In-depth Review of SpiderOak Online Backup and Sync

Overview and History

SpiderOak is a privately held business who are headquartered in Northbrook, Illinios and were formed in December 2007. SpiderOak provide an Online Backup, Online Synchronization and Online Sharing Service which gives 100Gb of web storage for ten dollars a month and you can have upto 1.5Tb of storage in 100Gb chunks, each chunk requiring an additional $10 a month.

Feature Set

Security

SpiderOak put security enormously seriously. Unsatisfied with 256bit AES encryption on information when transferring and on their servers; they additionally shield your information by using 2048bit RSA password encryption. That's about as secure as you can get.

They additionally provide 'zero-knowledge' information encryption which means that at at every stage, there is absolutely no way that anybody - even SpiderOak staff - are able to view any of your data, not even the folder and file names.

Physically, their data center - which is owned by them rather than outsourcing - is curring edge with redundancy at all stages and multiple high speed connections to internet service providers. They in addition offer geographically redundant protection (where your information is stored in multiple data centers located in different parts of the world at the same time) for an extra cost.

Backup Features

SpiderOak uses a storage redundancy methodology that means only one copy of a unique file is held on their servers. If you have the same file in separate folders, then they leave a marker in each folder but only store one original. This reduces the quantity of space you require and allows SpiderOak to store unlimited file versions of any document but only stores and uploads the differences between the editions.

This makes uploads much quicker and reduces the amount of storage space required. For additional control over file versions, there is an ability to erase old versions as and when you wish to.

SpiderOak archives desktops, laptops and servers running MAC, windows or Linux; In addition to network drives and removable media all from a single account. Simply choose a drive for archiving and SpiderOak will monitor the drive for changes and new items and append them to your archive queue.

Click here for a short video about SpiderOak's archive features.

Restore Features

Since SpiderOak is a backup and synchronization product, you have instant internet access to any version of any file you have ever archived. If the file you need to restore is a synced file, then it will also be on any other device that you have setup for synchronization.

There is an option within the client program to retain a copy of all archived data blocks in a location of your choosing, this can be a local folder or an FTP or sFTP server. This allows for much faster restores if bandwidth is limited or restricted. SpiderOak will always check this location for restore blocks before retrieving from the offsite storage.

Control and Analysis

The desktop client provides details of which files are currently being backed up, what activities are being carried out within your SpiderOak network, a log of all the past activity and statistics including the total amount of storage being used within your SpiderOak network.

On the control side, the desktop software permits you to limit the maximum size of individual files that can be backed up and to not backup files older than a stated time as well as options to exclude specific files and folders.

Scheduling can be managed for archive, synchronization and sharing functions and can be set to anything from automatic to once every 2 days. When set to automatic any alteration to files within the backup, sync or share sets will be instantly addedapended to the upload list.

The SpiderOak client can use Proxy servers using the Network tab on the preferences screen. The amount of internet bandwidth that SpiderOak uses can be managed from the Network tab.

Interface

The desktop client interface is very comprehensive, there are five tabs:

• Status - provides information of shares, syncs and backups from all of the computers associated with your account. As well as the total amount of your current storage allowance being used.
• Backup - this is where you choose which files to backup on the current machine.
• View - This shows currently backed up files and folders for each of the computers in your SpiderOak network and lets you to download any file or folder as a compressed (zip) file.
• Sync - This tab lets you to setup or configure sync jobs between PCs in your SpiderOak network.
• Share - The final tab manages and shows the status of shares.

The internet portal is a lot more straightforward: It displays a simple tree structure of files and folders organized under each computer that is a part of your SpiderOak network.

Device Support

SpiderOak currently supports computers using Linux, Windows or MAC. This includes server operating systems.

File Sharing and Collaboration

SpiderOak uses a facility called ShareRooms which lets you share your information . Changes to any files in ShareRooms are automatically available to all members of the ShareRoom and changes are appended to an newsfeed so members can be kept up-to-date with the latest changes.

The files and folders in a ShareRoom can be from any machine within your SpiderOak network, not just files synced to the online portal. When a ShareRoom is created it is assigned a unique web address which you can distribute to anyone you want to access the ShareRoom or you may ask people to login to SpiderOak's website using the ShareRoom username and password created when the ShareRoom was setup.

Synchronization

SpiderOak has synchronization at its heart: You are allowed to have an unlimited number of PCs in a single account and configure all of them to synchronize with a central repository.

It is possible to configure separate synchronization zones for your data and the whole system is protected in their impressive encryption blanket.

Web 2.0 Integration

Not at this time.

Customer Support

There is no telephone or live chat, however, the email support is great as is the forum and blog.

The list of non-interactive support options is fairly wide:

• Documentation
• FAQs
• Demos
• Testimonials
• Tutorials
• Case Studies

There is also a free edition which offers 2Gb of storage.

Ease of Use

You can sign up, download the SpiderOak program, and be protected by SpiderOak in under five minutes. The client is chic, easy to use and offers loads of information without overwhelming you. Shares, synchronizations and backups are all easy to setup and monitor.

Cost

Initial setup - free
Monthly Fee - $10 / mth / 100Gb
Annual Cost - $100 / year / 100Gb
Initial allowed storage amount - 100Gb
Cost of additional storage - $10 / 100Gb
Cost of additional devices / PCs / users - unlimited
Referral Program - Yes
E-billing facility - Yes

Conclusion

SpiderOak gives a great way to backup, synchronize and share data from an unlimited amount of devices with a single account. The pricing is very reasonable and because more storage is always available in tidy 100Gb chunks you never have to worry about running out of growing space.
Add to this the unlimited file versioning and easy restore options and SpiderOak is a real winner. The only downside is that portable devices such as iPhones and PDAs are not currently supported. However, if you are using Windows, MAC or Linux devices that need to share or sync files then SpiderOak is an excellent choice.