| In this age of information, computer users should | | | | Godfather movies featuring Al Pacino had both of his |
| always make a point of backing up their data in some | | | | computers, and the backup systems stolen from a |
| way or another. This can include sending everything | | | | home in Argentina. He had no online backups with |
| to a second internal hard drive, an external hard | | | | which to fall back on. Rather than offering a reward |
| drive, a DVD or CD-ROM, or even an off-site remote | | | | for all of the video and computer equipment that |
| backup over the internet. Often when I go to a | | | | was stolen, he only requested the backup systems |
| friend's home to fix a computer problem one of the | | | | be returned for the reward. Theft is not the only |
| first things I'll ask for is if they have a fresh backup | | | | way to lose a local backup. Hardware failure on a |
| of their hard drive or at the very least of their | | | | backup drive can happen just as easily as it can on |
| important data such as photos or electronic | | | | an active drive. There is also fire and natural disasters |
| documents. This is not only to protect myself from | | | | to consider as well. |
| being held accountable for losing data due to | | | | Risks of Remote Backups |
| equipment failure but also to make sure that I don't | | | | As unlikely as it is to happen, you can also lose the |
| get a call one day begging me to bring back the data | | | | remote backups of your data. Consider what would |
| from their hard drive. | | | | happen if the company that you use for backing up |
| Anyone with any important data should be backing | | | | your files to a remote server went out of business. |
| their important data to multiple sources. I will say it | | | | No one ever thought Enron would fail. Would you be |
| again... multiple sources. Whenever I mention this to | | | | able to get your data back if their operations were |
| someone who is doing proper backups I will usually | | | | shut down for whatever reason? What if it were |
| get a perplexed look followed by the single word | | | | discovered that terrorists were backing up data to a |
| question, "Why?" I then go on to explain that a | | | | remote backup service and the Federal Government |
| person should do this is because a single backup is | | | | came in and seized all of the computer equipment |
| equivalent to a single point of failure. Backups can be | | | | where your data was stored? How long would it |
| lost by any one of the latest methods, even those | | | | take for them to sift through all multiple terabytes of |
| which are sent to a remote location via the internet. | | | | data to find what they were looking for? It might be |
| Risks of Local Backups | | | | months or years before you were able to get that |
| For instance, Francis Ford Coppola, director of the | | | | information back in the event of a crash. |