A Better Backup Solution

So, we’re all in our studios/offices. We all have our own custom backup solutions (I hope). However, backup solutions can change as time goes by. And sometimes, they change back. But then, things can get confusing. You’re juggling multiple hard drives wondering what photos are on which hard drive. Enter calamity.

My friend Eric Doggett uses a Drobo, which is great because it has multiple bays and has automatic backup programs onto several hard drives at once. And with a network enabled Drobo, you can backup a network of computers onto a central device.

This is a great solution if you have multiple computers that need access to a backup system. For those of you with studios that have several Photoshop or design specialists working from a central file system, this would be a great backup for your server.

However, a system like this can get costly. Not only do you have to replace the hard drives once they’re full, but you have to incorporate it into your system which requires some thought. Are you just going to plug it into your computer, or do you need it to support your network system server? Some of you may live for this kind of challenge, but some of you may just want a simpler solution.

Enter: Online Backup Solutions. We all know that data will eventually leave behind it’s physical form of DVDs, flash drives, floppy drives (j/k!) and return to its original form of digital material. In the beginning, we humans tried to capture data in a physical form in order for us to understand it, control it, manipulate it, until we learned from it to create better methods of spreading knowledge through fiber optics, lasers, hi-frequency waves, and light. Its as if you just point to your target receiving the information and it’s here in a hyper-second. Also, with the increasing bandwidth both upstream and downstream available by broadband providers, we can transmit more data to more places exponentially faster than we could a few weeks ago! So why not make it work for your backup solution?

One such online service called Mozy provides ease of use for a simple online backup solution. So simple in fact that you only pay a small license fee plus a usage of space fee per GB of storage used.

Another online back up solution that I’ve been using happily for 2 years is Jungle Drive. Jungle Drive is basically a portal software between your computer and Amazon S3 servers. By utilizing their automatic backup feature, all my files are backed up on to secure Amazon servers that I can access at any time. Plus, they have data access features from the web when you’re on the go. You can even tell Jungle Disk what types of files to backup (JPG, CR2, RAW, TiFF, etc). That way you can choose to back up your original images, or just your final jpegs. Plus, you can configure Jungle Drive to work like a network drive, where you can just copy/paste items into your virtual drive.

So, it seems there are several ways to seamlessly create an online backup system for just you or for multiple users. This nice thing is that these providers give you enough flexibility to custom fit a solution to your particular situation. Plus, without having to worry about having your backup data stored on a physical drive, there’s less worry about catastrophic data loss. Recovering a damaged hard drive can cost up to $5,000. And of course, we all know the worst happens when we’re least prepared for it.

Do some research and find out what solution works best for you. Data is data, but when it’s stored in a physical state, it becomes vulnerable to breakage, theft, corruption and loss. So keep it in its natural form and get it in a safe place and out of your studio/office ;)

PLEASE COMMENT ON ANY EXPERIENCE YOU HAVE WITH ANY OF THE ABOVE PRODUCTS OR SERVICES. ALSO, POST QUESTIONS AND I’LL BE HAPPY TO FIND ANSWER FOR YOU :)

Cheers,

Dustin Meyer