Online backup provider Mozy (now part of EMC, which also owns Retrospect) has announced that their Mac software has reached version 1.0 after more than a year of public beta testing (see "Two Online Backup Services Announce Public Betas," 2007-04-30). MozyHome for Mac offers unlimited online backups for a flat fee of $4.95 per month (a free 2 GB account is also available). The Mac MozyHome software is a 4.8 MB download.

MozyHome uses 448-bit Blowfish encryption for your files as well as 128-bit SSL to protect data while in transit. During incremental updates, the software copies only the portions of files that have changed (block-level incremental backup), reducing the time backups take to complete - a particularly welcome feature for those who want to back up large files that change often, such as Entourage databases and disk images used by virtualization software. Mozy also stores multiple versions of each backed-up file so that you can restore it to its state from any point in the past 30 days. Users can restore files using the Mac client software, download them from the company's secure Web site, or order DVDs (at an extra charge) containing their data.

Version 1.0 contains many changes from the beta versions, including support for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Mail messages, and files with resource forks. Formerly, backups ran automatically, whenever files changed; now, you can opt instead to run backups on an explicit schedule. You can also now throttle the program's bandwidth (at all times or during certain hours). In addition, version 1.0 features a long list of bug fixes and performance improvements.

MozyHome, as the name suggests, is for individual users. Mozy also announced that business versions of its service, MozyPro and MozyEnterprise, will become available later this year. Pricing details were not released.

I've become increasingly enthusiastic about online backup services as their costs have come down and feature sets have improved (see "Online Backup Options Expand," 2007-04-09), though speed will likely always be a concern, given the significant amount of data most of us have to back up and the limited upstream bandwidth of most consumer-level broadband services. I'll be interested to see how the new version of Mozy stacks up against competitor CrashPlan, which has so far held the lead in both breadth of features and performance.