Jungle Disk Review

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Backing up and protecting data is essential for companies and for home users. We all rely on our computers to hold important information, but if anything goes wrong and we don’t have a plan in place to recover our files, we could lose them forever.

Cloud backup services are an effective method to prevent data loss and there are many options available for businesses, as well as for individuals. Many people have opted for this technology to protect their documents, photos, or videos, because it is highly convenient.

Deciding which is the best for online backup service for you, will depend on your specific needs. One aspect that is essential and that needs to be considered when looking for an online backup service is security. This is particularly important for businesses as their existence usually depends on the data they manage.

Jungle Disk is a solution designed for businesses and it aims to provide the highest level of protection for its customers’ files. Learn more about Jungle Disk in this review.

Getting Started

The main goal of Jungle Disk is to help small and medium services to keep their data secure. Apart from offering advanced technology and a convenient prices, Jungle Disk sets itself apart from other providers by prompting users to create their own encryption key. This greatly enhances the security of your files and ensures that only you can access them. Jungle Disk is part of Rackspace, a leading company in the world of hosting and cloud services, which makes it a solid and reliable option to backup your files.

Another characteristic that makes Jungle Disk different from other options is the fact that the online storage service supported by its platform, is offered through other providers. Users can select between Amazon S3 and Rackspace and they would only be charged for the storage that they actually use, instead of having to pay a set fee each month. There are no long-term contracts and you only need to pay on a monthly basis. The basic price to back up your company’s computers is $4 per month and it includes 10GB storage free per user. Each additional GB costs 15c.

It only takes a few minutes to sign up for an account online and then you can download the Jungle Disk software, which is available for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. The installation is very simple as you are guided through the process by a set up wizard. During the installation, you can create an “online disk”, select the features your prefer and then configure automated online backup. The interface resembles Windows Explorer. It is intuitive and easy to navigate and the backup tasks can be set up easily and with only a few clicks.

Jungle Disk also offers an unlimited backup plan to safeguard the servers in your company, regardless of their location. The Jungle Disk Server plan costs $5 per month, per server and it also includes free 10GB storage per server. This plan offers backup reports, advanced decompression and de-duplication to reduce the storage space used. The server backup plan comes without storage, or file size limits.

How Does it Work

After choosing the online storage provider you prefer (Amazon S3 or Rackspace) in the Create and Online Disk page, you will be able to name the disk and select your security settings. There, you can also create the encryption key that will ensure that no one else can access your files. To maintain the security of your data at all stages, Jungle Disk protects your files using 256-bit AES encryption even before they are transferred to their servers. While using an encryption key guarantees that your information remains private, it is important to keep in mind that if you lose it, you will not be able to recover your files.

Other options that you can select are Automatic Backup, Network Drive and Sync. Once these are checked, Jungle Disk will give you the possibility to select the folders you want to backup and to specify a backup schedule. You can easily browse your folders to choose the ones that you want to include in the backup and sub-folders are automatically selected as well. If you want to exclude certain file types or specific files, you can do it as well using the dropdown menu. The Advanced Options allow you to exclude individual files and folders. The process is simple and also very flexible.

In the initial setup, Jungle Disk lets you choose a Network Drive option and a Sync folder, where you can save data that you wish to access across connected computers. You can specify certain files like videos, web files, audio tracks or anything else. If you want to adjust further settings, you can select Configure in the Jungle Disk Activity Monitor and make the necessary changes. During the initial backup, Jungle Disk will show you the upload progress. You will be able to see the percentage completed and the time remaining. The Activity Monitor displays any error messages and you can also stop a backup, or start a restore from there.

Backups can be set up to take place every day, every week, or as often as every 5 minutes. It is also possible to program the service to start the PC from sleep to complete an scheduled backup. You can also control bandwidth usage and set the file sharing and also the file versioning option, which allows you to save versions of files deleted on your computer. The unlimited file versioning supported, ensures that you can rely on Jungle Backup as an effective archiving option.

Customer Support

Jungle Disk is simple to use, but since the company is committed to provide the best experience for its customers, there are different options to get help whenever needed. There is a customer support area that includes information about the features and the most important aspects of the service. There is also a section dedicated to list solutions to the most common issues. A Community forum is also available and you can find useful tips and answers from experienced users. Alternatively, you can contact Jungle Disk via web form and ticket system. While the responses are detailed, users that need immediate assistance will be disappointed by the lack of a live chat.

Conclusion

Business users will find that Jungle Disk is a cost-effective and easy to use solution that supports powerful features. The fact that you can pay for the storage that you actually need, makes the plans very convenient. While they don’t offer mobile applications and the customer support could be stronger (specially considering that the service is aimed at business users), the good level of security provided and the satisfactory performance, make Jungle Disk a good option to protect your data.

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