Easy-to-use backup with some feature constraints
Carbonite is a well-known name among business cloud backup solutions, and its Safe for Small Business product does fairly well in this latest incarnation. Some limiting factors is that it works only on Apple macOS or Microsoft Windows 10 computers, and that it’s intended to backup only organizations comprising 25 endpoints or less. Those limits, as well as no backup support for mobile devices, means it trails our Editors Choice winner in this space, Acronis Cyber Protect. Still, Carbonite Safe for Small Business, even within those constraints, does offer some surprising flexibility and feature depth. For one thing, it can backup not only physical machines but also virtual machines (VMs) provided they’re running on the Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor. Carbonite can also handle external hard drives and network attached storage (NAS) devices, though these are only accessible as extra-cost options. Carbonite is well suited to remote workers and distributed teams requiring basic and reliable cloud backup with the exception of its 25 device limit. Carbonite Safe is more similar to Backblaze Business Backup and, to a certain extent, CrashPlan for Small Business, because all these products forego more advanced features in order to deliver slick and easy-to-use client and management software. Carbonite likely has more advanced features than the other two, but accessing them will mean spanning product tiers. Plans and Features Carbonite Safe consists of two distinct product classes: (1) endpoint backup for desktops and laptops and (2) server backup. The endpoint product, which is called Basic Computer Backup, is the product we’ve reviewed here. This costs $24 per month for up to 25 computers billed on an annual basis. Included in this tier are automatic cloud backups,7-day-per-week customer support, a paid option for external hard drive backups, remote file access to computer files, and 128-bit encryption. Also bundled in this tier is ransomware recovery, remote file access, as well as FERPA, GLBA, and HIPAA compliance. This plan has centralized management and admin controls, though a downside is that Carbonite doesn’t have agents for Apple iOS or Google Android devices. That might be an issue for small businesses who don’t want to purchase yet another app to protect their smartphones and tablets, especially now that so many home workers are switching between business and personal devices. An Advanced Endpoint Protection tier can be applied to desktops or laptops and costs $34 per month, billed annually. This adds 256-bit encryption and optional local backup capability in the event that you want to backup to a hard drive or NAS box. This also adds deployment options for Carbonite Cloud, public cloud (Microsoft Azure), and on-premises storage options. Other important features are global deduplication, remote data wipe, and global location tracking. If you’re integrating with your company’s user directory, Carbonite supports Microsoft Active Directory or LDAP directories for account synching and single sign-on (SSO), as well as legal hold. This list of features was actually a little deeper than what we found in direct competitors, Backblaze and CrashPlan, but then this is a different pricing tier aimed at different users. For businesses that need to backup servers, the Basic Server Backup tier costs $50 a month, billed annually.
