Likelihood to Recommend Backblaze does one thing and does one thing well: backup. If you recognize it for what it is, you will be very happy with it as an unobtrusive off-site backup solution. If, however, you want full-featured endpoint protection, you'll want to look elsewhere. For me and my needs, Backblaze provides the right amount of protection at a cheap price. You can't beat it.
Read full review We have a traditional stack and pretty typical needs as a manufacturer. I have used and evaluated everything out there, but the Unitrends solution fits very well and was competitively priced. I would think if it fits us, it could fit anyone like us with a similar stack.
Read full review Pros Backblaze utilizes a native app across platforms vs. a javascript app you find with other backup services (CrashPlan being one of them). Native apps function better and have a better user interface than comparable javascript apps. Backblaze has an intuitive interface that automatically backs everything up from your computer but allows you to easily exclude items you don't want or need to backup (applications, system files, etc.). Backblaze has a built-in bandwidth cap and monitor allowing you to limit how much data is backed up on a daily basis to prevent going over ISP data caps or utilizing all of your upload bandwidth. Read full review It has fully automated and customizable dashboards that can run with less administrative attention. It should be able to run on virtual machines or be deployed as a virtual machine within MS Azure or AWS. It's AI-based ransomware detection helps to understand data characteristics and alerts for ransomware attacks. Read full review Cons User management isn't the greatest. We had the choice of either a site license under one email address, or a domain license, allowing users to log in with their own email address, however there's no management for this option. I can see metrics of the users' backup, but I can't manage the accounts in any way. Read full review Errors on backup jobs could be more clearly explained. As the administrator of the device for my company, I often don't know what caused an error, and can't tell from the error information what happened or caused the error. Updates of the devices should have an automatic option. It takes to much time to do an update to the devices if updates haven't been maintained. Shutdown and restarting the device should be available from the main UI screen to eliminate some time when doing updates or if you're doing some maintenance on the device. Read full review Likelihood to Renew We have grown very attached to the Unitrends appliances and their use for recovery and other file restoration needs as well as data archival, data replication to other appliance and data migration to other servers or long term storage requirements. The appliances work well and the support for them is very good as well.
Read full review Usability As stated in my review, Backblaze simply works and works simply. You install it. It runs silently in the background storing and safeguarding all your computer data remotely. You seldom notice it until you've lost something you need - then you can quickly find it online using their interface and restore it - which is what's really important.
Read full review I have never used such an easy product that is stable and scalable like Unitrends. I have been running backups for MANY years. On premise, tape, disk, cloud, you name it. Unitrends is very flexible, stable and has incredible reporting features. It's nice when management requests a report and it takes you 5 minutes to run it and dump it to PDF. How can you beat that?
Read full review Reliability and Availability The appliances have been there when we need them and have rarely if ever gone down. Hardware issues have been resolved quickly.
Troy Funte Senior Information Technology Audit Manager
Read full review Performance The hardware is adequate and speedy. The user interface responds quickly. Backups complete quickly.
Troy Funte Senior Information Technology Audit Manager
Read full review Support Rating They answered any questions I had accurately and politely. I prefer to call a phone number and get a human on the phone, but they prefer email and chat. I understand they have business profits to consider, so it makes sense.
Read full review They're incredible, attentive, thorough. They make sure my issue is resolved and follow up. I'm usually behind on giving them a reply or an update. They have always gone above and beyond for me, and I'll continue to do the same for them.
Read full review Online Training It was sufficient to get started. It was not super deep. We called support often to get going.
Troy Funte Senior Information Technology Audit Manager
Read full review Implementation Rating The Unitrends employees involved in the installation were very friendly and knowledgeable. A certain degree of hiccups can be expected during any installation but never shook my confidence because of the friendly and knowledgeable team that was assigned to my project.
Read full review Alternatives Considered It's honestly been so long that I've been using Backblaze - maybe 10+ years - that I don't even remember other options I compared it to way back when. I've had a subscription on all of my personal machines for years, and we've used it on all of our machines at my job for the past six.
Read full review Symantec Backup Exec was the primary tool used for backups for years. We also used Veeam for some Office 365/Exchange backups. Unitrends once configured and set up works very well against the competition. Backup Exec interface was more user friendly. The search tool for exploring backups was much better than Unitrends as well. Unitrends is much faster if you need to restore an entire VM or large file folders. Also once you have Unitrends all set up, it is very low maintenance, it just works. If something fails 9/10 it will correct itself on the next backup that is scheduled to run
Read full review Scalability Once you exceed the capacity of the appliances, you have to forklift a new appliance. This is very expensive.
Troy Funte Senior Information Technology Audit Manager
Read full review Return on Investment The saving of data is almost immeasurable - Backblaze is the best backup company I've ever used. Getting started is quick and easy - and you get a 14-day trial. The price is cheaper than every other service - but don't tell them! Read full review It has saved some deleted file server data for our business department. We have lost some reports for the business department due to an overlooked setting that make the backup reports look great, but the server was not being backed up in reality. Less anxiety for the IT department, we have backup plan and that is worth a lot to us. Read full review ScreenShots