, they have to go a bit further. Say you have two files on two different machines, which are 50% identical. One machine backs up the entire file, while the other machine only backs up the differences.
Much like SugarSync, SpiderOak can be used to sync files across multiple computers, on multiple platforms (Windows, Mac and Linux). So you can work on a file in the office, save it to SpiderOak, and have it on your PC or MAC when you arrive at home. Assuming you do some work on the file that night at home, when you goto the office the next morning, your changes will be on your office PC. True cloud portability of your files.
Should your computer crash and you need to access your files, you can do so through SpiderOak’s web interface (much like Mozy, Carbonite, and others). You can also view the data from the “View” tab in the SpiderOak software. When you download a file, the file is saved in your Downloads folder, along with a datestamp in the filename. Our testing included the restore of roughly 5 gigs of our 25 gigs that were backed up. Restore completed much quicker than we had expected completing in about 2 hours and 40-45 minutes or so. Not bad for 5 gigs of data.
SpiderOak takes data security very seriously. Like almost every other backup service, data is encrypted and transmitted over a secure connection. SpiderOak uses a layered approach to encryption, using a combination of 2048 byte RSA and 256 bit AES. However, SpiderOak takes things a step further, encrypting even the file and folder names, so SpiderOak employees can’t even tell what you have backed up.
SpiderOak sharing capabilities are through “Share Rooms”. These are password protected locations where you can share your data with colleagues, friends and 
family. The idea is when you make a change from any computer running SpiderOak the changes are automatically published to the share room. The ShareID is the Public username. It is used to share photos, movies, music or documents with friends, family, colleagues or clients. Any person with whom you are sharing may access the ShareRoom one of two ways: 1) by entering your ShareID and unique RoomKey on SpiderOak homepage using the ‘Share Login’ or 2) by emailing out the Shareroom link to guests. You may change your ShareID on the Account page. When sharing photos, an online photo album is created, which is rough at best. It’s probably fine for just posting images for a client to access, but like other uses we’ll stick with Picasa and Photobucket for our real online photo galleries.
A big plus for SpiderOak is their support options. Normally lacking with data online backup companies, SpiderOak offers a wide range of support options, including e-mail, phone, Twitter (@spideroak_help), Skype chat, blogs, and Skype phone support. We did have an issue with restore, so we decided to test their customer service. We submitted an email ticket outlining the issue. We received a response quickly and issue was resolved.
SpiderOak Online Backup Pros
* Backup external hard-drives, network drives, Flash drives, and other removable media
* Windows PC, Mac and Linux support
* Version history
* Easy Software Install
* Supports multiple computers on one account
* Securely synchronize folders
* “Zero Knowledge” data privacy policy
* File Sharing
SpiderOak Online Backup Cons
* Sharing files isn’t very secure (no real password protection)
* Limited storage space in large increments (100 GB increments)
* Default configuration doesn’t backup important data files like Outlook e-mail, Quickbooks databases, etc.
* Interface is a bit slow and clunky
* If you forget your password, you cannot access your data
* Software doesn’t load upon startup (could make it do so pretty easy though)
* No drag and drop to restore
* Uses lots of Memory and resources
Though there are a few minor gliches, the company is very responsive and has always seemed to work quickly to resolve them, which makes SpiderOak a strong contender for data online backups and more. If you’re a novice computer user, looking for a simple backup solution, Mozy or SugarSync might be a better fit. If you’re even an intermediate/advanced user, SpiderOak’s added features and customization, at a decent rate of $10 / 100 GB / month, make it very a serious data online backup solution to consider.
SpiderOak Online Backup How it Works Video:
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