SafeSync Review

This is our review of the SafeSync cloud storage service from Trend Micro.

We started testing the SafeSync service by using the 30-day free trial. This is a good way to test out the service and ensure it works for you. From what we can see, the trial service is not limited in any other way than the 30-day trial period. It also provides unlimited storage in the cloud. On registering you are asked to download and install the software onto your machine. The Windows 7 version of the software was 7.8Mb in size. The software is available for Windows 7 (32 & 64-bit), Windows 7 Starter Edition, Windows Vista, SP2 (32 & 64-bit), Windows XP SP3 (32-bit only), Mac OSX 10.5.8 or later and 10.6 or later.

Installation is very quick. It restarts windows explorer and requests your username and password. It then creates a new drive mapping (Z:/ on our machine) with a drive letter that can be changed. The folders that appear here need to be configured. Each one has a little icon next to it, indicating sync status. A green tick means it has been synchronised. Three blue circular arrows mean synchronisation is underway.

Desktop Application

By default you get a list of checkboxes for the default folders, like My Documents, etc. The folders we wanted to backup are kept under a shared public user account on the main laptop in our household though. The advanced tab allows you to configure other folders to be synchronised, which better met our needs. Once you have done this pairing the synchronisation is automatic. The initial upload of content can take a long time, even with a fast network connection like ours. Once the initial upload has completed though, only changes are sent and these are much smaller and quicker. If you let the initial update occur as and when you use your PC, it could be weeks before the initial synchronisation is completed. It is probably better to just leave you PC on for as long as it takes to do the initial synchronisation. Don't forget that the bandwidth used will count as part of your usage as far as your ISP is concerned.

You can configure SyncSafe for the type of network connection you have and it then limits the amount of bandwidth it uses to synchronise files, to match your network connection. You can also specify custom figures. We used the 'Super Fast Cable' setting and this seemed to give the best performance.

The software provides information on progress, including files synchronised, files to be done and uplink bandwidth being used. Despite having a 15Mbps uplink speed, we never saw it use more than 3.8Mbps, regardless of the settings used. This means that a laptop could be connected via Wi-Fi or Ethernet and you would not see any difference in backup performance. There was no noticeable impact on other applications or services whilst running at this speed but our FTTP connection provides 100Mbp downlink and 15Mbps uplink.

Web Application

The SafeSync service includes a web-browser interface with full control and access to your content. You can also upload files via this interface. You can share folders, sub-folders and files by generating a unique link in the web interface.

Mobile Applications

There is also a SafeSync app in the Apple apps store which is available free of charge. This provides a view of your folders in the cloud. You can also share folders via the mobile app. The '+' button gives the opportunity to create a new folder and add pictures or video from the iPhone library or footage shot directly on the camera. The grid icon toggles from list to thumbnail view. It can take a while to generate the thumbnails, depending on the size of the images and your network connection speed. We can see this be a very useful way to back up holiday footage taken on your iPhone. It would mean you photos and video is safely stored in case you lose or break your iPhone.

Backups

With cloud storage services like this, you really need to be able to store large backups without having to keep a copy on your machine. This is outside of the more normal folder pair synchronisation capability. You can do this using the web console and the Java 'drag and drop' feature but, you then have to wait for the zip files to be uploaded. This could take some time.

We did this by creating a 'backups' folder within our storage and then dropped zipped files into it.

Content Streaming

The SafeSync product does not include the ability to stream content from the cloud to your devices.

Software Updates

The Windows PC client automatically detected a client update and it was very quick and easy to install. After a reboot, it was all working as planned.

Summary

We think this product is pretty good. The software is easy to use, easily configured and works reliably. It does exactly what you would expect it to do and the £44.99 annual fee is pretty good for a service like this with unlimited storage. If you search on-line, you can find special offers and discounts. We went from free trial to a one-year subscription for £24.

We've only encountered one minor issue so far and this has only occurred once. When we plugged in an Ethernet cable to our laptop and switched off the wireless networking, SafeSync paused the synchronisation process and would not let us resume. It was solved by restarting the machine though.

The service appears to have some bandwidth throttling as described above. This is only really an issue on initial synchronisation and if you add huge amounts of data.

There is no way to synchronise a NAS device with this service that we can find. It is PC only (and via the mobile client).

NOTE: Synchronisation with a cloud storage service like SafeSync is a great way to prevent loss of valuable data but, it does not in itself constitute a backup strategy. Check out our article on data security for more information.

The volumes of data going to/from cloud storage services can be very high. Makes sure you have factored this in to your allowance from your ISP. Most ISPs have usage caps that could be triggered by synchronising large amounts of data into services like this one.