Online Backup Unlimited Plans Could Soon Be Thing of the Past

The blogosphere has been awash with rants, raves and responses to a major online backup company’s [EMC Mozy. Ed.] recent decision to pull the plug on their unlimited data storage plan. Twitter has been flooded with comments from angry customers who feel they have been let down by the backup provider. When the anger and acrimonious tweets settle, victims will emerge from the storm in a desperate search for an alternative.

There are those in the world of online backup who have been expecting unlimited data options to hit the headlines. It seems certain people failed to see how such an offer was viable in the long-term. To put it simply: it seemed too good to be true and like most things, it was. In an age when the amount of data created by the average internet individual is growing at a phenomenal rate, unlimited data plans seem increasingly like bad business. In 2010, the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, told us that: "Between the birth of the world and 2003, there were 5 exabytes of information created. We now create 5 exabytes every 2 days. See why it’s so painful to operate in information markets?" This is staggering. As a result of mobile devices with internet connections becoming commonplace, we have exhausted our supply of IPv4 addresses sooner than expected, all 4.3 billion of them. 4.3 billion.

With this increasing growth in mind, it would be safe to assume that there is no future in unlimited data plans. The company agree, saying that it expects competitors to follow its lead in abandoning the unlimited model. Online backup companies who offer such plans are businesses offering a service through which they hope to make a profit. Obviously. But, companies who offer unlimited data plans for a small annual fee, or smaller monthly fee, are unable to manage the customers who rightly take ‘unlimited’ at face value.

A backup provider’s inability to sustain their most attractive pricing model must be taken seriously. It leaves people needing an alternative. Suddenly, the process of backing up your important documents, photos, videos, music – your memories – requires a lot of effort. The transition from one service to another becomes demanding: it demands your time to research and seek out the next best thing, but even more annoyingly, it demands your money. Getting your back-up system in order should consist of a one-time setup, a hassle free "I’m running in the background" programme and no damage to your wallet.

That’s the way BuddyBackup Limited see things.

In a world where the internet reigns supreme and technology is constantly adapting to keep up with the demands of the user, BuddyBackup propose the refreshing idea that we should invest our faith, and our data, in our ‘buddies’.

All BuddyBackup requires is a dependence on the good nature of friends. By utilising P2P technology to create a network of backups between friends’ PCs, you know your data will never be far away. All your backups are protected by 128bit AES encryption. Your buddies have no access to your data, nor you to theirs. The more buddies you have, the more efficient the service. If your buddies aren’t online, BuddyBackup will keep track of the changes you’ve made and back them up the next time a buddy comes online. You control how much space you want to allocate for backups – there is no restriction.

Perhaps, as people come to assess their budgets and consider alternative options, they will realise that backup needn’t be such a headache, nor should it cost them any money.