Cloud Storage is important for travelers because there is always a possibility that their laptop may be damaged by physical force/water, have a HardDisk corruption/failure, or be lost/stolen. This would result in a loss of all photos, videos, and other important documents during one’s travels.
Traveling without Cloud Storage is like driving in rush hour on the freeway without a seatbelt. You don’t need one to drive, but the moment you are in a car accident – you will wish you had used one.
There is not much of a difference when it comes to Solo Traveling and Cloud Storage. You don’t need Cloud Storage to travel the world. You don’t need Cloud Storage if you have a computer to save your photos and videos to, or even if you have an external hard drive.
But the moment your computer/hard drive is dropped on the ground, damaged by water, has a random hard drive failure, lost, or stolen – you will wish you would have had everything backed up on Cloud Storage.
Nobody knows when these things will happen. They just happen. And when it does, it’s already too late. All files will be lost forever.
So, the best way for travelers to prevent a loss of files is to constantly back them up to your Cloud Storage.
A long time ago, I did massive amounts of research to determine which company was going to earn my business. I compared countless Cloud Storage companies. There was one company that dominated the others on multiple fronts. Today I will share this company with you and you will easily understand why I have been using them for so long.
Important Factors When Choosing a Cloud Storage Company
- Price per TB of Cloud Storage
- Speed
- File Types
- Encryption
- Ease of Use
- Safety
- Extra Features
BackBlaze is the ULTIMATE Cloud Storage for Travelers
Price per TB of Cloud Storage
| BACKBLAZE | GOOGLE DRIVE | DROPBOX | iCloud | ||
| PRICE / YEAR | $70 | $99.99 | $119.88 | $119.88 | |
| STORAGE ALLOWANCE | Unlimited | 2TB | 2TB | 2TB |
As you can see by the chart, BackBlaze completely dominates the arena.
When comparing the price alone, why would anyone sign up for any other service other than BackBlaze?! I’m not sure. I guess maybe people are just uninformed and they purchase Cloud Storage from the first company that they come across.
Cloud Upload Speed
BackBlaze has built-in threaded upload speed. This is a rather unique and strangely complicated method to explain. However, in short, this allows the user to optimize the utilization of bandwidth to increase the speed that data is transferred from your computer to the Cloud (wow, that’s a mouthful!).
Generally someone would want to use this option if there is a latency within the network connection. This is perfect for travelers as we frequently experience poor connections while on the road.
Accepted Cloud File Types
There are Cloud Storage companies that strictly allow images and a very small amount of video to be stored. That’s it. If you have other files on your computer they simply will not be transferred. Obviously, this is absurd. 99% of the population has more than just photos and videos on their laptop/device that they need to be backed up.
Luckily with BackBlaze, you can upload any file type to Cloud Storage. The sky’s the limit!
Cloud Data Encryption
BackBlaze’s technology is rather impressive. Before the file is transferred to your Cloud Storage, it is first encrypted on your device, then the file is sent over an encrypted connection between your computer and the Cloud. Once the file has reached the BackBlaze servers, it is stored on those servers with high-level encryption.
If that level of encryption isn’t good enough for you, they also have an optional two-factor authentication system. When you try to access your files after typing in your password, you will receive a mobile notification which then requires a secondary authentication. You can see, this company takes encryption rather seriously.
Cloud Ease of Use
Installation
The installation is super simple. You simply download and install the platform onto your computer and then open it. You will enter your username and password to authenticate yourself.
Transfer Files to Your Cloud
Whenever you have a good internet connection and you are ready to start the initial transfer of data, just click the start button. BackBlaze will work in the background automatically.
The program has a cool feature that allows you to throttle speed of the upload. If you want your computer to upload files to your cloud while you are using your computer for a different purpose, you can tell BackBlaze to upload slowly in the background while you focus on the task at hand.
Whenever you finish what you are doing, you can increase the speed to ‘full throttle’ and then your computer will dedicate all of its energy towards the upload process.
Data Recovery From Cloud
There are two ways that you can recover your lost data.
- You can simply log into your BackBlaze account and download whichever file(s) you want. You can do this by using the mobile app, or by using your computer.
- You can order a flash drive (256 GB) or an external hard drive (8TB). Once you log into your account, you can then select which files you would like to recover. BackBlaze will put those files on a drive and ship it to your house. The flash drive is $99 and the External HD is $189. Once the Drive arrives at your house, you can transfer it to your device and then send the device back to BackBlaze at the address they provide to you. They will refund 100% of your payment. The only money that you will be responsible for is the shipping to send the device back to BackBlaze. How cool is that!? Also, you can simply keep the Drive (and they will keep your payment).
File Safety at Cloud Data Center
With BackBlaze, you don’t need to be worried about the safety of your files being stored at the data center. Like I mentioned above, all of the data will be stored on encrypted servers. These servers are located within a temperature and humidity controlled room.
In addition, the data centers have 24-hour staff on hand who monitor the data center. This facility uses biometric security for it’s employees (no need to worry about impersonators). And if for some reason there was a local power outage, the power grid will be back online immediately with their automatic battery and generator supply.
Extra Cloud Features
Computer Locator
Has your computer been lost or stolen? If so, there is a built-in technology that will help to identify where in the world your computer is located. This will work at the moment your computer is connected to the internet again. You can share this information with the local authorities and the thief will be in quite a surprise when the front door busts open and the man becomes surrounded by police.
File Size Limitations
This doesn’t sound like much of a feature but it really is. There are many Cloud storage companies that only allow small files to be uploaded. Some companies set their limit to files that are 2 GB or smaller.
But what if you have a home video or a saved movie on your hard drive that is more than 2GB? What if you are shooting 4k or even 8K!? Well, then your files simply will not upload to their server. Bummer, right? But don’t worry, BackBlaze allows any file size to be uploaded!
Mobile App
BackBlaze has a mobile app that allows you to access your files from anywhere in the world and to download them to your mobile, if you choose to do so. Another wonderful feature for travelers.
2-Factor Authentication
As briefly mentioned above, you can choose to have an extra safety measure for your data. When you want to access or download your files, you can request that a message be sent to your mobile device that requires an extra step of verification. Just in case you have super sensitive files that you do not want in the wrong hands. BackBlaze has you covered.
Even More Features…
There are also a few more extra features that BackBlaze has available. I’m not going to go into detail of all of them. Make sure to check their website for the full and current list.
Solo Traveling & Cloud Storage
I have been on the road since June of 2016 and having a Cloud has been an absolute necessity for me. I have had a couple close calls with theft, hardware problems, and also my own forgetfulness.
On all three occasions, I was lucky and I never lost any of my data. Had I did, I would have been able to download all of my files from the Cloud because I was very diligent about backing up my data. I have had too many close-calls for comfort.
I have also heard story after story of Solo Travelers who, unfortunately, weren’t so lucky. Don’t be like them. Backup your data! Get a Cloud before you start Solo Traveling.
If you are interested, you can Start a Free Trial and see how amazing they are! I personally believe that BackBlaze is the best Clouds Storage for Travelers!
