Some questions for those of you who DO cloud backup/storage...

I use Pogoplug for Cloud storage... and love it. It's unlimited storage for the price of $29 annual. Plus it backs up all my files on the phone automatically.

I also use Synology NAS at home as redundant backup. Any physical hardware can subject to failure, stolen or incidental disaster.

https://pogoplug.com/p​ersonal#hiw

Does pogoplug have any restrictions on the type of files that are being backed up? Is it just photo/document storage, or can it do a complete backup of my entire system? It is a bit unclear from their website. The page you linked to only shows photos and videos on their comparison chart, which makes it a bit of an apple/oranges comparison when compared to Carbonite which does the entire machine, along with multiple versions of those files.

wcameron wrote in post #17757374
You absolutely need an offsite backup. Just check out these links:

http://petapixel.com …ars-steal-21-hard-drives/
http://www.huffingtonp​ost.ca …newspaper-_n_7804004.html
http://www.theprovince​.com …theft/10070316/​story.html

I use BackBlaze. It took months to get everything uploaded and it would take a long time to get it back - but it's safe. When I first started the process, I was selective in what it uploaded to ensure that the highest priority files were uploaded first. As that was complete I widened the parameters until all the files made their way up to the cloud.

An additional upside is that it gives me access to any file from any computer in the world. All I need to do is log-on and download any file that I may need.

Don't get caught without an offsite backup.

As someone who has over 100k images this is completely terrifying.

njstacker22 wrote in post #17765710
As someone who has over 100k images this is completely terrifying.

Yep.

Especially if you make money from your images, or just hate to see your "memories" get lost, an offsite backup is very important.

Online backup services are convenient, though slow.

Backing up to an external hard drive and physically relocating it somewhere else is a better and more cost-effective solution in the long run - AS LONG AS IT GETS DONE.

It has been repeated many times over, but:

Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway. –Andrew Tanenbaum, 1981

xkcd did a great job covering the topic it a while back for their website...

https://what-if.xkcd.com/31/

As storage media keeps getting larger in capacity, physically lighter, and cheaper per MB, it will continue to outpace the available bandwidth of the Internet for offsite storage.

Where online backups shine, is automation. I can set up an online backup to simply happen - and I don't have to remember to do anything. Of course, that convenience comes at a cost, both in $$ and in time.

So to answer some of the original questions...

Yes, keep a local copy, and a backup locally.
Yes, keep an offsite copy - either online or physical.

If you decide to go online, compare the features, price, and reputation. Some offer versioning where it will keep multiple copies of the same file so you can go back in time to a previous version, while others do not. Some people like that ability, while others don't think they will ever need that feature.

If you have a lot of stuff to backup online, see if the service will ship you an external hard drive to "seed" the backup. Many will do it for a price, but it may be worth the $ to save multiple weeks of upload time - especially if you have a slow upload speed (remember most services push their fast download speeds in the advertisements, but they don't tell you that the upload side can be much slower).

KurtB wrote in post #17765627
Does pogoplug have any restrictions on the type of files that are being backed up? Is it just photo/document storage, or can it do a complete backup of my entire system? It is a bit unclear from their website. The page you linked to only shows photos and videos on their comparison chart, which makes it a bit of an apple/oranges comparison when compared to Carbonite which does the entire machine, along with multiple versions of those files.

Not as far as I have come across. I use it to store all my business documents such as contracts, invoices, payment receipts... etc. I love how i have access from anywhere even when I'm on the road on assignments.

I use Crashplan and also have a local backup. I had lightning hit near my house and almost lost all my electronics so I'm a firm believer in the cloud.
The others offered some good offsite alternatives but I didn't see anyone mention Smugmug. They offer unlimited storage for their annual costs.
Russell

rholly wrote in post #17786728
I use Crashplan and also have a local backup. I had lightning hit near my house and almost lost all my electronics so I'm a firm believer in the cloud.
The others offered some good offsite alternatives but I didn't see anyone mention Smugmug. They offer unlimited storage for their annual costs.
Russell

Smugmug would be better than nothing, but they're not a proper backup solution. ie. no automation, no reporting, no versioning, etc.

I don't use cloud storage but I've investigated every offering that I see if it looks even remotely suitable for me.
Here are my thoughts.

First; I wouldn't ever consider any service unless RAW files are supported. Most services don't handle RAW files or have severe limitations. The others start charging extra after a hundred or so images.

Second; the fees seem innocuous but upload a few hundred files and you can be into several hundred dollars every year. 1 year's subscription will pay for a ton (or two) of physical storage. A cursory glance at the pricing schemes of major public cloud providers demonstrates the need for the customer to carefully analyze pricing models and their own IT needs before committing to an option.

Third; you become hostage to the service provider. What do you do if they decide to jump prices or discontinue service? It has already happened. Dell Pocket Cloud and Data Safe, Symantec Backup Exec, Norton Zone as well as AVG, HP and numerous others are gone just in the past year or so.

Fourth; everyone talks about the time required to do manual backups but many cloud services take ridiculous times to upload and download.

My bottom line? I do standard pc back-up but I keep hard drives at 4 locations with one usually updated daily, one weekly and the others at least monthly. It takes about 2 minutes each time I'm on my computer plus physically rotating the drives when I'm at the various locations.
Cost? About $300 for good drives.

P.S.
Here's a low cost twist; consider networking with a family member, a friend or perhaps your work computer? You store their data and they store yours.
Not the answer for everyone but it's easy, quite reliable and cost effective.

Good points on checking out the features. True BACKUP solutions don't care if it's a RAW file or any other type of file. They backup EVERY file no matter what the format. BackBlaze does this for just a few bucks a month for absolutely unlimited storage. Word files, Excel files and all of your other data files are treated just the same as your image files.

It does take a long time. That's why I prioritized which files it uploaded during that time. I had it upload my most recent photos first and gradually all my images and then other data files.

You should still have a physical backup and use the online as a catastrophic backup. As mentioned in the articles I linked to earlier in this thread, many photographers have lost EVERYTHING they ever shot when their office was broken into and all their computers AND backups were taken. For a few bucks there is nothing like online backup. Backblaze also gives you the option of encrypting your backup so even they can't see your files.

If I need files when I'm traveling, they are all available through their online interface. There are even cases of computers that were stolen and later recovered because the thief didn't notice the backup software happening in the background. The owner of the computer was able to read all of their data as it was backed up and that led to the recovery.

If I need to recover, I can contact Backblaze and have them send me a hard disk (for a fee) or just recover the files I need immediately first followed by a slower recovery of everything.

One warning, they can upload a great deal of data. When I was first backing up I got a call from my ISP that I had exceeded my 500gb per month limit. You can throttle it down as much as you need to avoid running into any data caps.

mike_d wrote in post #17786729
Smugmug would be better than nothing, but they're not a proper backup solution. ie. no automation, no reporting, no versioning, etc.

And, most of all, no RAW uploading or storage. That pretty much makes SmugMug an invalid option for backing up original files (unless for some reason all you shoot are jPegs).

Yup. Smugmug is NOT a backup. It may qualify as an archive but any proper BACKUP solution will not discriminate on file TYPE. A file is a file is a file etc. Forget any photography affiliated service if you're truly looking for backup solutions. They are archives and not BACKUPS. Why should you worry whether a file is a RAW or a JPEG or an XLS or a DOC or a MP3 or a ....

Any backup that discriminates is NOT a backup.

I've decided to give Crashplan a try again. I have about 2tb of info to upload so we'll see how much I get done before I get capped by my ISP. I'm thinking I should just get unlimited for the time I have to do the initial upload

flowrider wrote in post #17794865
I've decided to give Crashplan a try again. I have about 2tb of info to upload so we'll see how much I get done before I get capped by my ISP. I'm thinking I should just get unlimited for the time I have to do the initial upload

A lot of people complain about CrashPlan uploads being slow. If you want to upload that much BackBlaze will probably be a lot faster. Not sure if BB have versioning though.

Thank Tim. I know it's not going to be fast but my upload speed is limited to 5Mbps anyhow. Should be done in a month! Crash plan no longer has seeding for non business customers as well.

Does anyone use Microsoft OneDrive? 1TB free and plans from 6.99 p/month.
I used it to share photos with friends overseas. It took a while to upload, that's true.