Backup vs. Sync

This article has been written by J. Gerry Purdy, Ph.D., VP & Chief Analyst, Mobile & Wireless, Frost & Sullivan.

There are a number of companies like Sharpcast (SugarSync), Apple (MobileMe), Syncplicity, Good Technology (iPortal), Microsoft (MyPhone), Synchronica and 4SmartPhone that are focused on providing users with an ability to synchronize important information such as contacts, calendars, photos, videos, and documents across multiple devices and platforms such as Windows PCs, Macs, the Web and a number of wireless handheld devices.

Synchronization provides a way for users to access their important information wherever they might be whether it’s on their PC, via the Web (often by others who are given access rights) or via the wireless device. Every time someone turns on their iPhone, goes to Photos and says, "Hey, let me show you some photos of my kids," you are using sync. The photos were likely taken using a digital camera and then uploaded to the user’s PC or Mac and then synchronized over to the iPhone using the USB connector. Hold that thought for a minute.

Now, there are also a number of disk drive companies that have software for backing up your data. These include Seagate (FreeAgent), Toshiba (via alliance with NewTech InfoSystems for a custom backup product called Backup Now EZ) and Barracuda (Barracuda Backup). There are also a number of software firms that provide backup software to use on any external hard drive. These include NewTech InfoSystems, Inc. (NTI with their retail product Backup Now!), Data Transfer, Inc. (DT Utilities PC Backup 10) and Genie-Soft Corp. (Genie Backup Manager 8) that provide software that can automatically do a local backup for your most important information on an external hard disk drive (HDD). See link for good summary reviews. And, of course, you can always use Windows Explorer to copy information (although not very efficiently) to any external media. Windows Explorer doesn’t remember anything and copies all of the original data to the hard drive each time you make a copy.

And, finally, there are a number of other companies such as Hitachi/Fabrik, Mozy, Connected (part of Iron Mountain), iDrive, Box.net and FusionOne that automatically do an online backup for your most important information ‘in the cloud’ (in a remote data center over the Internet).

Synchronization, local backup and online backup use many of the same principles in order to get your important information to reside somewhere else.

The objective of backing up your information is getting the designated information to a remote location as efficiently as possible but not necessarily provide easy access to that information nor migrate that information to other devices. You hate to restore as that means that something has gone wrong. But, while the loss of a computer is emotionally trying, being able to restore your important information can be a positive – almost elated – experience.

I previously wrote about how important it is to have a backup of your important data (Inside Mobile, January 21, 2009). I recommend that you have both local and online backup of your critical data in case a disaster hits your local environment. And, it’s best to use synchronization to get your important information available on all of your devices. As a result of using both local and online backup and having your information available across multiple devices means the likelihood that you will lose your information is extremely low.

The interesting thing about synchronization and backup is that they are slowly merging together into a common process: when you synchronize your important data on multiple devices, you are – in essence – backing up your data at the same time. And, when you backup your important data, you clearly are synchronizing it with remote resources such as external HDDs and online servers.

I suspect that we’ll come to the point someday that we’ll choose whatever backup or synchronization service that we like or feel has the best features or best user interface, and the service will synchronize your important information across multiple devices and easily enable you to restore lost information or easily migrate to a new device. This is very easy to say but quite difficult to actually do. Migrating to a new computer is typically time consuming and aggravating and it ought to be easy.

                         
Here’s my view of the megatrend here:

The features of most good backup software systems are:

• Select folders – select the information to be backed up
• Set schedule – define the schedule in which backup is to be done
• Block level differencing – only backing up the portions of files that change
• Handle open files – often, files are blocked when open
• Recover lost files – get back destroyed or lost files
• Easy migration to new system – restore information to a new system

The features of most good synchronization systems are:

• Select folders to synchronize
• Automatic sync process – should keep your information in sync whenever you change anything
• Utilize meta-data – quickly sync the summary of the data rather than the file itself, e.g. a thumbnail of a photo.
• Display info appropriate for device – smaller images are required on phones than on a PC
• Access across platforms – make the information available on a PC, the Web and phones
• Sharing across the web – allow others to have access to (parts of) your information

There are a lot of good backup and synchronization services today. The important point is to use one of them on a frequent basis. We’re going to see more integrated backup and synchronization services as the differentiation between these two categories becomes a blur. For example, we’ll soon see software and services that will automatically backup your data to an external hard disk drive and to an online portal at the same time.

I have one final thought about synchronization and backup: synchronization and backup work best when they are invisible. You want these services to work reliably behind the scenes seamlessly so you can focus on being productive.