“Transport” moves your Time Capsule backup off-site
Time Capsule combined with Time Machine is a great way to backup your files, but a horrible way to protect them in cases of fire or theft. Odds are, any natural disaster that takes down your computer will likely destroy a Time Capsule sitting a couple feet from it, and odds are if someone breaks into your house to steal your expensive computer, they’ll grab the Time Capsule as well.
Macminicolo, the company that currently offers off-site Mac mini and Xserve hosting, has come up with the solution to this backup problem with their new Transport service. Basically, you buy a Time Capsule from them (or send in your own Time Capsule), and they store your Time Machine backup securely off-site in Sin City, Las Vegas. And as we all know, data that is sent to Vegas STAYS in Vegas, right? 🙂
The service sounds pretty cool, actually, as the hosted Time Capsule appears and functions as if it were connected to your machine locally. All Time Capsule’s features remain intact, so you can set up multiple users, password protect the data, etc, and you use the AirPort admin to set it up.
So, how much does all this peace of mind cost? Prices start at $29/month for 50 GB of bandwidth per month, and go up depending on options (that doesn’t include the $299 or $499 cost of the Time Capsule, of course). Of course, Macminicolo realizes your first Time Machine backup session alone might exceed 50 GB, so during the first month of service they give you 300 GB of bandwidth to do your initial Time Capsule backup/sync.
So, is it worth it? That all depends on what you are storing on your Mac. Personally the most important things on my computer are my digital photos, and I already have a “low tech” off-site storage plan in effect (I burn DVDs of all my photos and keep them at my office). While it would suck to lose everything else on my computer, the photos are the big thing that I would never forgive myself for losing, and more importantly, my WIFE would never forgive me for losing (or let me hear the end of). So for married men with kids, a wife, and a ton of digital photos, odds are it’s a small price to pay.
Thanks to faithful Macenstein reader Nicholas Penree for the tip!
Seems like a fair service at a fair price.
Do you think they’d allow for serving files from this thing and not just backups?
David K,
They do allow file sharing, the bandwidth is yours to use as you see fit. If you read the Transport page at http://www.macminicolo.net/transport/ it mentions exactly what you asked.
I agree with your points in this review. Seems like a lot for so little, especially compared to other more robust services available.
I also got a comically ironic chuckle out of seeing a “be in sync” banner ad right under a review of a competitor, so to speak.
keep up the great work, and thanks for your safeguard of the macChick series.
🙂
Great. It has to be in Vegas. That’s where I live. So when the city burns, the backups wouldn’t be off-site enough….
So, how long will it take to do a backup? Let’s see now. If it’s a 50 MB backup on my DSL with upload speed limited to 256K… About 30 minutes. To be fair, some backups are a lot smaller than that. On the other hand, a 100 MB backup might run into the next backup.
Jonro,
DSL?
Where’s the FiOS?!?
🙂
-The Doc
I so don’t care. I don’t. I don’t care about anything except…. WHO IS MAY’S MAC CHICK???? I can’t wait!
I think it is useless thing, why should it spend $30?
FYI – I have heard that the dvd media you burn your photos on will only last 5-10 years….so you need to periodically move that data someplace else
Thanks Cactus,
I actually use magical media that last forever. It costs more, but it is worth it.
-The Doc
“While it would suck to loose everything else on my computer”
loose? why do i see so many people get lose mixed up with loose?
Thanks SpellingNazi,
Believe it or not, many of us know the proper spelling, but when you write 1321 posts over the course of a year, you find yourself making silly type-o’s. I find I do the “it’s” vs “its” quite often, even though I know (or think I know) the difference).
-The Doc