Mozy Online Storage Utility Debuts For The Mac

Though the name could really do with some changing, Berkley Data Systems’ online backup utility, called Mozy, has had its long-awaited debut for the Mac platform. Now fans of the O, the S, and the X have access to limitless space – redundant, to boot - for a whopping US$4.95. When I say Mac, you say Mozy! Mac! — (Listens. Silence.)

Why in the world would you want to backup your files? I mean, heck, how important can those hundreds, even thousands of iTunes tracks really be? All that time spent ripping those CDs? What fun! And the credit spent on those digital downloads? No biggie. Losing those ACC, DRM-laden tracks only gives you another incentive to make Mr Jobs that much more of a billionaire. (You actually don’t lose those tracks. You can transfer them from the store to your hard disk in the event that they’re accidentally deleted or corrupted, though you’re limited to one “re-download” per year. But lets pretend we don’t know that for the sake of a fluid read here.)

The same goes for iPhoto. Thousands of photos of birthday celebrations held for friends and family (and maybe some strangers, too). What are they really worth?

It’s evidently all worth quite a lot to quite a lot of people, as it should be. Digital storage might not be worth that much today, but the stuff being stored can range anywhere from cheap and entirely replaceable to crucial and downright invaluable. So “backing up” all the important stuff is simply a matter of common sense. Still, not many people do back up their files. They spend hundreds, perhaps thousands of dollars on their PCs, and the last thing they want to do is shell out more cash for extra security. A significant allotment of extra space can run well into the hundreds of dollars, and after spending a large chunk of cash on a place to store the original copies of those special memories and valuable media files, no one really wants to spend hundreds more to make sure that digital corruption (which can occur in a variety of scenarios) doesn’t take those files away with nary a warning or apology.

So it’s understandable that cheap and easy is the road most want to take when it comes to redundant storage, and today remote, online solutions are becoming more and more attractive to serve just that purpose. Broadband speeds are great enough to make uploading large files to the Web somewhat bearable, and when one’s files are accessible with a simple connection to the Net, being able to access them from anywhere is a very enticing selling point.

Mac Mozy provides just this service, and at $5 per month for unlimited storage, it’s very cost effective. (A Windows equivalent has been available for some time now,) The cheap, standard monthly rate not at all too difficult to handle, and with the assurance of remote backup you can finally uncross those fingers. With Mac Mozy (gotta say, I’m still not liking the name) you can rest assured that even when a coffee spill fries your computer or anything else makes your main storage source act a fool, those important folders aren’t gone for good. And that’s definitely a nice feeling to have.