PMM PHOTOGRAPHY Loc: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

My Backblaze cloud storage subscription expires on 4 October
I am thinking that there may be other alternatives that are more attractive and poentially offer more benefits
specifically for photographers

I do not store any documents and have decided not to store jpeg images in the cloud; keeping them on primary and backup external hard drives

Specifically, I require the following
RAW file storage
Unlimited storage
Ease of use (I'm "tech" deprived)

Attributes are more important than price (within reason)

Any suggestions from this great goup would be most appreciated

THANK YOU

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

FWIW: I store my original raw images on an external drive, convert copies to DNG in Lightroom, send JPG finished images to my Flicker pro site, and keep a copy of the raw images (DNG) on Amazon Prime Photo - free unlimited backup for photos ( if you have a Prime account). I also keep a monthly mirror backup of my raw images on a separate external disk kept in a fire resistant water proof box.

Everything on my iMac, including my images, raw DNG & original NEF, CR2 & CR3 files are also backed up to a 10 TB external drive as a Time Machine backup hourly.

The Amazon Prime Photo backup runs 30 minutes after a watched folder has a file addition or change (edit)

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Files are files. Nothing special about photographers. But they may entice them.
No documents like DOCs, spreadsheets, PDFs, receipts, and other important items?
Places that only backup image files are worthless. Other things are important also!
Some places don't backup RAW files. Go with a company that allows backing up ANY file type.

I use Carbonite. All automatic and it indicates the backup status of the files and directories.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

I use local storage on external RAID 5 devices. (Soon to be upgraded to RAID 6 for more failure resistance).

I use ThunderBay 8 enclosures from Other World Computing. Mine happen to be fitted out with 48 TB of hard drives. As I purchased the drives in the enclosure I have a no cost extended warranty.

Actually I have two of these. One primary and one (a secondary enclosure) for backup with GoodSync on a twice daily basis. Time Machine backs up to a volume on the secondary RAID device. The secondary enclosure is located remotely in a concrete storm shelter we built into the underground corner of the basement (We have a walk out basement).

My RAIDs are connected with fiber optic Thunderbolt 2 cables directly to my Mac which gives me about 20 GB second transfer speeds - thus no perceptible lag to the user.

It works for me.

Caveats:

Buy more than what you think you will need. Both drive size and expandability of the number of drives.
Be sure that the storage can be expanded and does not require hard drives that are matched so you can add and replace as needed.

Whatever you do, be sure to understand what you are buying.

srt101fan

May I ask what you find limiting in Backblaze that is leading you to search for alternatives?

(I just started with Backblaze and am very happy I did. I also looked at Carbonite but didn't go with them because it's more expensive to include external drives.)

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

There certainly are other alternatives but none better than backblaze.
--Bob

PMM PHOTOGRAPHY Loc: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

Just checking around to determine if there is anything that offers more features or is easier to utilize Thanks for the reply

PMM PHOTOGRAPHY Loc: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

Thanks Bob. Just checking around to see what may be available that offers more features or is easier to utilize

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

If you have Amazon Prime, you can get Amazon Photos for free.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

As far as cloud storage is concerned, I think you should use it for EVERYTHING. Including your photos, word processing files, emails, spreadsheets, scanned documents (tax returns, insurance policies, deeds, wills, receipts for major items, etc.), program configuration files, etc. Anything that would cause you pain (or even moderate discomfort) if it disappeared.

I can understand not saving your jpgs since if you shoot raw they are easily reproduced (as long as your raw files are secure).

Cloud storage is secondary. Local storage should be primary because restoration can be done whether or not you have internet, and without limitations of bandwidth. Cloud storage should be part of your strategy because it's safer than local storage. The storage media are maintained by professionals in the cloud and by an amateur locally. The files are distributed across countries if not continents in cloud storage. The files might be across town locally. Think about regional disasters. The Paradise fire, that wiped out at least one town. The current west coast wildfires. The danger of earthquake on the west coast (largest there, but it exists everywhere).

My cloud storage costs me about $10/month. What are your files worth?

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

If you only want to back up images.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Here is another thought. I just got a notice from SmugMug. "Back up all your images on SmugMug". They were asking me to consider uploading my library.

They advertise: "UNLIMITED, FULL-RESOLUTION PHOTO STORAGE"
Source: https://www.smugmug.com

So if they will take your entire library it might be a good competitive option. Just saying.
https://www.smugmug.com/plans

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I would choose a MAJOR cloud provider such as Amazon S3, Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc. Amazon is by far the largest cloud provider - as large as the next 4 combined. Why does size matter? Because the large providers referenced are typically more robust and stable from a business perspective and they will have more data centers to mirror your data to different geographic locations. Personally I prefer Amazon S3 for not only their robustness, but also for their multiple tiers of storage, allowing you to move data at the file, folder or entire file system level in real-time as your needs change, BUT the user interface is more complex than Microsoft, Google or ITunes (for Apple users), which are very user friendly.

Your price will vary depending on how you use the storage. If you want a pure archive that you upload and never touch except in a disaster, then Amazon Glacier is one of the least expensive, but if you want more interactive/transactional storage that you write to and read from regularly, then expect to pay about $10/TB per month.

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

Smugmug is a good was to display your photos. It allows for virtual copies of photos that fit more than one category.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

I use SmugMug.

I just got an email notice from SmugMug. "Back up all your images on SmugMug".

So you can use them as backup too.