It's in the clouds!

[TheTomG]

So I am going to tell everyone to back up all their work of a creative nature into some cloud service somewhere.

I have always studiously made backups of everything I do, onto floppy, CD, DVD, and external hard drive depending on what era we are talking about. All my life this has worked.

Imagine my surprise when I find myself leaving home unexpectedly, and bam, all those items are in my old house and I have no access to them any more during a divorce that I am undergoing. Ok, had thought of hardware failure and all that, but had never considered that one.

Now everything I have ever written, every piece of music, every story, every scribbled note, every piece of 3D art, every photograph, is all nicely stored on my computers, nicely backed up onto different media... and all completely inaccessible to me.

I may get it all back - or I may not. Perhaps I won't be awarded "custody" of the hardware and it will have to be sold for money. Perhaps I will get the hardware but find it has been been virginalized and all my stuff is wiped. Who can say?

So, don't think you know what life has in store for you. Back up your stuff to someplace you will ALWAYS have access to no matter what happens in your life.

Anyone recommend a good cloud storage service?

[Vertigo]

I would be a little cautious about this. Googling the other day I discovered a google link that took me direct to an author's manuscript stored in the cloud. Although there was no way to get at it through the provider's site itself without the proper authority, the goole search 'bots, had managed to get at it and gave a direct link to the documents itself allowing download of it (I did notify the author).

Before you start using anything on the internet to store your data you should stop to consider how private or valuable that data is to you. If it is on the internet then, no matter how well 'guarded' it is, it is available to people who know their way about. Just look at some of the recent high profile hacking of national security organisations. If outfits like that can't protect their data how well do you think your average 'cloud' provider will be able to do it?

[Metryq]

A friend and I regularly send each other important archives as a form of off-site backup. Anything really personal can be encrypted. We've been doing this since long before cloud storage became a business, and it has worked well for us.

P.S.—Sorry to hear of your troubles, Tom. I hope you get all the data back. Many years ago I remember reading an article about someone who recovered a stolen computer that had Timbuktu installed on it. They were able to locate the computer, login, safeguard data, then set up some scripts to use the modem (that's how long ago this was) to call the police and have the computer report itself.

[Foxbat]

Reasons why I will never use Cloud.
1a) Security in general

1b) Security - specifically denial of services or straight forward hack. How long before this happens?

2) Reliability - my own hardware can break down and so can theirs.

3) Extortion. You may find it a bit of a problem if all your gigabytes are stored cloudwise and the providers decide to ramp up the cost in a massive way. A bit of a pain to download or move elsewhere.

4) Privacy. Maybe I'm just old fashioned but too many people put too much information out there and putting even more out into cyberspace is just asking for trouble.

Am I paranoid? Probably but I'm not going to change.

I use HDD, CD, DVD Secondary HDD and for really important stuff, I back up to a third HDD.

[Vertigo]

That sounds similar to me Foxbat. Only I don't bother with CD/DVD any longer I just have all my data duplicated on four (yes four) external hard drives one of which is kept at the other end of the country, although that one doesn't get updated quite as often - maybe four times a year.

[alchemist]

Is Google Docs part of this cloud? I ask largely because I don't really know what a cloud is.

[anivid]

I have two HD back-ups - one for the stuff it'll take mega much work to recuperate, then probably not would be done in case of a sinister ;-)
- and another for personal stuff kept top secret ;-)
A lot of mail servers these days offer to combine & store your different mails, friend lists, personal infos and everything about you - may be they have only whitewashed intentions, I don't know - but if your life is important to you, don't let others take over the coordination ;-)

[TheTomG]

I had mine backed up on two hard drives two, just the misfortune to have someone take over those. The cloud would at least have remained accessible And if anyone really really wanted to steal my half written manuscripts and story ideas, that still would have left me with them, and to be honest, I'd rather they were stolen and still existed someplace than have been condemned to true and total non-existence

No-one has a cloud service they use, then, it seems? If not I'll let you know what I uncover!

[Ursa major]

Originally Posted by Vertigo

I would be a little cautious about this. Googling the other day I discovered a google link that took me direct to an author's manuscript stored in the cloud. Although there was no way to get at it through the provider's site itself without the proper authority, the goole search 'bots, had managed to get at it and gave a direct link to the documents itself allowing download of it (I did notify the author).

Which gives a whole new meaning to cloud sourcing.

And just as one huge multinational helps in nicking our stuff, another huge multinational seems to be less than concerned as provides a means to get that stuff in front of the general public.

(I daresay much of what appears on Amazon is of far poorer quality than TomG's half-written manuscripts.)

[Dozmonic]

If you email them to a webmail account they'll almost always be there to access. Or if you have your own webspace, it's easy to store stuff pretty securely on there.