Have you ever had a laptop stolen? Or fried a computer? Maybe you just lost a file somewhere in your daily grind and wish you had some way to restore it. Have you considered backing your files up online?  As we rely more and more on our computers and BlackBerrys to be our brain, memory, organizer, and calendar we need a reliable source to back up our files. If your files and information are invaluable to you, consider CloudBerry Online Backup.

CloudBerry Online Backup provides a backup and restore program that is designed to assist Amazon S3 in making any disaster recovery plan simple, affordable, and reliable. Online backup systems carry certain advantages over traditional backup methods. Backing your files online does not require user intervention, for example; no CDs, flash drives, hard drive, or any other movable part. Another great aspect of online backup is your data is stored in a different location from the original data. CloudBerry uses Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) as its online storage web service through Amazon Web Services. Amazon S3 provides a simple web service interface that can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from any where on the web. It is safe, secure, and dependable.

CloudBerry is in Beta version until August 15^th, and then it will release Beta 2 shortly after. Some of the features that CloudBerry offers are: easy instillation and configuration, data encryption, secure online storage, scheduling capabilities, data retention schedule, and backup verification. The Beta 2 version offers quite a few upgrades, such as: better indication for successful/failed backup status, backup open files, fewer requests to Amazon S3 in online backups, ability to restore to a particular date, bandwidth throttling, and the ability to hide/show details on backup plan. One minor drawback to CloudBerry is that it is Windows only and does not support any Mac platform.

Some of this may seem gibberish to you, but let me say it this way: With CloudBerry you can schedule your computer (when connected to the internet) to transfer selected files to an online backup system. You select the files you want or don’t want, you can change them anytime and store securely on the same system Amazon uses. I can rest assured that my files are safe and if any disaster occurs, I can easily restore them. I am no IT person by any stretch, but CloudBerry was easy to install and has clear instructions with great color and visual appearance.

To get started, you need an Amazon S3 account (which you can sign up for here). It takes just a couple of minutes to set up and directly connects to any existing Amazon account. After your Amazon S3 account is set-up, go to cloudberrydrive.com and click on products and select CloudBerry backup (Beta), then follow the instructions from there.

I didn’t have an online backup system of any kind before I downloaded CloudBerry. I found that the process was quite painless and easy to figure out. From Amazon S3, to the download and install of CloudBerry, to running my first backup, it took less than 30 minutes. Now that the process is complete, I run a consistent back up every other day. My suggestion: Back up your data with CloudBerry now; your privacy and peace of mind is worth it.

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