Backups are important.

It is an unchangeable fact that nothing is made for eternity. Especially not the computer hardware that we are using every day. There is a wide range of bad things that can happen to our devices that jeopardise the precious data we have stored on them: From manufacturing defects to accidentally spilling orange juice or even dropping the notebook from the balcony of our luxurious apartment in the 23rd floor. Periodical backups to external storage can save us from a losing all the digital pictures of your beloved child and other data important to you.

However, when living in a country with a quite high density of natural disasters like Volcanic Eruptions, Typhoons, Earthquakes and Tsunamis this might not be enough. The best and most frequent backup is not very helpful when it sits right next to the computer it should back up. And even if you are living in a more save place like Germany it is probably worth thinking about the possibility of fire or other accidents.

With all this in mind I have recently started to look around for solutions to create off-site backups. I received 2 recommendations for trying the service Crash Plan and Backblaze. Currently I am evaluating the first.

Besides giving the opportunity to backing my computer’s data up to their servers (encrypted, the encryption taking place on the user’s machine) it is also possible to backup to other Crash Plan user’s computers or external hard disks located at friend’s houses.

I am going to test the options and research them in more detail and will come back with another blog post once I know more.