Mac Backups with NAS and Cloud

[tominco]

We've got a handful of Macs at home that currently backup via Time Machine to a Synology RAIDed NAS. Two desktops also backup to the cloud, but one desktop and 3 laptops don't and only back via Time Machine. I really haven't found a cloud backup solution that I'm totally happy with. I have been using Carbonite, but I'm currently trying iDrive on one of the machines.

I've been wondering if things would be better if I would switch to backing up the NAS to the cloud. Points to consider:

• The computers wouldn't spend cycles doing both Time Machine and whatever background daemon the cloud needs.
• I'd still have the quick access I currently have with Time Machine
• I'd have an offsite backup of the Time Machine data for a disaster.
• I'd lose mobile access to files that Carbonite provides, but I find that doesn't work 4 out of 5 times anyway.
• All of the machines using Time Machine would then have cloud backup.
• Would bandwidth usage would change significantly? (I've got that stupid Comcast 1TB monthly cap.)

After writing this up, I think I like the idea of moving the cloud backups to the NAS, but I'd like to hear opinions on this. Am I on crack? Or is this a reasonable path to pursue? If I do go down this path, what is the best cloud service to use (both price and ease of administration)?

thanks...

tom

 

[mmomega]

I do something very similar.
I have backups to a QNAP then to BackBlaze B2 so that I have on-site and off-site storage.

Personally and professionally I moved on from carbonite several years ago due to their pricing for the amount of data I stored and at the time their software was extremely slow and could not take advantage of my upload speed.