Are there any real advantages to "the Cloud"?

[George Tyndall]

I read the other day that it takes 30 billion watts of electricity per day to keep our planet's servers up and running 24/7. Much of that is produced by burning coal, which is allegedly bad for our biosphere and its living matter, including us.

I've also read that the advantage of storing one's data in the cloud is that it is accessible from "any computer anywhere."

But how is that an improvement over having two 600GB external HDDs in one's carry-on bag, one serving as a backup of the other, and each only slightly larger than a pack of cigarettes?

Thank you.

[Steve Grisetti]

What if you get robbed? What if the building you keep your backup in burns down? What if you drop your bag and it crashes -- or they run it through a TSA screening at the airport and it fudges all of the data?

After the attempt to blow up the World Trade Center in the early 1990s, they realized it was important to back up all of their data off-site. If they hadn't, we'd have had a terrible mess on September 12, 2001!

[TreeTopsRanch]

Yes, Steve hit the nail on the head here. Our Homeowners Association uses the cloud to store a back up of important financial files in case of a loss. Since the Association's treasurer, me, does all the financials at home using Quickbooks, the board of directors wanted to make sure they had a backup in case of a loss of data due to a robbery or other calamity. And, yes I encrypt all files before sending them to the cloud. I use Skydrive (cloud) as it allows 7 gigs free storage and is easy for me to sync from home computer.

[George Tyndall]

Steve and TTR,

Ok, so it appears I should consider the cloud as a backup for my primary and my backup HDDs.

Thanks for enlightening me.

Any suggestions for a fast but economical method for backing up not GBs but TBs of C drive and data?

Thank you.

[TreeTopsRanch]

George, using the cloud to backup that much data will cost you money and probably not much fun doing it also as it will take time to organize that much data. I have set up about 10 folders on skydrive and the same folder structure on my home computer. You would have to do something similar. Guess you could do it but can you think of some of that data that may not be so important? For not important stuff I use external drives. If they get stolen I could probably live with that loss.

[Peru]

How about the "friends and relatives" storage option for offsite backups?

[TreeTopsRanch]

Well that certainly is a novel idea. I don't know any friends and relatives of mine that would enjoy downloading terabytes of data though. And could they even guarantee the integrity of your data. I'm thinking, when you need to recover some of that data, they will say "What Data? I erased that stuff years ago because I haven't heard from you" or "Gee, my hard drives crashed last year and I forgot to tell you that your data is lost". It's like 'Don't loan money to friends and relatives and expect it to be returned'.

[Peru]

I don't know any friends and relatives of mine that would enjoy downloading terabytes of data though. And could they even guarantee the integrity of your data. I'm thinking, when you need to recover some of that data, they will say "What Data? I erased that stuff years ago because I haven't heard from you" or "Gee, my hard drives crashed last year and I forgot to tell you that your data is lost".

The friends and relatives option is best done by just asking them to store external hard drives in their home. You periodically switch out the old drives with new, updated drives.

They don't have to manage the data, just put it on a shelf in a closet.

[TreeTopsRanch]

OK that may be practical for you but not for me.

[Peru]

I don't actually do that. I'm fortunate to own a business where I can keep my home offsite backups there and my work offsite backups at home.

I just thought that it might be an option for some folks.