Product Reviews

As we noted in our Online Storage Services mini-roundup, backing up your data over the Internet is now a cost-effective proposition. Mozy wasn't available for the Mac when we did that round-up. It is now, in beta form at least, and it promises to be at least a match for everything else on the market.

There are two versions of Mozy: the free version, which lets you store up to 2GB of data on Mozy servers, and the unlimited version, which costs $4.95 a month.

Mozy enables you to schedule incremental backups and choose between public and private key encryption. It stores 30 days worth of backups on its server, so if you need earlier versions of backed up files, you can access them, albeit on DVD with delivery at extra cost.

Berkely is keen to point out that the Mac version of its software was built from the ground up with the needs of Mac users in mind - and it shows. The Configuration screen invites you to create a backup set. There are a number of presets, including Address Book Contacts, iTunes Library,

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Word Documents, and Thunderbird Mail. You can choose one or more of those, create your own, or select Files and Folders to specify which files and folders to back up. A gauge at the bottom of the window keeps track of how much of your 2GB allowance you've used, if you're using the free version. You then elect to allow Mozy to back up automatically when your Mac has been inactive for 30 minutes, or schedule a backup.

In our tests, scheduled backups ran flawlessly and the status window made it easy to see which files had been transferred with each backup. The hit on system performance on our iMac G5 during the operation was negligible.

There are a few wrinkles in the beta version. The only scheduling option is every day at a set time, so you can't, for example, choose to back up weekly. And you can't create backup sets to run independently of each other. Additionally, as with Apple's Backup, you can only back up your own data. Other users must create their own backup sets from within their user account. In order for the backup to run, the relevant user must be logged in.

Our only other gripes - and they're very minor - are that Mozy adds itself to your menu bar without asking permission and it takes a little while to scan backup sets when you open the Configuration window. Hopefully, these issues will be ironed out by the time the 1.0 release comes around.

It's clear Mozy is aimed at single users and those who don't have complex backup needs. If you can live with the constraints, and we suggest that most can, it's a very easy-to-use and cost-effective way to back up your data online.