2014 is almost here and I thought I would share my wish list of what would be nice to see from several of the cloud backup and storage services.
Backblaze
My wish list for Backblaze might be longer than the other services but it is because I use them regularly and the more you use a service the more things you wish for sometimes.
Mobile
First Android, they have their iOS app but they really need to get on Android. It would also be great if they moved beyond just access to backing up smartphones and tablets as well. Not to mention the file size download limit in the app needs to go. I think I am smart enough to know if I have enough room to download a large file from my backup.
Desktop
Unlimited history. They are unlimited in every other way it would be nice if they did not delete files after 30 days. Would also be great if the restore feature was built into the desktop app instead of going to the website to restore. Would just make the process smoother. Expanding onto Linux would also give Backblaze an edge on many of their competitors.
Carbonite
Mobile
Carbonite has one of the best Android apps you can find for cloud backup services, unfortunately their iOS app is not as good. Would be nice if they brought it up to the same level. Or at least as close as they can considering some of the limits iOS has.
Desktop
Carbonite users got a Christmas present with them dropping bandwidth throttling but there are many other features that Carbonite charges for that other services provide in their basic packages. Would be nice to see them become a little more competitive in those features like like backing up external drives and backing up video as standard features in the lowest price point.
I am sure Mac users would also appreciate a desktop client that is more feature rich like the Windows client.
SpiderOak
Mobile
Would be great to have their mobile apps move beyond just access and start to provide backup of them as well.
Desktop
With great security comes lack of usability. SpiderOak does a pretty good job of making the service easy to use but it still seems to suffer from a speed problem. It has gotten better but a speed boost would really help SpiderOak.
Mozy
It would really be nice to see Mozy change their storage size plans, this time for the better. They should double or triple the size of the existing plans, without changing the price. 50GB is to small for the majority of computers these days and the 125GB plan for 3 computers is just as ridiculous. The 50GB plan should become 100GB or 150GB for the same price and the 125GB plan should be 250GB or even 500GB for the same price. That would make them much more competitive.
Mobile
Mozy’s mobile apps are pretty good and allow access and backup. Would be great to see them move beyond just backup of photos and video on mobile.
Desktop
The desktop apps are solid but they need to reexamine their package sizes as I mentioned about. The current plans are just not very competitive for home users compared to other services.
Zoolz
Mobile
The Zoolz mobile app is pretty useless for home users since it take 3-5 hours to restore files from Amazon Glacier. Would be nice if a person could queue a restore from the mobile app to download on the desktop or web. It would be nice if Zoolz and GDrive Backup, the other mobile app from Genie9, were rolled into one.
Desktop
Mac client is needed for both Zoolz Home and Business. They are simply missing sales with lack of a Mac app.
Bitcasa
Bitcasa needs to get some solid direction and sort of the mess they have created and trust they have lost with the new plans and restrictions on the Linux client.
Mobile
I quite like the mobile apps but they could be faster.
Desktop
The desktop apps are getting better but they still have a long way to go to match many of the other backup and storage apps out there.
MEGA
Mobile
The MEGA mobile apps are not bad and continue to get better. Would be nice to be able to automatically upload other file types beside just photos and videos. Would also be great to automatically sync selective data to the mobiles.
Desktop
They need to get their desktop client released to be competitive with the other cloud storage services.
CrashPlan
Mobile
Needs to grow beyond just being an access my backup app. Needs to look at backing up the photos, videos, and other files on smartphones and tablets.
Desktop
The Java has to go. I got tired of using CrashPlan for that one reason. It became to much of a headache to constantly babysit the CrashPlan process and Java memory. It needs to be native on all platforms and faster.
What would be on your cloud backup and storage wish list? What would you like to see happen in 2014 with your favorite service?
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