Online Backup

[Teknojnky]

Anyone have experience using some of the online backup services?

I found a small article about mozy and allmydata, mozy seems to be fairly nicely done.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/b ... ackup.html

[moonmoon]

I cant make a decision.

[Lowlander]

I was reading the other day that online backup is an unsecure thing. Of course this is logically as instead of hacking users computers one only needs to get access to one online backup service to gain access to a lot of peoples data.
Another issue would be privacy. Carefully read the license of each service to analyze what the host allows itself to do with your data.


Also see:
InformationWeek
PC Magazine

[Scooter]

Hardrive space is so cheap now, I question why anyone would use another method.

[Lowlander]

One reason would be location. A backup that resides in the same physical location works well for harddrive failure, but doesn't help much in environmental issues like fire, flooding or total site destruction. Each person needs to define what type of failure is allowable and plan backup requirement needs accordingly.

[Teknojnky]

Right, the 2 primary reasons for myself as I see it, would be for backup, and for streaming/downloading from anywhere.

Floods, fires, etc are examples of why you could want an offsite backup. Heck that includes any digital data, like home videos of your kids or whatever.

[Kilmatead]

I'd be more concerned with reliability of access - it's all very nice to have your data floating around in the nebulous aether for access "anywhere"... kind of like cryogenics - but who's to say your particular freezer will still be plugged-in in a years time? Say they advertise a server in US or UK, but you actually end up being the last customer after Zimbabwe has turned it's lights off. Just a thought.

True Image is the greatest thing ever invented (after ice cream) and should be a prerequisite for any computer in use anywhere.

And - just for the record - in case of "total site destruction" I would have bigger problems than caring about computer-crap, regardless of how important somebody thinks electronic data is. Even something as small as a toothache can focus the mind's priorities better than any flood, fire, or messy 6-year-old. That does have a nice ring to it though: "Total Site Destruction". Hmm. Just how careful that messy 6-year-old is with his chemistry set is a consideration. Never mind the semantically sophistic relationship of TSD's to STD's. The mind boggles.

[Lowlander]

Well it wouldn't really matter if the online backup would shutdown. As it's a backup you would just move to the next service. Privacy of your data is actually a lot bigger concern, and I wouldn't trust these services with my sensitive data. This would be for 2 reasons. First what does the service do with your data and who has access to it and secondly central storage of data creates a more attractive point to focus on for hackers.

I have never experienced a total loss event, but I believe that many people would focus on the small things like pictures and objects of history. So having a safe backup of your pictures might actually be really important. Also copies of important documents can make like after such event easier. But would you trust those to a third party (think identity theft).

[Kilmatead]

I believe that many people would focus on the small things like pictures and objects of history.

Thankfully "not being like most people" the first thing that comes to mind at a terminal event is peccata mundi (in a non-christian sense) leading me to think there was something substantially wrong with the previous life I led. Thus leading to a decent mental breakdown and Total Life Re-Evaluation Event. Adoption of loincloth and ashes. Trek the world. Feed the hungry. Castigate the righteous. Hang the rich. And finally, finally, win the heart of she who I lost so long ago.

Yes, I'm taking the piss, but the image of Total Site Destruction is just so poetic and romantic that it cries out to be played with. No doubt all your concerns are legitimate (in fact, in my "adult" guise I would agree with you), but traumatic loss can be rather liberating for humans, as opposed to conservative ("pictures and objects of history"). I think what I'm trying to point out here is that for the silly day-to-day existence of the mundanity we call "life" a standard (physical backup) is more than sufficient and quite useful given how humans have structured the world.

However, given how nature has structured the world (stochasticism), something more is longed-for but unattainable. The promise of what on-line backup provides is just not it.

I should think a drive image posted to Aunt Sally in Newark once a week would be sufficient, and indeed considered extreme for most people.

Or one could just gain enlightenment and grow less attached to the things of man.

That costs nothing and can never be lost.

The perfect backup.