Sådan kan cloud fejle: Stol ikke på Microsoft

Microsoft har for nyelig introduceret deres cloud storage: SkyDrive. Det er, som fx DropBox, et lager på internettet, hvor man kan lægge sine filer, fx til backup.

Der har dog været en sag fremme i pressen hvor en bruger fik slettet alle sine filer:

http://www.comon.dk/art/205276/microsofts-dropbox-konkurrent-blokerer-dine-erotiske-billeder

Årsagen var, at han havde helt lovlige billeder af letpåklædte billeder liggende. Dem havde Microsoft kigget i og besluttet at lukke hans konto. SkyDrive er ikke en hjemmeside, alt indholdet er privat, men alligevel synes Microsoft de vil blande sig i hvad man bruger det til.

Der er altså en måde mere cloud kan fejle på, nemlig at leverandøren får lyst til at slette sine filer.

RAID is not backup

As I have written in other postings, a RAID setup consists of 2 or more harddrives, which are mirrors or contains the same data. It is done in a way, that if 1 disk fails, no data is lost and the system will continue running.

But why do I say that RAID is not backup, then?

1. RAID 1-5 can save your data if 1 harddrive fails. If another disk fails before you can replace the bad disk and the data can be mirrord, you have lost all of your data.
2. RAID only protects against drive failure. Theft, water damage, virus, accidential deletion etc. will still cause you to lose data.
3. RAID does not protect against RAID failure. If the controller, the hardware which manages the disks, fails you will lose all of your data. And trust me: They do fail. Even the very expensive ones.

Note that RAID 6 will allow you to have 2 drives fail before data loss, but: You are still not fully protected.

All in all: RAID will let your server or computer run without interruption if a harddrive fails, but it will not protect you as a backup should do.

My backup setup 4

In a previous posting I defined my 3 kinds of data. In this posting I will tell how I back it up:

1. Okay to loose.
   (see a previous posting)
2. Harder to replace.
   (see previous posting)
3. Ireplaceable.
   This data I store on my NAS and I back it up over the Internet to an off site location. The cheapest solution would be a NAS friendship but I don't know anybody who would need a similar solution, so I use a commercial solution.
   The service I use is Crash Plan (consumer version). It comes with a backup program (which is free) and that program makes it easy to do backup to any medium. It will only cost money if you (as me) choose to buy their backup over the internet service. Currently I pay $60 for a year and then I can backup a single computer but an unlimited amount of data. Currently that is 460GB !!! They also have a family plan, which removes the 1 computer limit too and a commercial plan.
   The Crash Plan program runs on my computer, which I have to leave running when I have new data (a photo shoot easily produces 10-15 GB of data).

See also: How does it fail: Online backup.

My backup setup 3

In a previous posting I defined my 3 kinds of data. In this posting I will tell how I back it up:

1. Okay to loose.
   (see previous posting)
2. Harder to replace.
   Nothing exists without at least 2 copies at different locations, which is also true for this data. I have one copy at home on 4 small harddrives and a single encrypted harddrive at work with the same data. When I make an update to the one at home (which is not often) I will bring the one at work home and update that one. In this case I am protected against fire etc. and in some degree protected against drive failure. Because I don't check them often, there is still a significant risk that I might loose everything some day.
   For that reason, I ought to have it on a NAS at home, but then I'll have to buy another NAS and two harddrives.
3. Ireplaceable.
   (see next posting)

My backup setup 2

In the previous posting I defined my 3 kinds of data. In this posting I will tell how I back it up:

1. Okay to loose.
   This data I store on my NAS - see previous postings about a NAS. It protects me resonably from drive crash, but theft, fire, flood, human error etc. is not covered. However, it is still a very cheap way to have copies of a lot of data on two drives which is often updated.
2. Harder to replace.
   (see next post)
3. Ireplaceable.
   (see future post)

My backup setup 1

I have a lot of data - way too much to serious backup. For this reason I have split it into several categories, each of which have different backup strategies:

1. Okay to loose: Data I get can again, e.g. installation files for downloaded software or music I bought which I can download or rip again.
2. Harder to replace: I have digitalized a lot of old VHS tapes. If I loose the data I can buy the movies again on DVD. It will cost some money, but it can be done.
3. Ireplaceable: Pictures, e-mails, documents etc.

See in the next posting how I back these categories up.

Backup is not the most important...

Backup is not the most important: It is restore.

Imagine that you make your backups regularly in multiple ways with at least one being offsite. One day you need the backup, but it does not work. You might have forgotten a directory, so you do not backup everything you think, you might have forgotten a password for an encrypted file or for some reason the automatic backup have not worked for the last 6 months.

Just as important as taking backup is to test that you can actually restore it. Try it on an old computer or when you get a new one. At least make sure that you can get up and running when necessary.