Protecting your business electronic records has gotten easier and more affordable, thanks to plenty of different services that can make backups of computer files across the Internet.
These online services are useful for three reasons. First, for a few hundred dollars annually, you can buy some inexpensive protection in case of disaster, fire, or theft. Second, they can work automatically so you don’t have to remember to make the backup copies. Finally, once they are setup they don’t take a lot of skill to maintain.
My review of various online backup services appeared in today’s New York Times here. It references a more complete table of the various vendors who offer different services.
For all online backup and storage related info, I recommend this website:
http://www.BackupReview.info
Barry Goetz writes:
Thanks for providing a review of what is out there on the online storage front.
I am a long-time computer user and have for a while been looking for a good online backup solution.
What keeps frightening me away is the terms of service. I reviewed EMCs and AOLs and continue to find the terms of service unacceptable.
Basically, each company tells me that they can change terms at any time. None seem to specify (forgive me I am not a lawyer) that I own the data I post to their system and that I have rights to get the data back to me, regardless, at a fixed (defined in advance) cost.
I am not interested in having my data held hostage; it seems to defeat the purpose of an online backup. And forgive me, but I do not trust the good name of some of the service providers.
Like most software license agreements, the license protects the rights of the seller, but not of the buyer. And as a small entity I have no negotiating power, so the offer is basically take it or leave it. Until someone comes up with a more friendly kind of license I will stick to the old-fashioned backup plan.
What are your thoughts/knowledge on this matter?
I think you are onto something here. It is probably an issue that I
should have covered, but I didn’t have much space to do everything.
I believe the S3 based services like Elephant Drive make it clear that
you own your data, and the nice thing about using them is if one
company goes away, you can still access it. Of course, given the
events of the last week, you may not want to deal with them. I think
we will see more of these efforts in the future, to allow the
hands-off attitude that you require. — David
Goetz replies:
Thanks for your reply. The issue of software licenses and their fundamental asymmetry (as well as things like credit card agreements) comes up from time to time; the vendors/issuers want to protect their rights, but the consumer doesn’t really have much of a choice. The vendors are too often ruled by the lawyers that only they can afford.
In software, Borland was a leader in their “just like a book” software license, which put things in simple language. This was popular for a while but is no longer the style except in open-source world.
When in comes to software-as-a-service, and in particular remote hosting agreements (which online storage essentially is) the issue gets even stickier, as the vendor has ongoing critical responsibilities beyond bug fixes. If the provider goes down, or goes belly-up, the buyer could really be stuck.
With regard to S3, as much as I like amazon, they make no explicit service commitment beyond giving you some money back if their uptime is not good. They too can change the agreement, limit services, etc. at any time (full disclosure: I read their agreement a while ago and it may have changed/I may have imperfect recollection)