I love this free service and use it constantly for working from home, remotely helping users, and accessing my home pc from work. So when I was invited to try their new demo remote backup product, I jumped at the chance.

How the service works in a nutshell: Setup the program on at least two computers and designate one of them as the “storage pc.” Then create a backup set, tell it how often to run and LogMeIn takes care of the backup and file sync from there.

This whole process was very intuitive and took less than 5 minutes to install.

Steps I took to install:

• Sign into your logmein.com account
• Choose the backup tab
• “+Add computer”



• Accept the applet



• Follow the defaults through the install
• Uncheck “create desktop icon” (I hate desktop icons)
• Create a new backup set

Pluses:

• Very easy to install.
• Works natively through firewalls.
• Can copy open files (such as Outlook PSTs.)
• Only sends changed files, reducing bandwidth and transfer time.
• Stores data on computers you own, so there are no data storage fees.
• Very easy for an organization to automate backups to a server that they own.
• Stores multiple versions of files and can be used for restoring PCs.

Negatives:

• Stores data on computers you own, so it is your responsibility to ensure that “storage PCs” are dispersed, reliable, and have the capacity needed.
• No free version like their excellent remote access product (Currently $60/year for two PCs, $50 for each additional PC.)

From a large organization standpoint, I can see this product doing really well. I know of backup products that can cost $25-$50 a month per PC. At (worst case before negotiation) $50-$60 PC/year this could be the nudge that an organization needs to start backing much more of their data.