cloud/on-line backup

[Guillermo Ibanez]

Hi guys,

I'm getting more and more stressed about the amount of footage which is waiting to be edited. I have lots of internal and external hard drives, the works.....recently i've been considering the fact that if i was going to be so unlucky to get burgled/fire and they take my drives, it doesn't matter how many copies of the footage i have but i would probably lost it all = huge disaster.
This has led me to think about backup online but considering the amount of data (>1TB) is there any online service which can cope with this amount of data? what do you do regarding backing up your material?
Money could be an issue but......peace of mind, that's what I'm looking for.......

thanks in advance

[Chris Davis]

Both Mozy and Carbonite claim to have unlimited storage. A few reviews I read confirm there are customers of each with over a terabyte of data stored.

I don't think online storage is a viable option for video right now. Imagine if you did lose 1TB (perhaps your hard drive crashed.) If you have a 6Mbps connection, it would take at least 18 days to download 1TB.

I use an HP MediaSmart server with 9TB for local backups. However I have the good fortune that my offices and data center are in separate buildings (about a block apart) so the odds of both burning down at the same time are pretty slim.

[Jeff Greer]

I would consider backing up to portable hard drives (or other suitable media) and storing them at trusted off site location, for example, a bank vault. Lock boxes at your local bank are very secure and relatively inexpensive.

Back in 1990, I had sensitive company data stored off site and in a "fireproof" safe in my office. We suffered a fire. Naturally the computers were destroyed. The data stored on disks in the fireproof safe were also destroyed. Documents in the safe were OK but the digital medium was not. Evidently enough smoke and heat made it through the safe to cause damage.

Jeff

[Chris Davis]

Originally Posted by Jeff Greer

Back in 1990, I had sensitive company data stored off site and in a "fireproof" safe in my office. We suffered a fire. Naturally the computers were destroyed. The data stored on disks in the fireproof safe were also destroyed.

Documents are protected in those fireproof safes by releasing moisture and chemicals into the storage compartment during a fire. Those elements designed to protect paper will destroy the digital media and the heat will destroy CDs and DVDs.

They do make fireproof safes designed to protect digital media, but I still wouldn't trust them.

[Nigel Barker]

A cheap & simple solution for off-site backup is to enter into a reciprocal agreement with someone else who is also looking for off-site backup. Use bare disk drives in a caddy for backups & then carry or post the disks to your backup partner who likewise sends you disks.