Now that my WHS installation is running properly I’m a bit happier because it means I now have a current backup of all of our other computers. That’s a good start, but it doesn’t solve the problem of having an off-site backup.

One option is to buy one (or more) external drives – backup the WHS data to the external drive and then transport that drive to a trusted external location. That’s fine, but it would rely on me being disciplined enough to update it at regular intervals – and I’m not sure that I trust myself to remember to do that frequently enough!

The other option is to use the ‘cloud’ - subscribe to an online backup solution. Googling “WHS Backup” doesn’t list that many useful results. The top result is a relevant question on SuperUser. Scanning the answers reveals two products that apparently DO work with WHS, and a number of products to avoid because they don’t.

KeepVault

KeepVault provide online backup for Windows desktops and Windows Home Server. Their WHS product also includes a ‘client connector’ so you can also backup files from client PC’s too.

Pricing starts at $US48/year for 40GB. A range of larger amounts are also available including 80, 130, 200, 300-900, 1TB-5TB. They also offer a 15% discount if you pay via PayPal.

humyo

Humyo don’t specifically mention WHS, but the SuperUser comment indicates it installs and functions correctly.

Their pricing starts at $US8.21/month or $US82.24/year for 100GB. Additional amounts of 100GB can be added for $US11.74/month

Comparison

So how do the numbers stack up? The comparison is simpler once you get to 200GB and beyond. To simplify things, I’ve used US dollars and excluded KeepVault’s PayPal discount.

  GB            
Provider 40 80 100 130 200 500 1000
Humyo     82.24   223.12 645.76 1350.16
KeepVault 48 89   139 199 480 930

Throwing the numbers into a graph illustrates this nicely. For amounts of data below 200GB, Humyo looks ok, but once you pass that mark KeepVault appears to be the best value.

Graph plotting data from table showing cost per gigabyte for Humyo and KeepVault

I can only see our backup requirements increasing, so at this stage I’m planning to sign up with KeepVault.