I’ve discussed in previous blog entries the use of offsite client backups. I’m essentially talking about web-based client backup services. There are several available for customers including a new application service from Microsoft called “Windows Live” - talked about this on another blog entry.

These backup services are quite convenient. It does require an Internet connection, which just about everyone has now. The Internet connection also needs to have decent bandwidth to make sure you’re not waiting all night to shut your system off so the backup can finish. Some services even offer a continuous backup service that essentially backs up your data as soon as you save the file.

One benefit that I’ve always been a fan of is that the end-users can typically recover their own data. If the online service has some sort of versioning option, all the better for those of us that can’t remember when we deleted those suddenly important “backup” slides.

For those of you following my previous entries, you’ll probably recall that I’m not a real fan of letting my data out of my site. I’m a bit of a control freak I guess. So although I would prefer to have better control over my data, I can see these online offsite backups carving away a more mainstream niche. After all, the few Gigabytes that Google gives me for my gmail account is already getting some pretty decent exercise. In a way, I guess I already allow my data to be maintained by someone else – albeit personal emails only. It’s certainly not a far stretch to think about backing up my files to one of these services. I wonder if Google already has a free service for me to use. I’ll have to check and let you know!

Blog ya later!

Joe

This entry was posted on Friday, November 4th, 2005 and is filed under General, Storage Applications, Advisor - Joe Disher. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.