On May 21, 2010, at 9:42 AM, Taylor, Kaia wrote:
> I'm just starting to play with 2G free storage space at
> dropbox.com. So far, it looks like viable free offsite storage. Of
> course you can pay them for more storage if you want; I'm just
> thinking of using it more for daily/incremental backup for critical
> config & data that I may want to retrieve under a different OS than
> the one I used to back it up.
>
> Does anyone else use any other free storage and wants to comment on
> how that has worked out?
>
I'd be very reluctant to store important data in any repository I
don't physically control, especially a free one. You can deal with
privacy/security problems by encrypting your data before sending it to
the backup location, but where will you be if they decide to close up
shop?
"Customers of other now-defunct storage sites, Omnidrive and MediaMax,
were not as fortunate in claiming their critical data. Those sites
went down without warning for financial and technical reasons, leaving
their customers in the lurch and their files merely cloud vapor."
http://blog.laptopmag.com/throwing-caution-to-the-cloud-the-risk-of-online-storage
Lest I sound too curmudgeonly, I will say that online backup probably
works just fine for lots of purposes. There's definitely a lot of
convenience to be had, and it may fit the budget better than buying
and managing your own hardware. But when you ask about storing
'critical config & data', I think you have to give these kinds of
stability, accessibility, and control issues a long hard look.
alex
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