NextAdvisor reviews new online backup service ElephantDrive

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May 8th, 2008 - Posted by Joe

ElephantDrive is a relatively new entrant into the online backup space but they have a solid offering that competes quite well with some of the more established providers in this field.

We found ElephantDrive to be easy to use and with a simple interface for automating backups and accessing documents. They also offer a free account with a maximum of 1GB of storage so that new users can familiarize themselves with ElephantDrive and make sure the service fits their needs before they buy.

ElephantDrive is built on top of Amazon.com's web infrastructure meaning that they use Amazon's web servers to store their customer's data. While it may seem strange of an online backup company to outsource their storage services to another storage company, we actually see it as a big plus. ElephantDrive customers can rest assured that they data they backup through the service is being stored safely and securely by a well established company like Amazon.com. This is actually a trend in this online backup service space as BeInSync also uses Amazon.

At $9.95 per month or $99.95 per year, ElephantDrive is almost two times the cost of Mozy or Carbonite. Additionally, ElephantDrive has file size limits of 1GB and maximum monthly file transfer of 1000GB. While the vast majority of users will have no problem staying within those limitations, we would prefer if they weren't enforced especially given the premium price of the ElephantDrive service.

Like Mozy, ElephantDrive offers Mac support although the services offered to Mac users are more limited than those offered to PC users. So, if Mac support is important to you you may want to evaluate Mozy as well.

Since ElephantDrive does offer a risk free unlimited trial of 1GB of storage we strongly suggest that any consumer in the market for an online backup service test it for themselves. In fact, it would be pretty simple to test ElephantDrive head to head with Mozy (who offers 2GB of free storage in their trial) to determine which is the preferred service for a given user's needs.

We have written extensively on the benefits of using an online backup service to secure your important files like music, videos or documents. It is great to see new services like Elephant drive entering the space as this will ultimately mean more innovation and more value created for consumers.

To learn more about online backup services read our recently updated online backup service reviews and comparison.