It may have escaped your notice, but the FIFA World Cup is almost upon us. We're big fans here at Carbonite, especially of the goal keepers. Why is this? Because we're both all about saving. Goal keepers save shots on goal, we save people's data.

During World Cup, we're running a Twitter competition asking you to guess how many goals will be saved during selected World Cup matches. One lucky winner will win a brand new 16GB Wifi iPad, worth $629 (£429.00), and 12 entrants will win a full year subscription to Carbonite, worth $54.95 (£41.95) each.

To enter all you need to do is watch out for World Cup tweets from @carbonite and RT with your guess of the number of saves for each match. For example, when you see this tweet:

•World Cup competition: Round One England vs USA [how many shots saved?] RT for chance to win an iPad and Carbonite online backup #WC2010

You need to retweet with:

•RT @carbonite World Cup competition: Round One England vs USA [3 saves] RT for chance to win an iPad and Carbonite online backup #WC2010

As soon as you tweet, you'll be entered into the competition. You can tweet a guess for as many matches as you like, but only one guess per match per user will be counted. Winners will be selected at random from entries with correct guesses. Any guesses after kick-off will not count.

We'll be running the competition on the below matches. Keep an eye for our tweets before each match and make sure you enter!

• ROUND 1 - England Vs USA (12th June 2010)
   Stat: Total Shots on Target Saved

• ROUND 2 - Slovenia Vs USA (18th June 2010)
   Stat: Total Shots on Target Saved

• ROUND 3 - England Vs Algeria (18th June 2010)
   Stat: Total Shots on Target Saved

• ROUND 4 - Slovenia Vs England (23rd June 2010)
   Stat: Total Shots on Target Saved

• ROUND 5 - USA VS Algeria (23rd June 2010)
   Stat: Total Shots on Target Saved

• ROUND OF 16: 1C Vs 2D (26th June 2010)
   Stat: Total Shots on Target Saved

• ROUND OF 16: 1D Vs 2C (27th June 2010)
   Stat: Total Shots on Target Saved

• QUARTER FINAL: W49 Vs W50 (2nd July 2010)
   Stat: Total Shots on Target Saved

• QUARTER FINAL: W52 Vs W51 (3rd July 2010)
   Stat: Total Shots on Target Saved

• SEMI FINAL: W58 Vs W57 (6th July 2010)
   Stat: Total Shots on Target Saved

• SEMI FINAL: W59 Vs W60 (7th July 2010)
   Stat: Total Shots on Target Saved

• FINAL: (11th July 2010)
   Stat: Total Shots on Target Saved

Winners notified after each match. The lucky iPad winner will be chosen at random from all correct entries and notified after the World Cup final on July 11th 2010.

Full terms and conditions can be found at http://carbonite.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2796

— Alison

Last night Carbonite was selected as a winner of the New England Innovation Awards by the Small Business Association of New England.

Over 160 companies were selected to participate in the awards process and present to a panel of judges why their company should be chosen as one of the most innovative and successful companies in New England.

Carbonite was selected as one of the 16 finalists two weeks ago and, after a final presentation to the judges, we were selected as a winner! Our president and COO, Keith, was even told by one of the lead judges that Carbonite was actually the top point winner with the 50 judges.

Some of the past winners of this award are:

•Ben and Jerry's
•Genzyme
•iRobot
•Nantucket Nectars
•Staples
•The Mathworks

This award means a lot to the Carbonite team. We're constantly working hard to bring innovation into our products, while at the same time keeping them as simple and easy-to-use as possible. Taking complex technology and making it simple is no small feat, and we're honored to be recognized for our innovation and the strides we've taken to make online backup available to the average consumer.

— Dave
CEO, Carbonite

I read an interesting article on Yahoo news this morning: 1 in 3 laptops die in the first three years.

The survey, conducted by SquareTrade, a warranty company, highlighted the following statistics: Looking at the first 3 years of ownership, 31% of laptop owners reported a failure to SquareTrade. Two-thirds of this failure (20.4%) came from hardware malfunctions, and one-third (10.6%) was reported as accidental damage. The complete report is available here: http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/SquareTrade_laptop_reliability_1109.pdf

These findings correlate quite well with the actual behavior of our users: approximately 11% of our users have to do a full restore of their data each year. Over three years, that's almost exactly the same 33% number. Another interesting statistic from our own user base is that almost half of all users do a partial restore each year — mostly to recover accidentally deleted or overwritten files.

I'll bet that if you asked the average computer user what the likelihood is of their computer data getting destroyed, they would guess a much lower number. Having a 1 in 3 chance that you are going to lose everything on your PC only highlights why online backup is so important.

— Dave
CEO, Carbonite

Bill Blinn of TechByter Worldwide interviewed our CEO, Dave Friend, for the November 15, 2009 TechByter podcast.

As a Carbonite fan, Blinn discussed his confidence in our online backup service as he introduce this week’s TechByter podcast, "The real safety net, and it's one that has saved me more times than I like to admit, is Carbonite. It's easy to make a dumb mistake that deletes files I need. I can get them back from my hot backup or from my Acronis backup. But more often than not, I've recovered them from my Carbonite backup."

Dave's interview can be found on www.TechByter.com in two parts:

Listen to Part 1 (Audio 5:07)

Listen to Part 2 (Audio 1:13)

— Alison

Our Mac product, which launched earlier this year, continues to receive a good reception from the media.

We've recently had reviews published with MacFormat and MacWorld magazines.

Christopher Phin from MacFormat awarded Carbonite 4/5 stars and appreciated our efforts to design a Mac version of the product:

“

Unlike many companies that have developed a PC application and then gone on to make a Mac version, the developers genuinely seem to have 'got' the Mac."

MacWorld magazine also awarded Carbonite 4/5 stars. Karl Hodge noted how the low cost is small price to pay for piece of mind.

“

The client is highly configurable and can be set to run when it's convenient. Costing around £3 a month to run, it's a low price for a little peace of mind."

— Dave
CEO, Carbonite

If you run a small business, backing up your data is critical. In fact, in the UK, all businesses are legally obligated to keep certain data records for a minimum of seven years. Not doing so could lead to a hefty fine or even prison sentence if vital data cannot be provided upon request.

I recently wrote an article for SME Web that addresses how SMEs with a limited IT budget can still protect themselves against losing critical business files.

SME Web is an online resource for owners and managers of small and medium sized companies in the UK, offering them best-practice advice on how to run their business. If you're interested in reading the full article, click here.

— Dave
CEO, Carbonite

Wow, they just keep coming. Another 5-star review for Carbonite's Mac version, this time from MacUser Magazine: "Verdict: This good value online storage solution is so easy-to-use you'll have no excuse not to back up your files."

Check out the whole review here

— Dave
CEO, Carbonite

Another nice recognition of Carbonite comes from the UK magazine Which? — similar to Consumer Reports in the US. They gave us their Best Buy rating, and that's apparently not easy to obtain. What they said is,

“

This accolade is far from easy to obtain. In fact, Best Buys are only awarded to those products that have performed to the highest standards in Which?'s rigorous testing and analysis, and cannot be requested or bought. This coveted award can be seen in the national advertising campaigns of popular brands including Miele, Panasonic and Procter & Gamble."

“

Our magazines do not carry advertising, we do not accept sponsorship of any kind and — just as a consumer would — we buy all of the thousands of products we test each year. It is for these reasons that consumers can truly trust the unbiased information we provide."

  I was unaware of this magazine, but my friends in Europe say they swear by it. Thank you, Which?.

— Dave
CEO, Carbonite

We just got another 5-star review, this one in IT Reviewed, an important online magazine for IT professionals and technorati. We really appreciate it when reviewers ask a lot of questions and do their homework. This writer, Chris Harris, really appreciated our ease-of-use.

“

If you've decided to use an online backup service, Carbonite is the best in the business. There are many positive points that the service provides including ease of use, the security of off-site storage, and low cost. There's no better online solution than Carbonite. Its hand-holding approach and close integration with Windows makes it accessible to all.

To read the entire review, click here

— Dave
CEO, Carbonite

I get a lot of emails from customers whose files we saved, but a couple of days ago I got one that caught my eye because it was unusually effusive in its praise. I can't resist reprinting it:

“

The unthinkable happened. Somehow, someway, completely unexpected (as it always is), a simple power failure dealt a hand that no one in my household saw coming. Without Carbonite, months of work would have been gone. A book concept, complete with photos — gone. Documents that stretched over a five year period — gone. All of my financial records in Quicken — gone. Valuable photos of my family and my new wife, and our honeymoon — gone. First photos of my brand new grandson, born just days ago — gone.

But thanks to Carbonite — NOT GONE. I used my system restore disk, putting my computer back in service minus all of my files, hoping that Carbonite would be my answer. IT WAS! EVERYTHING was restored. EVERYTHING was recovered. Every file, every photo, every document. I've been sitting in front of my computer, just quietly shaking, stunned that everything that I thought had slipped from my world is back again, safe and sound.

It is impossible for me to properly thank you. It is equally impossible for me to communicate to you what Carbonite has done for my peace of mind and my sense of security. What might have been the equivalent of an electronic tornado has come back as a clear, blue sky filled with soft clouds.

Carbonite, and you, are my heroes. HURRAY FOR CARBONITE!!

Your friend,

Ricky David Tripp”

I have to tell you that NO entrepreneur can resist feeling good when they get a letter like this. We work so darned hard, and this is the best kind of payoff we could possibly get! BTW, check out Ricky's web site, www.rickydavidtripp.com. He's a very talented dude. I have a soft spot for musicians — I was a music composition major in college. Unlike Ricky, I couldn't make a living at it. Anyway, I'm glad we saved all his stuff!

— Dave
CEO, Carbonite