Carbonite

As a backstory, I was talking to our tech advisor about our need for backing up our data. While I ensure that I back up my data through my external hard drive, I also know that my external hard drive can go kaput as all of them do eventually. So I mentioned to our tech guy that I feel like we need a cloud storage but I wasn't too fond of Dropbox or Google Drive. He had similar sentiments and recommended Carbonite. He said he uses it with a number of clients with good results. So I took the plunge with their Black Friday deal that included backup for my computer and external hardrive.

Pros:

I liked that it backed up all of my data itself and that I didn't have to do it manually. The only thing I need to do manually is for my future data and the process is SUPER simple even for the tech-challenged.

I also liked that there was the mid-tier option (the one I chose) that backs up your external hard drive.

You get unlimited storage for the tier I chose which is not true of Dropbox, OneDrive, GoogleDrive, and others.

I don't like that I can't easily access my data to see with my own eyes that my data is backed up which is very different than OneDrive, GoogleDrive, and Dropbox that I can pull up at any time my backup files. I can't tell how good Carbonite is at backing up the files until something goes wrong which makes me nervous.

I don't like that if my external hard drive isn't connected for 30 days, the data is wiped out. What if I'm taking a break from my technology and don't have it hooked up? What if I'm using a different computer at the time because my original laptop and backup hard drive are getting repaired? That made me feel uneasy.

Ease of install - It is extremely easy to deploy Carbonite. I have installed it on our Windows 10 workstations as well as our server VMs running Windows Server 2012. Each time the process is quick and simple. I also like the custom updates it provides on backup status. It also lets you customize backup policies for each individual device to optimize utilization.

They wanted to increase our yearly cost by more than 50% with minimal account upgrades.

Our account was set to renew automatically at this increased price with no warning. An account rep reached out to me a 6-8 weeks ahead of our renewal date but wouldn't respond until we were about 2 weeks out. At that time he informed me our price was going up.

The strange thing was that under billing it still showed the price we had been paying for the past six years, and showed we would be charged the same amount again on our renewal date. If he hadn't mentioned it on the call they would have charged us the new price without informing us until we received the receipt. I really did not like that their system was showing one price but they planned to spring another on us.