Top Online Backup Solutions for Professional Photographers
April 16, 2012 1 Comment
The following blog post was written by small-business owner, John Mak. You can learn more about John by checking out his bio at the end of this post. A big thanks to John for sharing his knowledge on online backup solutions!
What do you use to backup and protect your photos? Leave a comment to let us know!
Qualities of Good Online Backup Solutions
Having an online backup solution is the most important thing for any photographer who is vigilant about protecting his/her images and videos. A good backup service needs to be stable, dependable, easily accessible from anywhere and effortlessly updated.
Professional online backup solutions can offer all the great features mentioned above. They deploy the best possible hardware and software solutions for backups, provided at a price that just about anyone can afford. These facilities are provided to the end user at a fraction of the cost of the actual equipment and software that is needed for such kinds of backup solutions.
Online backup solutions offer photographers many facilities, such as:
- Storing photos that are hundreds of gigabytes in size
- Virtual portfolio that is instantly accessible
- Travelling light without the need for bulky and delicate external drives
- Enjoying professional services at affordable prices
In case you are wondering which online backup service to use; here are several different options for you to choose from.
This is one of the most innovative online backup solutions for any photographer. The Eye-Fi SD card looks and stores data just like a normal SD card that is used in cameras. However, this little card has some nifty features that make it stand far ahead of its peers and makes it an indispensable tool to photographers serious about safeguarding their precious shots.
The Eye-Fi SD card has a built-in Wi-Fi transmitter that allows connection to Wi-Fi hotspots and direct uploading of your photos online. This circumvents the possible issue of data corruption while saving to a computer. It also speeds up and simplifies the process by reducing it to two steps: shoot and upload (rather than having the computer slowing things down in between).
2. SmugMug
SmugMug is an online backup solution that provides a service that any professional or semi-professional photographer craves: unlimited storage. This online backup service lets you upload each and every photo and video that you have and will never restrict the amount of storage space that you can use.
It goes without saying how useful this unlimited storage facility turns out for photographers who have a large collection of photos. Moreover, SmugMug uses the biggest, most reliable of all datacenters to backup pictures and videos. That’s right, all of SmugMug’s pictures and videos are backed up to Amazon servers that are the reigning standard as far as online backups are concerned.
3. Carbonite
Carbonite is another well-known service that offers unlimited storage to its customers. This is a great feature that is sure to come in handy for a professional photographer with a large collection of pictures. What makes this option so convenient is that thanks to the unlimited space, it is possible to directly upload RAW image files.
As photographers already know, RAW images are the ones that offer maximum clarity and image quality and are consequently very large. The problem of storing these images, while maintaining their original quality, is solved when you consider the unlimited storage that Carbonite offers.
4. CrashPlan
CrashPlan is yet another well-respected online backup solution which offers unlimited storage. Even better, the unlimited storage is provided as part of the most basic plan, which is called the CrashPlan. In addition to the basic plan, there are three other options available: the CrashPlan+, CrashPlan PRO and CrashPlan PROe. All the different plans are designed to suit the diverse requirements of photographers of any caliber, namely casual, semi-professional and professional. Furthermore, CrashPlan is a service that has been used, and commented very positively upon, by respected journalists and even staff at the Wall Street Journal, so you know it’s trustworthy and great product.
5. Others
There are also a host of other services, all of which offer great online backup solutions that will be appreciated by photographers who are serious about maintaining and protecting their collection of photos. These services include:
Mozy – Known for having scaled plans that are sure to fit the individual storage needs of photographers.
SugarSync – An extremely well-known online backup solution that can be used to backup data and photographs from virtually any device and also comes as an app for Apple users.
Dropbox – Also a popular service, Dropbox is seen as one of the pioneers of online backup solutions that allow people to access data from anywhere in the world.
BackBlaze – Offers unlimited storage for less than $4 per month!
So Many Options to Choose From
There is no dearth of online backup solutions for professional photographers. You only have to choose from the various options available and decide which is best suited to your personal requirements.
About the Author
John Mak is a web publisher and owner of Simply1Software.com, a website which offers unbiased software reviews and tech advice. With the desire to one day become a professional photographer, John loves to travel and capture photos from everywhere he goes around the world. John protects his photos through external hard drives and online storage services. For more information, visit Simple1Software.com or follow John on Twitter (@simply1software). For additional information on some of the services mentioned above, please feel free to check out John’s review of Mozy, as well as his SugarSync review.
