Mass Data Protection & Recovery

Hi Everyone,

I’m baaaack!  Thanks for being patient with my extended absence.  There’s currently alot of buzz about free backup services on the web.  Please try to remember a couple of the following things before you jump into one of them.

1. Is the primary purpose of the service to protect your important information or to sell advertising?  I’d rather have backup experts than marketing experts saving my data.
2. What is the privacy policy of your backup provider?  Many reserve for themselves the right to rummage through your data looking for inappropriate content.  I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sit too well with me.
3. Are there “gotchas” like charges for restores?  I’d hate to be held hostage to a company that is now demanding money for what was supposed to be a free service.
4. What are the data size limits?  Be sure that your Outlook data store (.pst or .ost) file can be recovered.  If it is in use will it back up properly?
5. Where are the data actually stored?  Anyone can call a room full of servers a “data center” - do they have physical, as well as electronic security, in place?  How about environmental factors like power and cooling?

I hope this helps you make an informed decision.  Not all solutions are for all situations.

All my best,
John

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 29th, 2009 at 12:24 pm and is filed under Comparison. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.