I am interested in knowing how many consumers use a remote backup
service.  What do they pay. How often do they back up? How much data
are they backing up? What are the most popular web-based backup
services?

---

Request for Question Clarification by bobbie7-ga on 20 Apr 2005 10:06 PDT

Hi Joel,

I posted some information in the comment box below for you to review. 

Thanks,
Bobbie7

Dear Joel,

Thank you for accepting my findings as the official answer to your question.

I am reposting the information below for your convenience.

Sincerely,
Bobbie7



=======================================================


Web-Based Online Backup Services

A PC World Article from November 2004 lists the five major online
backup services, including annual service fees.

@Backup
?The service offers eight plans, geared toward consumers and small
businesses with minimal storage requirements. (?)  Plans begin at $50
for 50MB and top out at $995 for 2GB.?

DataProtector
?Connected's online backup and recovery service, for small businesses
and home users, includes patented technology that prevents duplicate
copies of files on your hard drive from being backed up online,
according to the company. (?) Plans begin at $80 for 250MB and go up
to $800 for 30GB.?

IBackup
?Pro-Softnet's service is for consumers and small businesses who want
lots of options to choose from. IBackup offers 21 different plans,
including workgroup subscription options that provide online storage
and file sharing for a "large number of users," the company says. (?)
Plans start at $30 for 50MB and max out at $8640 for 100GB.?

Iomega IStorage Online
?This service lets you download files backed up online to a wireless
Palm OS or BlackBerry device, as well as to a computer. Its five
online backup plans include the ability to securely share files with
others, the company says. (?) Plans begin at $25 for 50MB and go to
$180 for 1GB.?

Xdrive
?This service offers just two online backup plans, which include file
sharing. (?) Plans are $119 for 5GB and 10GB for $239.?

PC World November 18, 2004
http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,118454,00.asp


============================================


New Survey Reveals How Consumer Reliance on Electronic Data and Online
Services Is Driving Enterprise Storage

According to a Harris Interactive survey there is a relationship
between the consumers' growing reliance on their "digital domains" and
data center storage trends.

?Expectations of online savvy adults place heavy demands on data
accessibility, security and storage.?

?Consumer expectations for secure and around-the-clock access to their
personal data saved via digital services supports a growing enterprise
disk storage industry that grew 3.5 percent year-over-year to $3.4
billion in Q304, according to sales reported for external storage in
IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker, Q304 release.
The growth and success of digital services for email, music,
photography, shopping and banking has led to an explosion of
electronic data that is created, saved and retrieved daily - all
facilitated by scalable, secure enterprise storage solutions.?

?94% of U.S. adults online use digital services such as online
banking, shopping, travel planning, and music and photo downloads.

On average, about a quarter or more (23%+) of these users expect the
electronic data they store via digital services for email, banking
history, music and photo downloads to last forever. At least 40
percent expect the same electronic data to exist for more than a year.

82% of respondents would not be willing to pay for additional storage
capacity for any of the digital services shown in the survey.

Of the four features listed in the survey, security (82% rate this a
"9" or a "10") and accessibility (63%) are the most important concerns
consumers have when they consider the electronic data they save
through digital services. Security and accessibility are followed in
importance by the longevity of the storage of their data (34%) and the
total amount of storage available (31%).?

January 27, 2005 - Sun Microsystems, Inc
http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2005-01/sunflash.20050127.1.html


============================================


The Growing Backup Market

?Industry vendors now say the SMB market accounts for more than half
of all IT spending.  In addition, IDC research shows that 53% of
organizations either don't have a backup strategy at all, or rely on
users to back up to a network drive.?

?Corporate data is just as important to an SMB as it is to the largest
enterprise, and so are the recovery services that protect it,? said
Mike Karp, senior analyst at Enterprise Management Associates. 
?Unfortunately, despite the fact that the SMB marketplace shows high
growth and high need, the industry still has made relatively few
services available to it.?

(?)


?The market for offsite SMB backup services is huge,? said Intradyn?s
Doan. ?There are 5 million such businesses in the U.S., and 8 million
worldwide.  With that much opportunity, and such a growing awareness
of the need for better backup, we expect our partner network to expand
rapidly.?

Savvy Net: December 14, 2004 
http://www.savvy.net/detail.asp?category_id=7&article_id=123


============================================


Help for Digital Pack Rats
Published: January 24, 2005


?Buying more disk storage is an option, but a growing number of people
are instead choosing to deposit files in an online bank, thereby
helping to inject life into the niche Internet storage market that,
some analysts said, is on the brink of a growth surge.?

According to Stephanie Balaouras, an analyst with the Yankee Group,
this is definitely a growing market.

"People's storage requirements are going through the roof, the nature
of the information we're gathering and sharing now is richer than
ever, and sharing it over e-mail just isn't cutting it."

?If the market does grow, it will be a sweet validation for companies
like Xdrive and Streamload, which were decidedly ahead of the curve
when they offered such services in the late 1990's. To collect their
rewards, however, they will have to withstand new competition from
companies like America Online.?

?AOL last month began testing a service called "My Storage," which
allows subscribers to upload 100 megabytes of files to AOL's servers,
and access that information from any computer with an Internet
connection.?

(?)


?Industry executives and analysts do not have a solid grasp on the
current size of the consumer market for digital storage. Apple has
500,000 subscribers to its .Mac service, which includes 250 megabytes
of Internet storage for $100 a year. Xdrive, which is based in Santa
Monica, Calif., said it had 35,000 subscribers who paid about $10 a
month for five gigabytes of storage. Streamload, which is based in San
Diego, has about 20,000 subscribers who pay an average of $10 a month
for unlimited storage. ( Yahoo does not break out the number of
subscribers for its service.)?

(?)

?Mr. Iverson said he expected to see particularly strong demand from
people who saved television shows on digital video recorders, since a
single half-hour show can reach one gigabyte.?

?Brett O'Brien, the chief executive of Xdrive, said he had seen "an
amazing acceleration" in the number of users and the amounts they were
storing in the last six months. "People have more files, bigger media
files they're accessing from different computers, and a lot of them
have fast connections now, so they're looking for services like this."

(?)

?Apple, for instance, integrated its iDisk storage service with its
iLife software, which includes, among other things, photo and video
applications. Users can drag files from their iLife application onto a
folder on their desktop, and the files are posted onto a home page
users are given when they sign up for the .Mac service.?

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/24/technology/24ecom.html?ei=5090&en=26321cd6a503ffd2&ex=1264222800&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&adxnnlx=1113951706-wh0CC2m9cUx7A+QnEXucJw


============================================


?Xdrive, a provider of online storage and backup services, has a good
explanation on the limits of uploading in today's broadband
environment.  This then makes you feel a little bit better
rationalizing how much you'll have to pay for their services...to be
fair, their prices though high, are representative of the industry at
the current time.?

People are backing up photos, movies, general data,  and "fair use" music.

?Increasingly, these files have less to do with illegal file-sharing
and more to do with legitimate, consumer originated content like
photos, movies, general data,  and "fair use" music sharing.  A lot of
data traffic will be generated just to keep back ups and for
convenience purposes.  Examples of this would include consumers
wanting to back up their music collections in multiple locations,
consume that music on various types of cell phones, PDAs, and other
devices in different locations.  Other examples include sharing photos
and videos with friends and family around the world.

These files are increasingly taking on multi-gigabyte proportions.? 
http://mp.blogs.com/mp/2005/04/ss_5.html


============================================


?For ordinary consumers, online file-storage sites can be a good
alternative to backups on CDs, DVDs or additional hard drives that are
subject to damage and require physical storage. They provide solutions
to folks who want to make backup copies of important documents,
exchange files with friends and family members, or store data that
would take up too much space on their hard drive, such as music, photo
and video files. Most of these services work for all computer
platforms. Online storage is not a replacement for traditional backup
systems, but a secondary protection against unforeseen issues such as
fire, theft or damage.?

(?)

?Ease of use is a common touchstone in reviews. While many online
services such as Connected, SwapDrive and Xdrive do a perfectly good
job of securely storing your backed-up data, features and
functionality differ along with price. Xdrive, for example, has been
around since 1999, and while reviewers say it accurately and securely
stores your data, its interface and features lag a bit behind IBackup.
Xdrive, however, is cheaper than IBackup, and if you have several
gigabytes of data to store, the cost difference is significant. The
bottom line? IBackup is easier, faster and more intuitive, but Xdrive
is also effective and less expensive.?

http://www.ibackup.com/press_011805.htm


============================================


Here are some informative articles:

All Your Data, All the Time, Anywhere?
Broadband will render local storage obsolete. Or will it? 
Stephen Manes
From the January 2005 issue of PC World magazine
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,118527,00.asp


Consumer storage set to Raid the home
Explosion in multimedia demands 'new level of data protection'
Robert Jaques, vnunet.com 07 Feb 2005
http://www.itweek.co.uk/news/1161049


Online Backup Booming
http://www.byteandswitch.com/document.asp?doc_id=63224


2003 businesses
http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid5_gci906341,00.html

Backup Service Providers Swell
http://www.byteandswitch.com/document.asp?doc_id=35498


============================================

Excellent! Thanks

Dear Joel

I am posting my findings in the comment box for now.  If my research
serves your purpose, please let me know and I will gladly repost this
information as your official answer and claim the fee.

Note: You can lower the price of your question accordingly for this
partial information. (You can change the price by going to "My
Account," selecting "My Unanswered Questions", clicking on the
question, and then clicking on "Change Question Parameters" to modify
the pricing.)

Thanks,
Bobbie7



Web-Based Online Backup Services

A PC World Article from November 2004 lists the five major online
backup services, including annual service fees.

@Backup
?The service offers eight plans, geared toward consumers and small
businesses with minimal storage requirements. (?)  Plans begin at $50
for 50MB and top out at $995 for 2GB.?

DataProtector
?Connected's online backup and recovery service, for small businesses
and home users, includes patented technology that prevents duplicate
copies of files on your hard drive from being backed up online,
according to the company. (?) Plans begin at $80 for 250MB and go up
to $800 for 30GB.?

IBackup
?Pro-Softnet's service is for consumers and small businesses who want
lots of options to choose from. IBackup offers 21 different plans,
including workgroup subscription options that provide online storage
and file sharing for a "large number of users," the company says. (?)
Plans start at $30 for 50MB and max out at $8640 for 100GB.?

Iomega IStorage Online
?This service lets you download files backed up online to a wireless
Palm OS or BlackBerry device, as well as to a computer. Its five
online backup plans include the ability to securely share files with
others, the company says. (?) Plans begin at $25 for 50MB and go to
$180 for 1GB.?

Xdrive
?This service offers just two online backup plans, which include file
sharing. (?) Plans are $119 for 5GB and 10GB for $239.?

PC World November 18, 2004
http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,118454,00.asp


============================================


New Survey Reveals How Consumer Reliance on Electronic Data and Online
Services Is Driving Enterprise Storage

According to a Harris Interactive survey there is a relationship
between the consumers' growing reliance on their "digital domains" and
data center storage trends.

?Expectations of online savvy adults place heavy demands on data
accessibility, security and storage.?

?Consumer expectations for secure and around-the-clock access to their
personal data saved via digital services supports a growing enterprise
disk storage industry that grew 3.5 percent year-over-year to $3.4
billion in Q304, according to sales reported for external storage in
IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker, Q304 release.
The growth and success of digital services for email, music,
photography, shopping and banking has led to an explosion of
electronic data that is created, saved and retrieved daily - all
facilitated by scalable, secure enterprise storage solutions.?

?94% of U.S. adults online use digital services such as online
banking, shopping, travel planning, and music and photo downloads.

On average, about a quarter or more (23%+) of these users expect the
electronic data they store via digital services for email, banking
history, music and photo downloads to last forever. At least 40
percent expect the same electronic data to exist for more than a year.

82% of respondents would not be willing to pay for additional storage
capacity for any of the digital services shown in the survey.

Of the four features listed in the survey, security (82% rate this a
"9" or a "10") and accessibility (63%) are the most important concerns
consumers have when they consider the electronic data they save
through digital services. Security and accessibility are followed in
importance by the longevity of the storage of their data (34%) and the
total amount of storage available (31%).?

January 27, 2005 - Sun Microsystems, Inc
http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2005-01/sunflash.20050127.1.html


============================================


The Growing Backup Market

?Industry vendors now say the SMB market accounts for more than half
of all IT spending.  In addition, IDC research shows that 53% of
organizations either don't have a backup strategy at all, or rely on
users to back up to a network drive.?

?Corporate data is just as important to an SMB as it is to the largest
enterprise, and so are the recovery services that protect it,? said
Mike Karp, senior analyst at Enterprise Management Associates. 
?Unfortunately, despite the fact that the SMB marketplace shows high
growth and high need, the industry still has made relatively few
services available to it.?

(?)


?The market for offsite SMB backup services is huge,? said Intradyn?s
Doan. ?There are 5 million such businesses in the U.S., and 8 million
worldwide.  With that much opportunity, and such a growing awareness
of the need for better backup, we expect our partner network to expand
rapidly.?

Savvy Net: December 14, 2004 
http://www.savvy.net/detail.asp?category_id=7&article_id=123


============================================


Help for Digital Pack Rats
Published: January 24, 2005


?Buying more disk storage is an option, but a growing number of people
are instead choosing to deposit files in an online bank, thereby
helping to inject life into the niche Internet storage market that,
some analysts said, is on the brink of a growth surge.?

According to Stephanie Balaouras, an analyst with the Yankee Group,
this is definitely a growing market.

"People's storage requirements are going through the roof, the nature
of the information we're gathering and sharing now is richer than
ever, and sharing it over e-mail just isn't cutting it."

?If the market does grow, it will be a sweet validation for companies
like Xdrive and Streamload, which were decidedly ahead of the curve
when they offered such services in the late 1990's. To collect their
rewards, however, they will have to withstand new competition from
companies like America Online.?

?AOL last month began testing a service called "My Storage," which
allows subscribers to upload 100 megabytes of files to AOL's servers,
and access that information from any computer with an Internet
connection.?

(?)


?Industry executives and analysts do not have a solid grasp on the
current size of the consumer market for digital storage. Apple has
500,000 subscribers to its .Mac service, which includes 250 megabytes
of Internet storage for $100 a year. Xdrive, which is based in Santa
Monica, Calif., said it had 35,000 subscribers who paid about $10 a
month for five gigabytes of storage. Streamload, which is based in San
Diego, has about 20,000 subscribers who pay an average of $10 a month
for unlimited storage. ( Yahoo does not break out the number of
subscribers for its service.)?

(?)

?Mr. Iverson said he expected to see particularly strong demand from
people who saved television shows on digital video recorders, since a
single half-hour show can reach one gigabyte.?

?Brett O'Brien, the chief executive of Xdrive, said he had seen "an
amazing acceleration" in the number of users and the amounts they were
storing in the last six months. "People have more files, bigger media
files they're accessing from different computers, and a lot of them
have fast connections now, so they're looking for services like this."

(?)

?Apple, for instance, integrated its iDisk storage service with its
iLife software, which includes, among other things, photo and video
applications. Users can drag files from their iLife application onto a
folder on their desktop, and the files are posted onto a home page
users are given when they sign up for the .Mac service.?

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/24/technology/24ecom.html?ei=5090&en=26321cd6a503ffd2&ex=1264222800&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&adxnnlx=1113951706-wh0CC2m9cUx7A+QnEXucJw


============================================


?Xdrive, a provider of online storage and backup services, has a good
explanation on the limits of uploading in today's broadband
environment.  This then makes you feel a little bit better
rationalizing how much you'll have to pay for their services...to be
fair, their prices though high, are representative of the industry at
the current time.?

People are backing up photos, movies, general data,  and "fair use" music.

?Increasingly, these files have less to do with illegal file-sharing
and more to do with legitimate, consumer originated content like
photos, movies, general data,  and "fair use" music sharing.  A lot of
data traffic will be generated just to keep back ups and for
convenience purposes.  Examples of this would include consumers
wanting to back up their music collections in multiple locations,
consume that music on various types of cell phones, PDAs, and other
devices in different locations.  Other examples include sharing photos
and videos with friends and family around the world.

These files are increasingly taking on multi-gigabyte proportions.? 
http://mp.blogs.com/mp/2005/04/ss_5.html


============================================


?For ordinary consumers, online file-storage sites can be a good
alternative to backups on CDs, DVDs or additional hard drives that are
subject to damage and require physical storage. They provide solutions
to folks who want to make backup copies of important documents,
exchange files with friends and family members, or store data that
would take up too much space on their hard drive, such as music, photo
and video files. Most of these services work for all computer
platforms. Online storage is not a replacement for traditional backup
systems, but a secondary protection against unforeseen issues such as
fire, theft or damage.?

(?)

?Ease of use is a common touchstone in reviews. While many online
services such as Connected, SwapDrive and Xdrive do a perfectly good
job of securely storing your backed-up data, features and
functionality differ along with price. Xdrive, for example, has been
around since 1999, and while reviewers say it accurately and securely
stores your data, its interface and features lag a bit behind IBackup.
Xdrive, however, is cheaper than IBackup, and if you have several
gigabytes of data to store, the cost difference is significant. The
bottom line? IBackup is easier, faster and more intuitive, but Xdrive
is also effective and less expensive.?

http://www.ibackup.com/press_011805.htm


============================================


Here are some informative articles:

All Your Data, All the Time, Anywhere?
Broadband will render local storage obsolete. Or will it? 
Stephen Manes
From the January 2005 issue of PC World magazine
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,118527,00.asp


Consumer storage set to Raid the home
Explosion in multimedia demands 'new level of data protection'
Robert Jaques, vnunet.com 07 Feb 2005
http://www.itweek.co.uk/news/1161049


Online Backup Booming
http://www.byteandswitch.com/document.asp?doc_id=63224


2003 businesses
http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid5_gci906341,00.html

Backup Service Providers Swell
http://www.byteandswitch.com/document.asp?doc_id=35498


============================================

Bobbie, This is perfect. Please repost and I will pay ASAP. Thanks. Joel

Did I respond to the correct area?? Joel

Dear Joel, 

Thank you for the nice ratng and generous tip!

Best wishes,
Bobbie7