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Thinking about backup

For some strange reason, I've always enjoyed implementing backup systems.  I don't know if it is the thought process of anticipating future problems and avoiding them or of automating the whole thing, but for some reason I've always put a lot of thought and effort into backing up data.  I've written numerous scripts and batch files over the years to back stuff up. I've burned CDs and DVDs full of data.  I've got external hard drives full of old data.  I just like this stuff.

Right now I'm thinking about it again.  For the last few years (on PC and Mac), my strategy has been thus: Every night I run a backup job (using Chronosync at the moment) to backup my data to an external hard drive.  Also nightly, I run JungleDisk which backs up that same data to Amazon S3 for off-site backup. Then, weekly, I run SuperDuper to another external drive so I have a full, bootable backup of my laptop at all times.  In addition to all this, I have a playlist in iTunes that I use to tell me when I have 4GB of new music/video and I burn a DVD whenever I have enough stuff to fill one up.

This all works well.  I haven't lost any data in years and I know that I always have 3 extra copies of everything; one on the data backup drive, one on the complete image backup drive, and one "in the cloud" on Amazon's servers. 

This last copy--the cloud copy--has been the source of concern for me lately.  I love JungleDisk and I really like how it works.  It is a little geeky and hard to use at first but I've never had a problem with it not functioning.  The problem is that between my computer and my wife's computer, I'm backing up about 200GB of data incrementally every night.  My bill for the Amazon storage last month was $32.  This means I'm spending nearly $400 a year on cloud storage.  This is too much. 

Yesterday I started researching other online backup solutions.  The big players here are Mozy, Carbonite, and BackBlaze. Each of them provide unlimited backup for $5/month.  At first blush, this seemed like a great deal.  I tweeted about it and got a reply back from @JungleDisk pointing me to Carbonite's Terms of Use where it says in Section 14, Paragraph 3:

"Carbonite may, in our sole discretion and from time to time, establish or amend general operating practices to maximize the operation and availability ... and to prevent abuses. Your consumption of Carbonite Products or Services may be deemed excessive if, within any month, your usage greatly exceeds the average level of monthly usage of Carbonite's customers, generally. In the event you are deemed to have violated this policy, we reserve the right to offer an alternative pricing plan or Carbonite Product or Service that will permit you to continue to use Carbonite Products or Services. Although violations of this policy have been infrequent, we reserve the right to terminate or suspend your license to Use Carbonite Products or Services and any license to use the Carbonite Software, without prior notice in the event of a violation of this policy."

This seems like a pretty standard statement and I can't fault them for putting in terms that allow them to protect their business if someone starts overloading their systems.  But, how do I know if I am greatly exceeding the "average level of monthly usage" for all their customers?  This may not be a big deal, but it is something to think about.  Especially when they are charging $5/month for unlimited storage.  We all know that I can buy an AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint wireless card with unlimited data that actually has a 5GB cap.  Who is to say that Carbonite won't impose similar restrictions?

As for Mozy and BackBlaze, I haven't researched them as much but I'm sure they have similar statements in their terms of use.  I did read yesterday (but cannot find now) that Mozy had some pretty serious security holes in their system--namely, you could reset your password with nothing more than an email address, no security questions or verification.  Likely they have resolved this issue.

Now, the obvious solution is to sign up for a service--probably Carbonite with offer code "TWIT" to get 2 months free--and see if they try to charge me more.  This is probably what I'll do.  However, the alternate solution is to modify the way I do off-site backup.  Here is what I've envisioned:
Cut down drastically on what I backup with JungleDisk.  Documents, pictures, and personal video only.  No music, no downloaded movies, nothing extra.  Hopefully I could get this down low enough such that my Amazon S3 bill would be around $10/month--which is what I would pay to Carbonite or others for backup of 2 computers.  Then I buy two identical 500GB external hard drives.  I backup all my data to one of them every night.  The other I keep in a safe deposit box at the bank.  Then every month or so, I just go swap the drives.  Then I would have all my media in a safe place and I wouldn't be paying for it all to be in the cloud. This would protect my data against fire and theft and would also make restoring everything much faster if I were to lose everything.  I don't even want to think about how long it would take to download all 200GB if I had to restore from JungleDisk.

Even if Carbonite doesn't give me any problems, I may still implement this system.  If I'm saving $25 a month, I can buy the two drives and they will pay themselves off in about 9 months. 

Hey, I've already said I enjoy thinking about this stuff.  I guess the length of this post only further proves that.

Posted via email from Todd's posterous