SugarSynch
Software Review Part 2
Other considerations, pricing, and
competitors
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You can have Sugar
Synch managing the data synchronization on many different
computers simultaneously, plus on cell phones such as the
iPhone too.
Part 2 of a two part
series on Sugar Synch and other types of backup and
synchronization software - please
also visit
1.
An introduction to synchronization
software and to Sugar Synch
2. Other considerations,
pricing, and competitors
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Sugarsynch is marvelously easy
to use, and most of the time works in the background, requiring
little thought or input from you. But understanding some
of the issues below will help you to best use the program and to
choose the pricing option best suited for you.
We also look at some present
and possible future competitors to Sugar Synch. Currently,
SS seems to be the best product on the market.
Bandwidth Requirements
When you first start using
Sugarsynch, you'll end up specifying many gigabytes of data to
be backed up and/or synchronized. It will take Sugarsynch
some time to move all that data to its central servers - it
seems that Sugarsynch limits the bandwidth available to each
customer to about 1Mb/sec for uploading data to their servers,
and 2Mb/sec for downloading data from their servers.
Although I experimented with
large file transfers at various hours of the day and night, I
could never get much more bandwidth than that, and sometimes got
quite a lot less.
Fortunately, once you've got
the first major load of file transferring completed - and it
might take several days to do this - you'll find your
ongoing data synchronizing happens automatically and invisibly.
Most of the time when we're saving files, we're saving a file of
no more than one or two MB in size. A 2 MB file can be
transferred (at 1 Mbit/sec) to Sugarsynch in perhaps 20 seconds,
and can then be forwarded on to other computers for
synchronizing in perhaps another 10 seconds. In other words, 20
seconds after you've saved the file, it has been transferred to Sugarsynch's servers, and in another 10 or so seconds, the
change has already rippled through to your other computers
(assuming they are on line at the time).
Synching Online and Offline
This is a great feature.
There are other programs out there that also claim to offer
automatic synchronization, but they work in a 'peer to peer'
type environment, whereas Sugarsynch operates in a central
server environment.
What does this mean?
It means that with Sugarsynch, the other computers you are
synching your data with do not need to be online at the same
time. Data synchronization is a two step procedure - the
first step is the changed file flows from your current computer
to the Sugarsynch dataserver, and then the second step, which
can occur at any future time, is that the changed file is then
sent from the central dataserver out to your other computer(s).
So there's no need to
coordinate things and have all your computers switched on and
connected to the internet simultaneously. Imagine what a
hassle that would be - you'd have to leave your home computer on
while at the office, and your office computer on while at home,
and if either computer was accidentally switched off, your
synching stops.
The peer to peer model works well to synchronize computers all
on the same LAN, eg, for workgroup collaboration, but it doesn't
work so well in this type of environment.
Instead, turn your computers
on and off as it suits you. When you turn a computer on,
it immediately checks with Sugarsynch to see if there are any
changed files it needs to download, and quietly goes about
downloading them if needed.
For this reason, when you
first turn on a computer that you haven't used for a few days,
you might want to pause, or check the Sugarsynch manager program
to see how many files need to be updated from the central
server, and be careful not to start using those files until the latest
version of them has been copied over.
The flipside of this coin is
when you're finishing work on a computer and about to turn it
off, it is a good idea to first save all your work, then wait
long enough for Sugarsynch to go update its central server
copies before turning the computer off.
If you turn the computer off
in the middle of having a file synchronized, it will redo the
synchronization next time the computer is online again, but
until that time, it doesn't have the most uptodate version of
the file on the central server or on your other computers.
Truly, Sugarsynch is so
clever that you'll run the risk of forgetting you have it.
It simply does what is needed, as best it can, without bothering
you or interfering with the rest of your work.
Data Safety and Security
Any time you're allowing
your data out of your exclusive control, there are potential
risks about other people accessing it. Sugar Synch have
recognized and responded well to this issue.
All data that is transferred
between your computer and the Sugarsynch servers, and all data
stored at their data sites, is encrypted with high quality AES
standard 128 bit encryption (approved by the NSA for US
Government data encryption up to 'Secret' category).
This means that the
neighborhood kid next door is unlikely to be able to crack your
data flows, but a foreign government with sufficient interest
and tenacity probably could. For those of us not fearing
foreign government intrusion, the 128 bit AES standard
encryption is probably more than good enough.
One thing you should do,
though, is be sure to choose a very secure password. If
you don't already use it, Roboform is a
highly recommended password management program, reviewed here.
A Different Type of Data Danger
We ended up losing data
because of Sugarsync, but not due to any problem with its remote
servers. Instead, somehow, with occasional changes to
computers in our network, something ended up being misconfigured
and older versions of files overwrote newer versions of the same
files.
Other files ended up with a
confusing mess of multiple different versions, and we were not
able to conveniently tell which were the real up to date versions
and which were not.
To be fair, probably these
problems were caused by our own ineptitude. But the lack of
phone support meant we were largely on our own when it came to
understanding and configuring the software, and even if it were
our own fault, surely any half-way decent software should have
sufficient built in protection so as to make it hard for users to
inadvertently destroy their own data.
So if you think you are no
more competent at computers than we are (and with 30 years of
familiarity with computers, we had thought ourselves to be way
above average at understanding and using them) you should be very
careful how you configure and use this software, because it is
dangerous and might end up causing you huge problems.
Service Reliability
Sugarsynch advises that they
strive to achieve a 'five nines' level of reliability and
service up-time - ie, their servers should be up and available
for you 99.999% of the time. In other words, in a typical
day, this would allow them no more than 1 second of downtime; in
a typical week, this could total no more than 6 seconds, and in
a typical month, no more than 3 minutes of outage.
They say that they are
generally exceeding 99.99% reliability at present (ie 'four
nines') and are keeping close to the five nines goal.
One of the good things about
Sugarsynch is that, most of the time, we don't even need a four
or five nines uptime factor, because a key part of Sugarsynch's intelligence is the background program
monitoring the state of the data on our computer.
Once it detects a change, it simply patiently waits until it can
communicate that change with the central server. If either
your computer, or the central server, is offline, it patiently
waits until the two are connected again without causing any
immediate problems to your use of your computer at present.
If Sugarsynch was being used
for workgroup collaboration then a high degree of uptime would
be needed, but in its current form, the system is more
forgiving.
Workgroup collaboration is a
similar concept of file synchronizing, but much more complex and
demanding, because instead of just one person working on a
document, and by definition, usually only working on the
document on one computer at a time; workgroup collaboration
might have two or three or more people all working on the
same document simultaneously, and saving different sets of
changes simultaneously. Clearly, in such a case, it is
essential that all versions of the document be accurate and up
to date and that 'simultaneous changes' from multiple users be
reconciled correctly. But when only one person is seeking to simply
synchronize their own work on different computers, there is not
the same imperative need for absolute uptime.
Pricing Options
Sugarsynch is offered in
five different versions, with the only difference being the
amount of online storage you can use.
You are not charged per
computer that the software is installed on, and can have Sugar
Synch running on as many different computers as you wish, at no
extra cost.
You can choose from either a monthly or annual billing basis; if you choose the
annual basis, you pay (up front of course) for the equivalent of
ten monthly payments, representing a two month discount off the
monthly rate.
Everyone can start off with
a 45 day free trial and 10GB of storage capacity, and you can
upgrade from any version to any other version at any time with
no cost penalty.
The five versions available
are :
Capacity |
Monthly Fee |
Annual Fee |
10GB |
$2.49 |
$24.99 |
30GB |
$4.99 |
$49.99 |
60GB |
$9.99 |
$99.99 |
100GB |
$14.99 |
$149.99 |
250GB |
$24.99 |
$249.99 |
The amount of data you need to backup is typically much less
than the amount of data you have on your hard drive.
There's little point in backing up all your programs (unless you
bought them online and obtained them via download that you can't
re-download if needed) and all the Windows system files and
'stuff' are also not appropriate to backup either, because you
can't recover your system just by copying all that back to
another computer (you need a special disk cloning/imaging
program such as Norton Ghost for that).
If you have a complete
system crash and lose all your data, you generally need to first
reload Windows onto the computer from your original Windows
installation disks, then update drivers and Windows as needed,
then reinstall your programs from their original installation
disks, and only then do you reload the data from your backup.
So when you focus on
backing up your personal data files, you might find yourself with a
computer that has a 150GB hard drive, and which is half full (ie
75 GB is used in total) but for which you only have 35GB of actual user
data that you need to back up.
The easiest way to find out
how much you need is to first get the free 10GB trial version.
If you find that 10GB is not enough during the trial, then upgrade to the 30GB
version. If you find that 30GB is still not enough, then
you can continue to upgrade to the 60GB or larger version.
Don't be penny wise and pound
foolish about your backing up strategy
One comment about choosing
which capacity version to get. Backing up is a bit like
buying insurance - it usually makes no sense to buy insurance
that only covers you for some risks and losses, and similarly,
it makes no sense to only back up some of your data.
If
you're not backing up everything, automatically, all the time,
then the process is not simple, and you've allowed for Murphy's
Law to creep in so that when (and for most of us, it truly is a
case of when rather than if) you have a data loss, it will
involve the things you weren't automatically backing up, and
which, perhaps for this one time only, have suddenly become
essential, but lost.
It is best to have a simple
back up plan that is easy to understand and follow, even if it
means you spill over into a larger sized data plan. When
you eventually need to turn to your backup to recover from a
data loss, you'll be pleased you did, and in the meantime, until
that event, you have the added convenience of more data online
to access from anywhere.
Most people will probably
choose a 30GB or 60GB plan.
You can
visit their website and choose either a free trial or a paid
subscription here.
About Sugarsynch and its
Creators
Sugarsynch is the second
product released by the privately funded software development company, Sharpcast.
Sharpcast has been in business for about four years and is
headquartered in Palo Alto, CA.
Sugarsynch is a relatively new
program - it first saw the public light of day in March 2008.
However, it has been greeted with acclaim by reviewers and users
alike, and while Sharpcast declined specifics of their sales to
date, they did say, with just a hint of smugness, that they were
rapidly growing and enjoying a positive market response.
My own experiences would
certainly confirm the underlying deserved nature of such success
as they may be having.
The safety of your data
A concern has to be what
would happen if Sharpcast suddenly went out of business.
Would you suddenly lose all your data? Or, worse still,
might it be sold to anyone else?
The answer to the second
question is clearly no, because your data is encrypted and even
Sharpcast's own employees can't access your data.
As for the first question,
while I got some assurances from senior Sharpcast company
officers that they wouldn't just disappear without warning, but
rather, in the currently very unlikely seeming event that they
might go out of business, they'd give users some advance
notice, the good news is that even if Sharpcast did cease
operations completely and with no warning, you'd probably be
okay.
The reason for not being at
risk is because, hopefully, you're only using Sharpcast to
backup data that you still keep on your computer(s) too.
So, in such a situation, your computers would still have
everything on them they already had on them, you'd just lose
your remote backup and synchronization service and need to go
looking for a replacement fairly quickly.
My feeling is that we can
all confidently use Sharpcast's Sugarsynch with no real risk
accordingly (apart from, perhaps, losing the cash value of any unused
portion of a year's subscription), and I'm certainly putting my
money where my mouth is, and delighting in its wonderful service
every day (and am confidently using a one-year subscription plan
too).
Sugarsynch Competitors
Online backup only
There are plenty of
companies that offer online backup in some form or another, and
if all you want is simple online backup, you'll likely find one of
these companies offering a lower cost solution.
A couple of warnings,
though. Some companies offer 'unlimited' online backup for
a single flat fee. This is clearly a business model that
must break down for the provider at a certain point (because
their costs are variable depending on both the amount of storage
you use and the amount of data flow to their servers), and we
anecdotally understand that while in theory you might be getting
unlimited storage, in reality, the bandwidth available for you
to transfer an unlimited amount of data reduces down further and
further, the more you send, providing a practical if obscure
limit.
Also distinguish between
companies that simply do scheduled backups and those that do
automatic realtime backups, as and when your files change.
The problem with a scheduled backup is that if it is scheduled
to run at some type of off-peak non-work hour (eg 3am) then you
have up to an entire business day of data unprotected prior to
each backup occurring.
Another point of
differentiation is between companies that do incremental
backups and ones that do full complete backups. An
incremental backup process is much more complicated to
understand and recover from than a full backup.
One more thing to be wary of
with online backup companies. It seems that some of them
don't store all your data online, available anytime for instant
retrieval. If you have some sort of a problem and need to
recover from backup, you might find out, to your chagrin, that
your data isn't instantly available, and instead you may need to
wait a day or more for it to be brought back up online.
Backblaze is an example of a reasonably fully featured
online backup service.
Backup and synchronization
Sugar Synch is in what is still a relatively
new area with not a lot of competitors.
One competitor worthy of
note is Microsoft. Microsoft has a new product that
is still in a 'tech preview' stage of release - I'm not sure
what that mean, but it sounds like something prior to a Beta
version. This is their
Live Mesh product, which apparently comes with up to 5GB of
free storage.
Not a great deal is yet
known about this product, and it will probably work only on
Microsoft based hardware. And, like most Microsoft
products, it will probably be very good in time to come,
sometime in the future; but very bloated and
inefficient, and no good at all until release version 2 or
later.
Suggestion - keep an eye on
Live Mesh, but don't sign up for it until it is a proven
released mature product.
Microsoft also has a second
product,
Live Foldershare, which seems to offer similar capabilities
to Live Mesh,
and is in a Beta release format currently. It seems able
to work with Macs as well as PCs.
Which is better, and what
are the differences between the two products? It is hard
to tell, and for sure, Microsoft itself treats each product as
if it were the only product it has.
The most promising other
product may be
BeInSync. This product has been released for
longer than Sugarsynch, and has good corporate backing behind
it. But it uses 'peer to peer' type synchronizing, which
requires all computers that you want to synch being online at
the same time, a requirement which we feel to be clumsy and a
disadvantage.
BeInSync also offer free trials, and several
different pricing plans. It is a good solution perhaps for
workgroup type synchronizing and for simple online backup, but
not so good for a single user wishing to synch computers in different
locations (eg home, office, and laptop).
iTwin
iTwin is a new product (we say
this in 2011) that provides a different way of more safely sharing
files between two computers only.
It doesn't have the cloud
based backup capabilities of Sugarsync, but if you primarily want
a remote access type product, it might be an excellent
alternative. We review iTwin here.
Summary
Sugarsynch
promises to be a new 'killer
app' - a must have program - for most of us. It is
something that clearly offers an immediate benefit, and
something that is very easy to use.
BUT! It has a hard to understand interface and poor
support, and if you're not careful, it will run amok and destroy
data (as it did for us), overwriting newer versions of files
with older versions, and creating a confusion of multiple
versions of files such as to make it close to impossible to
understand which is the most up to date.
If you're technically competent and confident enough not to be
worried by these potential pitfalls, then it is a good product.
But we thought we were competent, and we definitely were
confident, but we ended up losing data as a result.
So proceed with caution, if at all.
If you can see the benefit
of being able to synchronize the data you store on two or more
computers, then you should get this program. If you only
have one computer, you still might find value in its automatic
backing up and its online access to all your files.
Recommended with
reservations.
Part 2 of a two part
series on Sugar Synch and other types of backup and
synchronization software - please
also visit
1.
An introduction to synchronization
software and to Sugar Synch
2. Other considerations,
pricing, and competitors
Related Articles, etc
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Originally published
25 July 2008, last update
21 Jul 2020
You may freely reproduce or distribute this article for noncommercial purposes as long as you give credit to me as original writer.
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