eWeek put out a slide show last week on “personal data storage gift ideas.†This was a thinly disguised ad for a variety of USB-based backup hard drives. At first I was going to link to the story, but decided to instead highlight some really useful backup gifts. A USB drive for backing up your files is better than nothing, but not good enough. Giving a year of online backup service will provide much better protection for your friend or family member.
The problem with USB drives, especially for laptop backup chores, is two fold. First, since everyone puts their USB drive into their laptop bag, when they lose their laptop they also lose their backup. Over 10,200 laptops get left behind every week at airports in the US, so losing a laptop is far too common. If your laptop gets stolen, as well over 600,000 do per year in the US, your backup gets stolen along with it. When something bad happens to your home or office that destroys your computer, it will destroy the USB hard drive sitting beside it.
Second, carrying a USB hard drive full of your data, particularly company data, means you can lose that data. Since few of the USB drives offer encryption services, and fewer still are implemented by non-technical users, losing your USB backup drive means giving away copies of all your files. Businesses, especially those backing up customer data to their USB drives, stand the most to lose, since they're assumed to have the intelligence to protect that customer data. Drop your USB thumbdrive full of your accounting data and whoever picks up that drive has your information in their pocket.
If you want to be a good friend or family member, give the gift of a year's online backup service. The big names in the consumer backup business are Carbonite and Mozy, but there are thousands of others available. You have hundreds of options in the $50 per year per user range. Some services, like HP's Upline, offer family plans for multi-computer families.
With an online backup service, losing your laptop doesn't mean losing your files. Losing your laptop still hurts, but having your files still available eases that pain considerably.
Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world
jfruh
Apple syncing patent can't come soon enough
pasmith
New Twitter features borrow from 3rd party clients
Esther Schindler
Open Source Changes the Software Acquisition Process
mikelgan
How to set up continuous podcast play on the new iTunes
David Strom
Five important Windows 7 mobility features
sjvn
Guard your Wi-Fi for your own sake
Sandra Henry-Stocker
Grepping on Whole Words
Sidekick: The Good News & the Bad News
Either way you look at it Microsoft Data Center management did not follow standards or best practices in this failure. In which case it makes me wonder more about the outsourcing of corporate data much less personal data.
- mburton325
Join the conversation here
Quick, practical advice for IT pros. Made fresh daily.
Want to cash in on your IT savvy? Send your tip to tips@itworld.com. If we post it, we'll send you a $25 Amazon e-gift card.
Online Backups - automatic, secure, affordable
Mozy tops our list of online backup providers athttp://www.onlinebackupsreview.com/reviews.php
The beauty of online backups is that once you have the software installed, there really isn't much to do, especially if you have an unlimited backup solution.
IDrive and Elephant Drive are a couple of more popular backup solutions.
Backing up your important content is now so easy
Right on! It is so important to backup your valuable content. Every day thousands of computer files are needlessly put at risk. Finding a solution that is right for you is so important.Take care.
-Jordan.
backup.jmjgroup.com
Life is too short!
HP Upline offers great online backup!
HP just started offering a new online backup solution called HP Upline. Unlimited onine backup, remote access and file sharing make this a viable option in the growing online backup industry.www.upline.com