Today I received the following e-mail that demonstrates the dangers of depending on hosted services. BeInSync was an acceptable solution for my file synchronization, storage, and back-up needs. As you can see, I have 30 days to find a new provider. While this isn’t critical for me because of my limited use, I can see when those who depend on the service might be in a real pickle.
Today’s lesson: trust your own infrastructure. Sometimes the clouds can part leaving you in a data free fall.
April 30th, 2009
Dear BeInSync Customer:
During this time of economic uncertainty we need to focus our attention and resources. BeInSync was in the early stages of deployment and as such would have required significant resources to make it successful.
We have made the decision to permanently shut down the BeInSync Professional and BeInSync Business online services in 30 days, on June 1, 2009. After June 1st, you will no longer be able to access your account online, and you will no longer have access to any backups that are stored online. Also on June 1st, all backup data will be removed from our online storage.
Our records indicate that you have an active subscription to the BeInSync service. We will issue you a refund for a portion of the annual subscription fee that you paid. The portion will be prorated, starting from May 1, 2009, to the end of your current term. We will be processing your refund payment during the next 30 days. The refund payment will be in the same form as your original payment, for example, if you paid by credit card, we will credit that same card.
Thank you for your interest in BeInSync products. If you have any questions, please submit a support ticket on our web site at http://www.beinsync.com/support/
Sincerely,
BeInSync
Filed under: Technology Tagged: | BeInSync, File storage
Chris Jenkins
Adam Mahle
Kristen Vitartas
Joel Musheno
Damon Muchmore
Jacob Prystowsky
Does anybody know if the shut down includes the free service for syncing computers in a home network? I’m guessing so since I can’t connect today (Monday, 6/8/2009) and neither can a couple of my friends who tested for me. I don’t use the backup or professional services so didn’t receive this notification, started searching after no connection today.
Any suggestions of other good syncing software?
Thank you.
Yes, the shutdown includes all services from BeInSync.
We have investigated several other services and have begun using a service called NomaDesk – which provides similar functionality to BeInSync. You might want to check it out.