Until one day the mac decides to orphan the backup (for reasons unknown to me, you, Apple or possibly even the Mac itself.) That TimeMachine is the best backup for a Mac is a sad state of affairs. Don't know if they've had a 'trial by fire', however. I've used iDrive on Mac before, works well.Have one user with that service. Related, machine itself would be best using FileVault (has been around since 10.3/Panther). Too, there are tweaks for adjusting the periodic frequency from the default 60 minutes (up to once per day).ĭo use the Time Machine encrypt option, and have an iron clad way to protect the recovery key. Such can be useful for VM (virtual machines). Time Machine does allow exempting select folders from backup. OS X Server ($20) can use used as a Time Machine server (& more appropriate for a multiple machine/office scneario), and that local data can then be shifted off-site by another method of choice. This will be more relevant in a recovery situation, if/when cloud is the only source. Of course, network and cloud options will be much slower than local backups. Alternatively, could use a network mount for Time Machine (many NAS boxes offer this natively). With hard drives being inexpensive (even 2TB 2.5' ones), the price point is attractive. It does allow multiple Time Machine mount devices, hence could have a second or third hard drive rotated off-site.