After spending some time working with Apple's iCloud, I thought there might be a simpler backup and storage system for Macs and PCs. There may be, but for me it wasn't Cloud Engine's PogoPlug.
PogoPlug's problem is one that all devices face. The more features you offer, the harder the product is to use. PogoPlug is so loaded with options, so many ways to configure backups and so many storage and price plans that it would take a team of National Security Agency cryptologists to decipher it all.
At one level it's simple. There are three models of PogoPlug, priced from $50 to $150, and they all basically do the same thing: they connect your router to a hard drive. That way you can use your home network to back up your computer's files to that drive. Through a deal with Amazon.com's low-cost cloud storage service, Glacier, you can keep yet another copy of your computer files on a remote server. Through PogoPlug, the service costs from $30 a year for 100 gigabytes t o $100 a month for five terabytes.
The PogoPlug Series 4 backs up data and makes it available anywhere.Here's where it gets more complex. PogoPlug also lets you reach your stored files over the Internet, using a computer, phone or tablet. When you are sitting in an airport lounge, you can listen to music or see videos you have stored on your computer at home.
We're not quite done yet. It offers two other ways to store data in the cloud. They aren't as inexpensive as Glacier, but they are more accessible, so you can get to your backup files faster.
It might be worth wading through the features and payment plans if PogoPlug worked more smoothly. In a test, se tup was as complicated as the features list. It took me several days, working with technical assistance from PogoPlug, to get the thing to back up at all. The service was stymied because my folders “Music†and “Photos†began with capital letters.
There are two ways to choose what you will back up, one using a browser window and one using an app. They don't back up the same things in the same way. If I had used the app, rather than the browser, “Music†and “Photos†would not have caused a problem, the company said.
In the end, I mistakenly stored a bunch of stuff that I didn't intend to. And many music files that appeared to have been stored were inaccessible â€" I could see them, but I couldn't play them. Even the company didn't seem to know why.
The company assured me that my experience was unusual. While reviews on Amazon.com are mixed, people generally seemed to have a better experience than I did.
I suppose if you want to use the o ne-button-save-everything option, and you know where that button is, PogoPlug might be easy to use. But if you want to pick and choose what you store, it will take some work.
