Online Backups

I was chatting today with some folks about my biggest home-IT horror story from the year and what I’ve done to alleviate a rerun.   In a nutshell – get a home data backup strategy.

Solve your data backup concerns TODAY and subscribe to an online backup service.  It is well-worth the cost.   Yes – there are certainly ways you can save money, but in my opinion, an online backup plan is the most hassle-free (hands off) and worry-free approach.

This blog isn’t meant to provide you with a comprehensive comparison, nor to sell you a particular product.  I simply am sharing this to advocate action now.  It has already saved my family a number of small headaches – and it would have saved me over $1200 if I had it in place at the beginning of the year.

• What would you do if your hard drive crashed or your laptop was stolen today?  How much would it be worth to you if you could instantly recover the important data?
• What would you do if you were working on a file for several hours or days, diligently saving it along the way, and it suddenly became corrupted?  How much would it be worth to you if you could easily recover the version saved just before it got corrupted?
• Let’s say you are working on a project and you get called away.  Can you easily retrieve a file via the web or phone?

Solutions to problems like these are readily available at a very affordable cost.  For around $5/month, this is some of the best insurance you can buy.  Depending on what you need, it may even be free.  A few of the products available are listed here:

• SugarSync
• Carbonite
• Mozy
• DropBox
• Box.net
• MobileMe

Since each tool has various compelling feature advantages, you should spend a few minutes to think about what you need and how much data you have.  Then take the plunge and make it happen.  At these price points – you can change your mind later too if your needs change.

Some key questions to consider:

• Do you need to backup any folder – or only selected ones?
• How much data do you have?
• Do you need versioning – archive of multiple saved versions of each file?
• Do you need remote or mobile access?
• How many PCs/Laptops do you want to cover – and do you need to share space/data between them?  What are the operating systems you use?
• Are you saving and sharing media (photos/music/video)?

If you have another suggestion, please share!