Mozy was one of the first online backup companies and one of the first services I tried out many years ago when I started looking for an online backup service. I used them for several years until the dark times, when the plans and prices changed. Even then I hoped that Mozy would perhaps see the errors of their ways and that all hope was not lost for them. Unfortunately when Mozy closed their affiliate program back at the end of January 2014 I realized that Mozy has all but been lost. Don’t be confused, Mozy has not announced that they are closing down their service, not yet anyways, but their focus on consumer backup and storage has certainly been lost. That shift started back when they decided to drop unlimited plans and raise their pricing but it became crystal clear when the affiliate program closed that they no longer wanted to deal with any kind of consumer backup or storage.
I thought I would try something new for this post. I have embed a timeline of the content to make it a little more fun to browse through. Or you can simply scroll down to read the content that is provided in the timeline.
Mozy Founded
November 2005
Josh Coates founded Berkeley Data Systems. Mozy was the name of the service the company provided. The Internet Archive has the first snapshot of the first Mozy website dated at November 19, 2005.
Mozy Grows to 300,000
2007
By 2007 Berkeley Data Systems and Mozy has grown to 300,000 customers.
Online Backup Startup Mozy Acquired By EMC For $76 million
September 23, 2007
The news of Mozy being acquired broke on TechCrunch before the official EMC press release.
EMC Acquires Berkeley Data Systems, Provider of Mozy Online Backup and Recovery Services
October 4, 2007
At the time Josh Coates, founder and former CEO of Berkeley Data Systems said “EMC and Berkeley Data Systems are a natural fit, and I’m confident that EMC is the right organization to take Mozy to the next level. I look forward to working with EMC to continue innovating in the storage and information management industry.”
Source: http://www.emc.com/about/news/press/us/2007/10042007-5368.htm
EMC Combines Two Acquisitions Into Decho
November 16, 2008
EMC merged Mozy into Decho with some big plans. These plans at one time included a fantastic web portal that gave Mozy users access to their data with the ability to stream media, edit files and take your life into the cloud. Some of these features have shown in future versions of the Mozy web portal but many have just not come about.
Josh Coates Leaves Mozy
January 2009
Josh Coates officially leaves EMC/Mozy/Decho in January of 2009.
Source: http://www.jcoates.org/
Mozy Launches in UK and Ireland
April 21, 2010
Mozy started to expand into Europe and more with the launch of the the UK and Ireland websites. This included local data centers for faster access for those users.
Mozy Announces New Backup Plans
January 31, 2011
Mozy announced new backup plans discontinuing their unlimited storage plans. The new plans and pricing raise prices significantly for existing subscribers. Many users leave in a mass exodus to other online backup companies.
Mozy Peaks
February 2011
Just after Mozy announces their new consumer plans interest in Mozy peaks. This peak is followed by a sharp decline in interest in Mozy and a slow gradual decline in interest to now.
Mozy Hits 3 Million Users
August 15, 2011
A Mozy employee post was noticed on the Mozy forums mentioning that Mozy has hit the 3 million user mark. This was after the mass up roar of the price changes that took place in February 2011.
CrashPlan Surpasses Mozy
November 2011
After the Mozy plan and price changes at the end of January 2011, Code42 and their service CrashPlan were one of the biggest winners. Many former Mozy Home users flocked to CrashPlan for their unlimited storage and reasonable price compared to the new Mozy plans. It would only take CrashPlan 9 months to match Mozy and finally surpass them.
Mozy Launches Stash
January 5, 2012
Mozy launches Stash, a file sync and storage service along side their online backup offering. It compliments the onlnie backup and is available for free in the beta period. By this time many of Mozy customers have already moved on to other online backup services and either already use a file sync service or simply are not impressed by this new offering from Mozy.
Backblaze Surpasses Mozy
December 2013
Backblaze would take longer to finally match and then surpass Mozy but finally in December 2013 Backblaze matched and surpassed any interest people have in Mozy.
Mozy Announces Closure of Affiliate Program
January 24, 2014
In January 2014 Mozy closes their affiliate program and makes it clear that they are no longer interested in consumer backup. Their focus is business and enterprise backup and consumer backup is no longer of importance to them. This is also clear on their website where the Mozy Pro and Enterprise services are placed in more importance. Mozy has given up the battle for consumer online backup.
What is Mozy’s Future?
Mozy had an interesting post on January 28, 2014 titled “New Year‚Äôs Resolutions and the Future of the Cloud”. It was interesting for several reasons. One because they had just announced shortly before that post that the affiliate program was going to be closing down and basically admitted that Mozy and EMC want nothing to do with consumer backup. Second, it was interesting because the post talked about Mozy being a “part of EMC’s Data Protection & Availability Division and its long-term strategy.” The question is what is that strategy? Clearly it has not been to protect consumers data and has shifted to the business and enterprise market? What happens as the business and enterprise markets realize that Mozy and EMC are not the best options for them or their is a fundamental shift away from desktops and laptops. It has happened to other companies, like Iron Mountain who left the cloud backup business altogether. Mozy might not be dead, but for consumers they are certainly no longer an option and I have to wonder how long EMC will keep the shell of what Mozy was around.
I suspect Mozy’s rise was because of the vision that Josh Coates had when he started the service. When that vision was replaced with EMC’s vision, whatever that might be, Mozy began it’s downfall. There is no doubt that the fall of Mozy publicly began when the plans and prices changed, but I suspect Mozy began to fall the moment EMC took over and was accelerated when Josh Coates left. It is unfortunate that corporate greed by EMC has essentially destroyed what was a great idea and service. Mozy will probably continue for many years yet but they have already lost the war for home cloud backup and storage. The question is will they also lose the war for the business and enterprise backup?
Want to know more about Mozy? Read our complete Mozy review for more information.
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