The recent Microsoft cloud failure for their Danger/Sidekick division brings home the point about having working verified backups.
I will press very hard to do nothing but work on the very inadequate backup system at my new $job when I return from vacation.
How very apropos that this failure in the cellular mobile services provider should should occur now and especially since this new $job is in the same space….
Here is a quote about backups from someone who is as paranoid about them as I am.
# 19 eggman9713 said, on October 11th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
The cloud is not meant to be your only backup for this very reason. You are trusting a third party over something of yours.The way I run my systems at home is I have three levels of backup.
Level 1 is on-site copies of all my data. The backup drives are kept in a fire-resistant safe.
Level 2 is off-site backup disks that I keep at work. I swap the level 1 and level 2 disks weekly to ensure they stay mostly up to date.
Level 3 is a cloud storage account I have with one of the major online backup vendors.
I then can call the backup into service according to situation. Level 1 for if a machine’s primary disk dies or similar situation. The backup can be restored quickly and easily. Level 2 is where I would go if someone broke into my house and stole the safe containing my level 1 backups. If someone steals my level 2’s from work, I still have my level 1’s at home. So that provides pretty safe bet that my stuff will not be lost. However, if by some crazy coincidence someone robs both my house and the office at the same time, I have the cloud as my last-ditch backup. It would be slow, but at least it would be there. If all three sets went kaput at the same time? I probably have bigger things to worry about at that point, like the apparent arrival of the apocalypse.
http://blog.gogrid.com/2009/10/13/the-microsoftdangert-mobile-sidekick-fiasco-is-not-a-failure-of-cloud-computing/
More good stuff about how backups are supposed to be done.
Trever
October 14th, 2009