Sunday, July 7, 2013

Thanks For The Memory - Digital Amnesia

This was published on Technorati.com
http://technorati.com/technology/article/thanks-for-the-memory-digital-amnesia/
Published: September 08, 2011 at 6:43 am

The WORST thing you can do is back up your data, and think you're safe. I am continually shocked at the true lack of protection the average person has for their information. Yes, I am talking about YOU, sitting there right now and reading this. You are >.< this close to losing all your important information... and it isn't YOUR fault!

If you are like most individuals, you are quite concerned with making sure you don't suffer a hard drive failure and lose all your data. Photos, music, videos, contacts, files, documents, email, the way data is multiplying exponentially, you have a lot to worry about.

You do some research on data security and backing up your hard drive, read all the advertisements, ask the "experts" at a popular local electronics store, and you are lulled into a false sense of security when you are advised to buy one of the USB external hard drives from popular manufacturers like Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba, LaCie, Hitachi, etc, and breathe a sigh of relief. All your precious files that compose your digital life are safely tucked away. I mean, it SAYS on the package it keeps your data safe.

NOT. They are only marginally safer than they were in your computer. A study by Carnegie Mellon University shows that hard drive failure rates are much higher than manufacturers let you know. There is a wide body of academic evidence among true industry experts that show how fragile a hard drive is, and relying on just one is total folly. A single external hard drive should be considered, at best, a temporary "work / hold" drive, not your safety net you were convinced of by the salesman who sold it to you.

ANY "expert" that sells you an external USB hard drive and tells you that it will fully protect your data is absolutely lying to you in your face. The knife in your back is delayed. You feel it when your data is lost... while the "expert" made his sales quota. Why?

Inside that external hard drive, is a single hard drive...which itself can fail, crash, get stolen in a burglary, destroyed in a fire, flood, earthquake, etc... with ALL your information.

Poof.

Is that a chance you really want to take? I will repeat myself here: The WORST thing you can do is back up your data, (on a single drive solution) and think you're safe. So what DO you do?

If you are truly serious about protecting your data, there are two very simple, elegant steps to guarantee 100% protection from data loss.

#1. Buy a Drobo. drobo.com It works with Windows / Mac / Unix
What the heck is a drobo? Ask your local tech "expert" and watch his eyes glaze over. A drobo is a DATA ROBOT, simply an external hard drive with multiple drives, without you having to do ANY configuration. Literally plug and play, it does all the work for you automatically, IF one drive fails, it automatically protects your data on the other drives, you can change a defective/failed drive on the fly without using any tools except your thumb, and without losing a single byte of data. It will automatically rebuild the new replacement drive. Don't let anyone uninformed tell you this is just a standard raid solution. This is unlike anything else available. It's raid, with brains, elegant, sleek, hands free, configuration free.

This option guarantees you 100% immunity from losing anything due to hard drive failures. That still leaves natural disasters, theft, flood, fire, etc. This brings us to:

#2. Cloud storage. For example, DropBox. This guarantees your data can't be drowned, burnt, stolen, blown, or any other nightmare scenario you can think of. Your data is available from any computer you go to, it can be shared, it is platform independant, working with Windows, Mac, Linux, and Mobile devices.

This is one instance in your life when you SHOULD be thinking INSIDE THE BOX, utilizing both Drobo and DropBox to guarantee you peace of mind, and true data safety: and yes, I am being extremely hard on salesmen, because I am tired of seeing people get hurt and lose everything due to misinformation and someone trying to make a quick sale. I want people to understand how easy it is to protect themselves before something happens.


No comments:

Post a Comment