I need recommendation for a good backup service
 

Hello,
I am wondering what kind of online/remote service for backup are you using?

I have an Ubuntu server and also the personal files (the same ubuntu).

I am interested in the following features:
- ssh access for synchronization with rsync using cron (mandatory)
- as much available space as possible
- encryption


What could you recommend?

Honestly, I'd recommend NOT using an online service. Sure, you can pay $$$ for as much space as you want, but if you ever have a tight budget or your credit-card info expires, guess what? You don't have access to your data, until you pay up. Also, you're limited by the speed of your connection, so do the math on that. If you have 40GB of changes daily...how long will it take to shovel that down, if you have a slow link? And more importanly...how long will it take you do do a full-restore over that same link?

These days, external hard drives are dirt cheap. You don't provide alot of details for what you want to back up, how many versions, how much data, etc., but 1 TB external hard drives can be purchased for about $59. USB enclosures for drives you already have can be had for less than $20. So if you purchased 10 brand-new external drives (that's 10TB), you're in for $590...and have YEARS of backup space, and devices that you can encrypt, rotate, and do versioning on. And, they're faster than an online service, and more flexible. Rotate them off-site as needed. And that's just ONE option. I'd always go for physical media, since even if you have NO network connection, you can still get things working.

Just an opinion.

Ok, you are right and you convinced me not to use such a service for my server and my personal laptops.

Thank you.

Online services have their place, provided everything is also backed up on your own media. I use Dropbox for files I'm actively using between my work and home computers. However, everything is also backed up to a portable hard drive. Cheaper, more secure, and since I keep a full set of files at home and the portable hard drive in my office, it's also offsite.

and if you really want to make things a bit safer, invest in a few simple NAS (4 drive bay is a good way to go). keep one local and an other at a friends who you can trust. setup a simple port forwarding between the two locations and rsync away via cron. ive done this for several (hundreds) of small business and small chains (fewer then 100 stores in the chain). If its a single location I have the owner setup either a 2nd server or a NAS at their home, then configure rsync to connect the data.

if its a chain, they typically will have either one or a few small "data centers" setup the rsync to those from all of the remote locations.

simple.

little note. before you set up the remote connection and start using rsync. perform your rsync LOCAL then move the backup medium to its off site location. this will DRASTICALLY reduce the time required and thus the bandwidth to transfer all of your data.

i personally move it once local, then make 6 additional copies on the backup medium. this allows for 7 days worth of storage before things are overwritten. a simple way to do this is to place things into day of the week folders:

ie: Monday, Tuesday, etc...

this way you dont worry about date stamps and you know you always have 7 days worth of data.