Backblaze Dropbox



Dropbox Backup vs. Microsoft OneDrive vs. Backblaze Business vs. IDrive Now that we’ve discussed other plausible alternatives, let’s also see how Dropbox Backup performs when compared to them. As mentioned before, Dropbox Backup gives you a secure and safe way to store and backup your files, allowing you to adjust storage space depending on. Es, BackBlaze is the one for you, if you’re looking for a cheap and easy solution to back up your files. BackBlaze affordable price point, and unlimited storage makes it an excellent choice for cloud backup for many. As oppose to pCloud vs Backblaze, where pCloud excel in cloud storage and not automatic backup. Example of Backblaze Sharing Options One of the strengths of Dropbox is that you can create a shared folder with someone and then both of you can drop files into the folder, edit documents and all of the changes are reflected on all of the computers where Dropbox is enabled and this folder is shared. By comparison, Backblaze is $ 6 a month for unlimited backup space compared to $10 a month on Google Drive and Dropbox for 1TB of storage space. When to Use Online Storage or Online Backup Just as online storage services aren't the same as online backup services, the reverse is true too.


Backblaze Pricing

Backblaze is a pioneer in robust, scalable low cost cloud backup and storage services. Personal online backup to enterprise scale data storage solutions. Backblaze backs up all your data – no questions asked. No picking files. No digging through folders.
Dropbox is a Web-based file hosting service that uses cloud computing to enable users to store and share files and folders with others across the Internet using file synchronization. There are both free and paid services, each with varying options. In comparison to similar services, Dropbox offers a relatively large number of user clients across a variety of desktop and mobile operating systems.

2021. Dropbox to acquire secure document sharing startup DocSend for $165M
Dropbox acquires (for $165 million) DocSend, the service helps customers share and track documents by sending a secure link instead of an attachment. When combined with the electronic signature capability of HelloSign, which Dropbox acquired in 2019, the acquisition gives the company an end-to-end document-sharing workflow it had been missing. Dropbox, DocSend and HelloSign will be able to offer a full suite of self-serve products to help our millions of customers manage the entire critical document workflows and give more control over all aspects of that.
2020. Dropbox introduces slew of new features for business
Dropbox introduced a couple of updates for business users. To help people manage the multitude of passwords across our lives it's moving into territory of password managers like LastPass or 1Password. Dropbox is also getting into the online vault business. The idea with these tools is to give you a secure place to store your important documents in a digital context, rather than using a safe deposit box as in the past. You can share a pin with trusted loved ones to give access to these documents like a will or insurance policy in the event of an emergency. The company is also getting into the backup business, giving Dropbox Plus users the ability to regularly backup the entire contents of your PC or Mac and retrieve it fully should you lose your computer or experience a full-out machine failure.
2019. Dropbox unveiled feature to send big files
Dropbox unveiled a new feature called Dropbox Transfer that allows to send large files. The maximum file size is 100 Gigabytes; files may come from the local system or may be picked directly from a user's Dropbox to speed up the sharing even further. Dropbox does not reveal if the file size will count against a user's quota on the size. Recipients download copies of the files so that originals remain untouched. Dropbox account is required to create a new file share. Dropbox notes that users who download the files don't need an account though. The new service is currently available to select customers only but will become available to all Dropbox users in the near future.
2019. Dropbox adds cold storage layer
Many people move files to Dropbox for backup purposes and then rarely access them again. So Dropbox engineers realized it made little sense to have everything stored in the same way when many files weren’t being accessed much after the first day of putting them on the service. The company decided to create two levels of storage, warm storage (previously Magic Pocket) and a new level of longer-term storage called Cold Storage, which lets Dropbox store these files less expensively, yet still deliver them in a timely manner should a customer need to see one. Dropbox customers obviously don’t care about the engineering challenges the company faces with such an approach. They only know that when they click a file, they expect it to open without a significant amount of latency, regardless of how old it is. But Dropbox saw an opportunity to store these files in a separate layer.
2019. Dropbox aquired e-signature service HelloSign
Dropbox is to acquire for $230 million HelloSign, a company that provides lightweight document workflow and eSignature services. This can also been seen in the context of the Extension capability that Dropbox added last year. HelloSign was actually one of the companies involved at launch. While Clark says the company will continue to encourage companies to extend the Dropbox solution, today’s acquisition gives it a capability of its own that doesn’t require a partnership and already is connected to Dropbox via Extensions. Dropbox is going to remain HelloSign as a standalone business within the Dropbox family.
2018. Dropbox expands Paper into planning tool with timelines
Dropbox updated Paper, its document-driven collaboration tool. It added a timeline feature, pushing beyond collaboration into a light-weight project planning tool. As you would expect with such a tool, it enables you to build a timeline with milestones, but being built into Paper, you can assign team members to each milestone and add notes with additional information including links to related documents. You can also embed a To-do lists for the person assigned to a task right in the timeline to help them complete the given task, giving a single point of access for all the people assigned to a project.
2018. Dropbox adds automatic OCR for all PDFs
Dropbox users have a useful new feature - optical character recognition that automatically transcribes all their images and PDFs. Dropbox’s text recognition engine is rolling out to Dropbox Pro, Business Advanced and Enterprise accounts over the next few months, but admins might want to check to see if they can get early access. When it comes into effect, every image and PDF you have will be scanned for text, which will be added to metadata allowing you to search for it that way. Of course, all this data will be kept as secure as the document itself. Handy, though of course much depends on how accurate the transcription is.
2018. Dropbox improves its collaboration layer - Paper
Dropbox adds some enhancements to its collaboration Paper to keep people working in it without having to switch programs. Now you can paste a number of elements into Paper and get live previews. For starters, they are letting you link to a Dropbox folder in Paper, where you can view the files inside the folder, even navigating any sub-folders. When the documents in the folder change, Paper updates the preview automatically because the folder is actually a live link to the Dropbox folder. This one seems like a table stakes feature for a company like Dropbox. In addition, Dropbox now supports Airtables, a kind of souped up spreadsheet. With the new enhancement, you just grab an Airtable embed code and drop it into Paper. From there, you can see a preview in whatever Airtable view you’ve saved the table. Finally, Paper now supports LucidCharts. As with Airtables and folders, you simply paste the link and you can see a live preview inside Paper. If the original chart changes, updates are reflected automatically in the Paper preview.
2018. Dropbox released new add-on for Gmail
Dropbox announced a new add-on to manage Gmail attachments in Dropbox. It displays the attachments in a side panel after which you can save them if you so choose directly into your Dropbox, and the experience is the same in the mobile app or on the web. Being able to access Dropbox without leaving Gmail or other G Suite tool could potentially save users time and effort spent copying and pasting and switching programs. It's a somewhat surprising partnership, as Google and Dropbox compete on the cloud storage front: Google Drive storage has many of the same features as Dropbox.
2018. Dropbox improved online file collaboration
Dropbox announced several enhancements designed to improve its mobile collabroration. In a typical team scenario, a Dropbox user shared a file with a team member for review or approval. If they wanted to check the progress of this process, the only way to do it up until now was to send an email or text message explicitly asking if the person looked at it yet — not a terribly efficient workflow. Dropbox recognized this and has built in a fix in the latest mobile release. Now users can can simply see who has looked at or taken action on a file directly from the mobile application without having to leave the application. In addition, those being asked to review files can see those notifications right at the top of the Home screen in the mobile app, making the whole feedback cycle much more organized.

Does using cloud storage for genealogy (like Dropbox) replace having a computer backup service like Backblaze?

Recently I heard from Jim in Midland, Texas, USA, who is a little perplexed:

“Hi Lisa, I’ve heard all your podcasts, some more than once, and I appreciate your tutelege of five years. I’m nearly 80 and some of the techie stuff is frustrating, but I’m still working at it.

You recommend Backblaze for cloud storage now. Does this mean that Backblaze is a replacement for Dropbox or do they serve different functions? I haven’t used either, but I am looking for a means of storing my information in a safe and retrievable place.”

Jim asks a great question! Dropbox and Backblaze are indeed different animals.

Smart

Dropbox is a temporary place to put active files you want to access from a variety of computing devices (such as a smartphone, iPad, your spouse’s computer, etc.) I think of it as Grand Central station for the files I’m actively working with.

Is Backblaze Really Unlimited

You can install Dropbox on multiple computers and download the app to your various mobile devices so that any file stored there is accessible and synchronized. Many apps and devices build connection to Dropbox right in to their own service or device, making it super easy to access files.

Cloud storage for genealogy research makes it easier to collaborate, research while traveling and access your files from different devices or locations. However, I don’t know anyone who only uses Dropbox for ALL of their files. Typically we also save files to our computer’s hard drive, particularly more archival types of files. So while you would be able to retrieve files stored on Dropbox if your computer crashed, and files that are on that computer would be lost. Dropbox also makes it easy to share folders and files with others. Again, think Grand Central Station for active files. Dropbox does have limitations regarding the amount of storage and sharing.

Backblaze Vs Dropbox

Backblaze is a cloud-based backup service for your entire computer. Once you activate Backblaze, you can just forget about it. It constantly is backing up EVERY file on that computer. If that computer crashed all of your files would be retrievable from Backblaze. You have the added convenience of being able to also access your files from Backblaze.com or the Backblaze app, and in that way it overlaps Dropbox. But that’s not usually how you would access your files. Usually, you would just turn on the backup, and forget about it. There is no limit to how many of your computer files you can back up with a cloud-based backup service like Backblaze.

Backblaze Vs Dropbox Reddit

My Bottom Line: Dropbox is short term storage for active projects, and Backblaze is long term, automatic, secure storage.

Files I’m currently working on (like projects, articles, etc.) I store in Dropbox, making it easy to work on the file from different computing devices and making it easy to share with others. While they are in Dropbox they are “on the Cloud” on the Dropbox servers. Once the project or item is done, I move the file(s) to my main computer. This keeps me from going over my Dropbox limits, and ensures the files are still accessible AND fully backed up and secure in case something happens to my computer. I can full restore my files to a new computer in one swoop if need be.

Backblaze Dropbox Smart Sync

I have chosen Backblaze as the official cloud backup for Genealogy Gems. Backblaze is also a sponsor of the free Genealogy Gems podcast. For only $4.99 a month Backblaze can back up your computer files, too. Why not check them out and see if their service is right for you? Click here to learn more about Backblaze.