Forget Time Machine and Mozy! Jungle Disk is my backup of Choice
Hi, I’m Dan and I wear a double layered tin foil hat. I run whole disk encryption and only trust local backups on a secure ethernet lines. I check my email over SSL connections and have a couple VPN access points. Never know when the data gremlins will attack. So, WHY would I put my data in the cloud? Simple, you can control and double encrypt all your data. All your data belongs to you stored in a private bucket – oh and did I mention its double encrypted with keys of your choosing?
Jungle Disk has really evolved as a backup solution. It runs in the background, doesn’t need any system hacking, and has a VERY small footprint. It is available for the MacOS, Windows (XP, Vista and Media Center), and Linux. The vanilla version of Jungle Disk allows you to upload to your own S3 bucket using filename hashing, S3 and blowfish encryption as well as transmission over a SSL connection. But, the folks at Jungle Disk upped the anty with “Jungle Disk Plus.”
The offer block level updates which are important for backing up large files such as Outlook PST files, databases, or other files that change regularly so you don’t need to re upload the file. All you keys are private and never stored on Jungle Disks servers and if ever accessed it is just a jumbled mess of double encrypted data.
The BEST thing about Jungle Disk (and the plus service) is the ability to access your data via the web on ANY computer. Now you will have to remove your tin foil hat for this feature since Jungle Disk does store your keys for online access.
It is important for users to understand that the web based access feature of Jungle Disk Plus is different from any other feature currently available in Jungle Disk.
Because the Jungle Disk software is not being used to authenticate and decrypt files, enabling Web based access requires storing your Amazon Web Service keys on the Jungle Disk Plus servers. While we would prefer not to handle user keys in any regard, this is currently the only method available to enable this highly requested feature.
It is important to note that the web access feature of Jungle Disk Plus is completely optional. You must explicitly enable it and re-enter your keys on the Jungle Disk Plus site. Your keys are never sent from the Jungle Disk software to our servers.
Note that you can use all of the other Jungle Disk Plus features, such as block-level updates and resume, without enabling web access and without disclosing your keys.
The web access option is only present for users who are willing to store their keys online as a trade-off for easy access from any computer.
We do take great lengths to ensure the security of your keys, should you decide to enable web access:
Your keys are input on a secure, SSL protected web page
The keys are stored in an encrypted database
The keys can only be unlocked using your user account and password
When in use, the keys are only stored in memory in the Jungle Disk Plus servers
When you disable web access, all keys are deleted immediately
I really trust the folks at Jungle Disk when they say the destroy your data when its stored. So, if you are looking for a good SECURE backup solution that is multiplatform and allows online anywhere access to your personal information I highly suggest giving Jungle Disk a try.
Not a fan of Jungle Disk? Sound off in the comments about your favorite backup solution!
The problem is most of these sites only transfer at kbits, not kbytes.. takes forever to xfer you’re data
cough Mozy
Jungle disk made such a mess with my buckets on amazon that i’ll never use it again. Mozy is way simpler, easier and better.
I love JungleDisk. While it’s not the most economical choice, it allows archiving (which Mozy does not). I figure for about $10 per month, it’s well worth the comfort of knowing that everything I’ve ever created and all of my music + photos are safely (and securely) stored elsewhere. I’ve already been burned once by a stolen laptop. Now I won’t have the heartache of losing everything again.
I use plain old Jungle Disk, but I also backup via home-brewed scripts that AES-encrypt all the files in .RAR archives before uploading.
+1 for Jungle Disk Plus from me. Started using it again a few nights ago. The initial upload for an entire directory backup is a bit of a pain though (unless you have incredible uploads). After that, incremental backups of only changed files is good.
I’m even considering setting up a separate bucket for hosting images on my site. There are a few things that I’m unsure about though for the hosting part… 1) latency (S3 is awesome for storing and retrieving large files but what about smaller items hundreds of times per hour?), and 2) people outside of the US or who use some type of adblocking may get images blocked.
I back everything up with time machine. I use JD+ to backup pictures, source code, and important documents (99% of my documents I run through my fujitsu scansnap document scanner and then shred)
Thanks Dan! This is a comforting endorsement. I finally got around to using JD after seeing the Rackspace acquisition news yesterday. I’ll sleep much better knowing my backup is not in the same location as my data.
Backblaze is the best option for online backup from a mac at the moment.