After lots of discussions with our small business users, we're happy to say that the product they've been asking for — Carbonite Pro — has arrived! We think it does a great job of meeting the needs of the various business owners and managers — especially with regards to being simple to use and a great value.

First, unlike the Carbonite you're used to where you get unlimited backup of one PC, Carbonite Pro lets you back up an unlimited number of PCs. There is just one account to manage and protect all the PCs in your office.

Then, since most small businesses don't have a full time IT person, we designed Carbonite Pro so virtually any office administrator can easily use it. Everything is in plain English (no confusing technical terms) and the dashboard is simple to use.

With Carbonite Pro, there's no per-computer charge and you only pay for the amount of backup space you use. And pricing is based on a simple tiered system.

You may not have any idea how much space your company needs and that's why we provide a month free. Throughout the month, you can use the dashboard to see how much space your company is using. You can also see the amount of storage used by each employee. So if someone gets carried away and backs up some very large files, you'll see it.

There are lots more easy-to-use features in Carbonite Pro. To add a new user, just enter the person's email address and Carbonite will send that user a pre-authorized link to install Carbonite Pro. In fact, the user doesn't even have to be in the office to set up Carbonite Pro. (Sales teams and others who are always on the road or who work at home will love it.) And what if one of your employees leaves the company? It's easy to immediately freeze that employee's account, stop any unauthorized downloading from the backup, and re-assign access of those files to someone else.

I could go on and on about the numerous benefits of Carbonite Pro, but we all know that a hands-on trial is the best way to see whether the product is right for you. So, if you’re a small business, just go to CarbonitePro.com and sign up for our free trial.

I absolutely believe you'll find Carbonite Pro very easy to use and the most cost effective online backup solution on the market. When you try it, please let me know how you like it.

— Dave
CEO, Carbonite

Man, this is what I've been waiting for! I have my iPhone with me wherever I go (I have to confess to being a little obsessed with it) and now I can view my backed up files — anywhere, anytime — using the new Carbonite app for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

I had my first great experience with it while waiting for my plane at LaGuardia Airport. I was supposed to give a talk at a conference later that day, so I pulled up my PowerPoint presentation on my iPhone (the original is on my office computer) and reviewed it. I then spent 20 productive minutes looking over a contract. While still waiting at the gate, I decided to browse my favorite pictures of me and my daughter high above the clouds on the top of Mt. Washington.

The Carbonite app gives me access to the backed up files from each of my computers, even if the computers are turned off. And I don't have to be logged into a Wi-Fi connection or lug my laptop with me. It displays my photos, documents, and other important files and allows me to share any of my backed up files with someone else via email, right from the app. It's fast and super-simple. I'm really proud of this Carbonite app and I hope you all will find it as useful as I do.

The best part? It's free for all Carbonite users. To learn more or download the app, go to www.Carbonite.com/iPhone.

— Dave
CEO, Carbonite

Bill Blinn of TechByter Worldwide interviewed our CEO, Dave Friend, for the November 15, 2009 TechByter podcast.

Bill uses Carbonite himself and, as an intro to the podcast on the TechByter site, he explains "The real safety net, and it's one that has saved me more times than I like to admit, is Carbonite. It's easy to make a dumb mistake that deletes files I need. I can get them back from my hot backup or from my Acronis backup. But more often than not, I've recovered them from my Carbonite backup."

Dave's interview can be found on www.TechByter.com in two parts:

Listen to Part 1 (Audio 5:07)

Listen to Part 2 (Audio 1:13)

— Alison

Our Mac product, which launched earlier this year, continues to receive a good reception from the media.

We've recently had reviews published with MacFormat and MacWorld magazines.

Christopher Phin from MacFormat awarded Carbonite 4/5 stars and appreciated our efforts to design a Mac version of the product:

“

Unlike many companies that have developed a PC application and then gone on to make a Mac version, the developers genuinely seem to have 'got' the Mac."

MacWorld magazine also awarded Carbonite 4/5 stars. Karl Hodge noted how the low cost is small price to pay for piece of mind.

“

The client is highly configurable and can be set to run when it's convenient. Costing around £3 a month to run, it's a low price for a little peace of mind."

— Dave
CEO, Carbonite

If you run a small business, backing up your data is critical. In fact, in the UK, all businesses are legally obligated to keep certain data records for a minimum of seven years. Not doing so could lead to a hefty fine or even prison sentence if vital data cannot be provided upon request.

I recently wrote an article for SME Web that addresses how SMEs with a limited IT budget can still protect themselves against losing critical business files.

SME Web is an online resource for owners and managers of small and medium sized companies in the UK, offering them best-practice advice on how to run their business. If you're interested in reading the full article, click here.

— Dave
CEO, Carbonite

Wow, they just keep coming. Another 5-star review for Carbonite's Mac version, this time from MacUser Magazine: "Verdict: This good value online storage solution is so easy-to-use you'll have no excuse not to back up your files."

Check out the whole review here

— Dave
CEO, Carbonite

Another nice recognition of Carbonite comes from the UK magazine Which? — similar to Consumer Reports in the US. They gave us their Best Buy rating, and that's apparently not easy to obtain. What they said is,

“

This accolade is far from easy to obtain. In fact, Best Buys are only awarded to those products that have performed to the highest standards in Which?'s rigorous testing and analysis, and cannot be requested or bought. This coveted award can be seen in the national advertising campaigns of popular brands including Miele, Panasonic and Procter & Gamble."

“

Our magazines do not carry advertising, we do not accept sponsorship of any kind and — just as a consumer would — we buy all of the thousands of products we test each year. It is for these reasons that consumers can truly trust the unbiased information we provide."

  I was unaware of this magazine, but my friends in Europe say they swear by it. Thank you, Which?.

— Dave
CEO, Carbonite

I get a lot of emails from customers whose files we saved, but a couple of days ago I got one that caught my eye because it was unusually effusive in its praise. I can't resist reprinting it:

“

The unthinkable happened. Somehow, someway, completely unexpected (as it always is), a simple power failure dealt a hand that no one in my household saw coming. Without Carbonite, months of work would have been gone. A book concept, complete with photos — gone. Documents that stretched over a five year period — gone. All of my financial records in Quicken — gone. Valuable photos of my family and my new wife, and our honeymoon — gone. First photos of my brand new grandson, born just days ago — gone.

But thanks to Carbonite — NOT GONE. I used my system restore disk, putting my computer back in service minus all of my files, hoping that Carbonite would be my answer. IT WAS! EVERYTHING was restored. EVERYTHING was recovered. Every file, every photo, every document. I've been sitting in front of my computer, just quietly shaking, stunned that everything that I thought had slipped from my world is back again, safe and sound.

It is impossible for me to properly thank you. It is equally impossible for me to communicate to you what Carbonite has done for my peace of mind and my sense of security. What might have been the equivalent of an electronic tornado has come back as a clear, blue sky filled with soft clouds.

Carbonite, and you, are my heroes. HURRAY FOR CARBONITE!!

Your friend,

Ricky David Tripp”

I have to tell you that NO entrepreneur can resist feeling good when they get a letter like this. We work so darned hard, and this is the best kind of payoff we could possibly get! BTW, check out Ricky's web site, www.rickydavidtripp.com. He's a very talented dude. I have a soft spot for musicians — I was a music composition major in college. Unlike Ricky, I couldn't make a living at it. Anyway, I'm glad we saved all his stuff!

— Dave
CEO, Carbonite

We all know about hard drive crashes and theft, but the following article that appeared a couple of months ago in Techwolrd totally blew me away. I'm not completely surprised by the spilled food statistic (I remember one of my kids giving me her "dead" laptop. "Zoe, why does your laptop smell like beer?"), but the rage thing was news to me.

One in ten portables downed by 'laptop rage'

Paul Boutin, The Industry Standard20 April 2009

“

A significant portion of damage to laptops is caused by the "anger or frustration" that employees take out on them, a study has found.

That is one of the findings of a new study entitled "Business Risk of a Lost Laptop." It was published last Wednesday by the Ponemon Institute and is funded by Dell, which is using the study to tout its data encryption and recovery solutions.

The report, described by Ponemon as a web-based survey of 3,100 IT and security practitioners located in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Mexico and Brazil, found that laptop-smashing employees were cited as the leading cause of damage by one in three respondents in Mexico and Brazil.

The Brits are more reserved: Only 6 percent of UK respondents blamed angry staff. Instead, travel-related damage caused by not taking proper care of the laptop leads among the British, with just over half of UK respondents claiming it was the most common cause of damage.

Americans rate laptop rage and mishandling on the road fairly low - 13 percent and 25 percent, respectively. Instead, 34 percent of American IT pros told Ponemon that "spilling food or liquids on the laptop" is the top cause of damage. But before you roll your eyes at ugly Americans, take note: An even higher 36 percent voted food spills the top problem among the French."

— Dave
CEO, Carbonite

As I've mentioned in past posts, one of the metrics I track every week at Carbonite is how satisfied our customers are with our customer support. Those of you who have interacted with our customer support team know that each interaction is followed by a short survey — that's how I get the data. Over the last 9 months we have made great strides and our "satisfied/very satisfied" numbers are now well above industry averages and still rising.

These improvements, along with the rock solid performance of our data centers, have lead to Carbonite being listed in the PC Pro Reliability and Service Award in the software category. The awards are judged via an open survey that asks PC users to express their views on hardware and software purchased over the last year. Those who are nominated are encouraged to promote voting with their customers in order to help the judges gain as much feedback as possible.

The PC Pro nomination comes on the heals of winning a Webware 100 award where we were voted up by thousands of readers.

If you'd like to participate, please click here to visit the survey. You can just click Next 4 times to get to the software page. Once you've voted and expressed other relevant feedback, you can either identify yourself or just skip to the end of the survey.

Thanks, we appreciate your support and recognition.

— Dave
CEO, Carbonite