MozyPro Review

For businesses looking to backup multiple computers and with broad platform needs, MozyPro offers a versatile backup service that gets quite a bit right. That includes 24/7 live chat and telephone support and the ability to customize file retention policies for your user base.

However, all the right steps it takes are undone by a price tag that soars above the competition’s. At over $850 dollars a year for 250GB of backup, you’d be paying over eleven times the price offered by IDrive for Business (check our IDrive for Business review for more on this service’s pricing scheme) for the same number of gigabytes.

For that kind of cost discrepancy, you might expect an online backup service that excels, but the truth of the matter is that in most ways, MozyPro falls behind the rest of the pack in CommQueR.com best online backup for business roundup.

Prior to committing your money, we’d suggest given our MozyPro review a quick read to make sure it’s right for you or signing up for the 30-day free trial if you’re the more hands-on type.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Alternatives for MozyPro

Features

While Mozy has its problems, platform support — for the most part — isn’t one of them. MozyPro provides online backup for unlimited laptops and desktops. Supported computer operating systems include Windows, Mac and Linux.

Windows, Mac and Linux file server backup are available, too, as is backup for MS SQL Server and MS Exchange. MozyPro can also be used to backup unlimited NAS devices. Oracle Server isn’t supported — see IDrive for Business if that’s something you need.

MozyPro also can’t be used to backup smartphone data, although there are mobile apps for Android and iOS that you can use to access your data repository.

You can also access your files from the MozyPro website. That’s where you’ll go to manage your account, too, using an admin console to add new users, monitor backup and perform other administrative tasks.  

Mozy supports simultaneous backup to local storage devices in addition to sending data to the cloud. Mozy markets this feature is Mozy 2xProtect, but, more colloquially, it’s called hybrid backup. There are advantages to maintaining a local copy of your data, not the least of which is that disaster recovery is faster from local storage than it is over Internet.

To help get your data into the cloud quickly, Mozy offers a courier service called Mozy Data Shuttle. Mozy will overnight a device for you to load your data onto. Send it back and service techs will transfer it directly on Mozy’s datacenter servers, potentially saving you weeks of time.

Unlike IDrive’s courier service, though, Mozy Data Shuttle isn’t free — or even particularly cheap.

You’re charged based on how much data you have to backup:

• 1.8TB costs $275
• 3.6TB costs $375
• 5.4TB costs $475
• 7.2TB costs $575

Shuttle service also isn’t available for recovery, which is a bit of a surprise.

MozyPro also includes sync functionality. Sync makes use of a client that can be installed on multiple devices to let you hop from one to the other and work on the same file in near real time.

This feature is more generally associated with cloud storage than online backup tool, making its inclusion something of an oddity.

While some business users will get use out of it, there are dedicated enterprise sync and share (EFSS) solutions that offer more powerful work productivity features. If that’s something you’re looking for, we have a buyers’ guide designed to walk readers through the ins and outs of finding the best EFSS solution for them.

MozyPro isn’t an archival service, it’s a backup service. That means that if you delete files from your computer, they eventually get deleted from the cloud. However, as the admin you can adjust the retention policy for users and groups of users to maintain deleted files for a period of time, offering a measure of protection against fat-fingered mistakes.

You can also set a versioning policy for your associates. Versioning retains previous file states, letting you quickly undo unwanted file changes. It also protects you from file corruptions, including those caused by ransomware.

Another interesting feature you get with MozyPro is that it lets you restrict backup when on certain networks and set proxy settings if you’re behind a proxy server.

Other key features include speed throttling, continuous backup, backup scheduling and block-level file copying, all of which we’ll talk about later in this review.

Noticeably missing is an option for compressing files on your computer before sending them to the cloud, which can negatively impact upload and download speeds. This is a feature most other backup services include.

Pricing

MozyPro’s tiered price plans provide online backup space that can be shared between unlimited computers and servers. Month-to-month, annual and biannual subscriptions are available. Plans start at at 10GB and go up to 4TB.  

Mozy only quotes prices up to 250GB on its website. More than that and you’ll need to request pricing. We’re not entirely sure why, but it could have something to do with sticker shock (they must have excellent sales representatives).

10GB Plan 10 GB Storage	1-month plan $ 13.98/ month 1-year plan $ 12.81/ month $153.78 billed every year Save 8 % 2-year plan $ 12.23/ month $293.58 billed every 2 years Save 13 %
50GB Plan 50 GB Storage	1-month plan $ 26.98/ month 1-year plan $ 24.73/ month $296.78 billed every year Save 8 % 2-year plan $ 23.62/ month $566.78 billed every 2 years Save 12 %
100GB Plan 100 GB Storage	1-month plan $ 52.98/ month 1-year plan $ 48.56/ month $582.78 billed every year Save 8 % 2-year plan $ 46.36/ month $1112.58 billed every 2 years Save 12 %
250GB 250 GB Storage	1-month plan $ 110.98/ month 1-year plan $ 71.23/ month $854.78 billed every year Save 36 % 2-year plan $ 35.62/ month $854.78 billed every 2 years Save 68 %
500GB Pricing unlisted 500 GB Storage	FREE
1TB Pricing unlisted 10000 GB Storage	FREE
4TB Pricing unlisted 4000 GB Storage	FREE

While the flexibility of multiple tiers is nice, there are a few issues with MozyPro’s cost structure. For one, 10GB of backup space isn’t likely to be enough to backup one computer, let alone several. If you have several servers to backup, there’s a good chance 4TB won’t even cut it.

The biggest issue, though, is that the cost is much higher than the competition. MozyPro charges $850 per year for 250GB of backup. IDrive charges $75 for the same amount and, like MozyPro, can be used to backup unlimited devices. CrashPlan charges $10 per computer (check out our CrashPlan for Small Business review for more on this).  

Ease of Use

MozyPro isn’t quite as easy use as some other online backups, requiring a bit of work before you can start downloading apps and backing up data. However, once you get things set up, it has some nice features that ease the process.

Once you’ve signed up for an account, you’ll need to login into the web portal and add users.

You’ll need to define them as a “server” or “desktop” user, and can set both a storage and device limit for them. There’s also an option enable sync capabilities. This process can take some time if you have many people to add, although you can bulk add them using a .csv file to speed things along.

You’ll need to add yourself as a user, too, if you want to backup your own devices.

Each user will receive an email with a link letting them set their own account password. This password will be necessary later for connecting the desktop client used for backup to the cloud. Once created, they’ll be given the option to download that client, in addition to the MozyPro sync client and the mobile apps.

Download of the desktop client is relatively straight forward and installation takes seconds. Once the client is up, log in using the credentials you created.

You’ll next be asked to go with a default or private encryption key (see security and privacy, below), after which you can start working on your backup plan. Most of the work in that regard is done for you because MozyPro scans your file system and selects most common file types automatically for backup. We’ll talk more about that in the next segment.

Overall, while it isn’t the sharpest interface we’ve ever seen, the wizard does a nice job of simplifying the process.

The admin console available via the web interface has some other handy features that will make account administration easier. You can search connections to your account by both user and device. Each method displays information on how much data is being backed up and when the last backup was run.

There’s also a “graphs and reports” section that lets you visualize backup history and backup health, plus set email alerts. Pretty handy stuff for a business that needs to ensure compliance.

File Backup & Restoration

Unlike some other of our best online backup services, MozyPro does this by looking for common file types, rather than just tagging common file system locations (like your “documents” folder) for backup. This saves time, but when you’re working with limited storage space it can also chew up space faster.

If you need to cut down on backup space, before starting the backup process click on “settings.” From there, you can tweak your backup plan from two different windows: “backup sets” and “file system.”

Backup sets lets you browse files tagged for backup based on file type and deselect the ones that you don’t want included. You can sort by size, type and folder to make the process easier. File system lets you select and deselect folders in your file system. Having both options is a luxury you don’t get with most backup services, though it isn’t quite (or remotely) enough to justify that price tag.

MozyPro performs continuous backup by default, which it calls “automatic backup.” There are some nice customization options for this feature, such as halting continuous backup if your CPU is too busy or only running backup when your computer has been idle for a set amount of time. You can even limit how many times MozyPro backups up in a given day.

These features help limit MozyPro’s impact on your system resources. If that’s not enough, you can also set scheduled backups, running them daily or even weekly.

In terms of file restoration, as the admin you’ll have access to all files backed up, regardless of whether they’ve been backed up from your computer or one belonging to an associate. This access is available via the web interface.

Recovery can also be run from the desktop client by going to the “restore” tab.  

You can browse by file tree and restore all or individual files. You can also select a destination folder for your downloads, overwrite existing files or choose to rename them if a copy exists. Once you’ve made your selections, click “restore files” and the process will get underway.

Speed

To find out how quickly MozyPro can move files to the cloud, we performed a handful of tests using a 1GB compressed folder made up of different file types. Since context means everything in tests like these, it should be pointed out that we ran these tests from Bangkok, Thailand over a WiFi connection with 55/22 Mbps data connection speeds.

Let’s talk about the upload times, first. At 22 Mbps, we can calculate that a file transfer should take a little over seven minutes. With an average of well over an hour, that’s obviously not happening.

However, that’s not uncommon with backups for some reason. In general, we find that that online backup times are much slower than those of our best cloud storage providers. Also, we had private encryption enabled, which also slows things down.

Still, over an hour to backup a 1GB file is just too long. Part of the problem may be that MozyPro doesn’t compress files before sending them to the cloud, meaning you’re transferring much larger packets of data that you really need to.

There’s no getting around the fact that the initial backup with MozyPro is going to be a hurdle, likely taking days or even weeks to get all of your data into the cloud. On the plus side, it’s faster than Carbonite for Office.  

Slow initial backup aside, subsequent backups will run much faster thanks to the use of block-level file copying. With block-level file copying, when a file changes, only the delta — the part of the file that changed — gets copied to the cloud rather than recopying the entire file.

The download times were better, though still a bit slower than you’d expect. At 55 Mbps, we should have been able to download the file in under three minutes.

MozyPro does have throttle settings if you’d like to tweak the speed. We ran it at full capacity, but if you find your backup is negatively impacting system resources, you can slow things down.

Security & Privacy

One of the most admirable approaches Mozy takes to cloud security is that it invites third-party audits to ensure its server facilities are up to the task of keeping business data safe. This includes having passed a HIPAA-HITECH SSAE 16 Type 1 audit, SSAE 16 Type 2 audit and obtaining ISO/IEC 270001 certification.

Mozy maintains hardened data centers around the world built to withstand natural disasters, hardware failure, virus attacks and other events that could otherwise put your data at risk. Security staff is onsite 24/7 and data centers are protected by gated perimeters, electronic key access and CCTV surveillance.

Files stored on the Mozy servers are also encrypted. In fact, they get encrypted before they ever leave your computer and are protected in transit with a secure TLS connection. By default, Mozy keeps your encryption key for you and uses 448-bit Blowfish encryption. However, you can also opt for private, zero-knowledge encryption, in which case the encryption protocol switches to 256-bit AES encryption.

The advantage of private encryption is that it decreases the likelihood of unauthorized persons accessing your files. Also, it means that Mozy would be unable to share readable versions of your files with law enforcement.

On the other hand, if you lose your password, you’ll lose access to your backup since Mozy will be unable to reset it. Additionally, when using private encryption, file previews and image thumbnails aren’t available on the web and files can’t be uploaded from the web browser to sync storage.

Both Blowfish and AES are secure encryption protocols, although AES is more common and recommend by the National Institute of Technology and Standards.

Mozy doesn’t provide an option for two-factor authentication (2FA), which has been a source of frustration for users. 2FA is a means of protection against password theft, requiring that users also use a special security code commonly sent to their mobile device when logging in from an unfamiliar machine.

Support

MozyPro support is run through a searchable support portal where you’ll find categories for things like getting started, backup, restore, account management and sync. Each category has many different articles attached to it, which should cover most of your basic questions. The articles themselves make use of screenshots and numbered steps to simplify the learning process.

If you can’t find the answers you seek in the support center, you can reach out to Mozy directly. MozyPro users have access to telephone, email and live chat support. Telephone and chat support are both available 24/7, which is a huge advantage for business users that can’t afford to wait until Monday morning for a fix.

We tested live chat and were able to connect with an agent instantly, who quickly and effectively answered all of the questions we threw at him.

Email support makes uses of a ticketing system so you can easily track your case. Response times vary based on the severity of your case.

The Verdict

MozyPro’s sluggish speeds were a bit of a surprise, even from faraway Thailand and without the benefit of file compression. The service maintains multiple datacenters around the world, so we expected better. If you do go with MozyPro as your disaster recovery solution, definitely make sure to implement a local backup to supplement it.

However, the big issue standing in the way of a strong recommendation for this service is its cost. While some businesses will no doubt have no problem paying extra for an online backup service that supports many different platforms, offers device synchronization, has great customer service and takes a strong approach to security, you get all of that with IDrive for Business, too, and at a fraction of the cost.

The only real advantage MozyPro has are somewhat stronger admin and reporting features, in addition to its ability to scan and backup specific file types.

That’s all we’ve got to say on MozyPro for now. We’d love to hear about your own opinions and experiences with this service, so be sure and drop your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks for reading.