Online backup services in the dark ages?

A recent article about online backup being in the dark ages is frustrating because improving customer confidence and usability at the consumer end of the market is very important for increasing awareness of the corporate end of the market which we serve with our online backup solutions.

Having recently written about Google’s theoretical jump into the online data backup market, I decided to play around with some of the existing online backup options. What I found was a fair amount of confusion and frustration.

My hunt started with Symantec, which has been one of the dominant players in the traditional data backup business. The company says that it also has more than eight million consumers using its online backup technology. Most of these people find the backup service through their subscription to the Norton 360 security suite.

As it turns out, Symantec has a rather complex set of backup options. There’s the Norton Online Backup service aimed at consumers and the Symantec Online Backup service aimed at businesses. There’s also the SwapDrive service, which Symantec acquired last year.

With the Norton product, you get 25 gigabytes of space that can be shared across five computers for $50 a year. The Symantec Online Backup service costs a bit more, and the SwapDrive runs $2,800 a year for 10 gigabytes of space.

Even though the SwapDrive Web site has a consumer feel and includes service for AOL customers, Symantec says the technology is aimed at businesses. You pay extra for features like administrative controls that let multiple people share data and that report back on how files are being used.

Symantec concedes that its online products and big swings in pricing are confusing. The company is looking to move the old SwapDrive clients onto different subscriptions, as it noodles on what to do with the service over all.

Companies need to keep their products simple, reliable and usable if they want to retain customers. Making a product confusing is the worst way to lose customers.