Personal Archives
I was quite surprised at the level of recommended steps for backing up files. In the reading from the Library of Congress, the recommended number of back ups of the original file was at least two. I know for myself, I only back up to an external harddrive, and I don’t do it very often. I think that in the past 6 months I have backed up my computer maybe once, and I only back up a certain folder of important files (my music and videos and the like are not as important as my school stuff. Plus, most of my music is from iTunes or GooglePlay which allows me to re-download previous purchases in case I lose a file.)
One thing that the Library of Congress didn’t mention was the online back up services like Carbonite and Symantec. They use online backup technology which not only stores your information on multiple disks around the country, but some also back up on magnetic tape, allowing for even better preservation.
A list of the top ten consumer rated online back up services
However great these online back up services are for protecting your files, there is a new form of computing that has sprung up recently. Cloud computing is a term used to describe using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a home computer. Google has already taken this to an entirely useable and accessible level with GoogleDocs. Not only are all of your files kept on Google’s servers, you can manage and edit in real time and have multiple collaborators on these files. Plus, you can access these files anywhere in the world as long as you have an internet connection, something that you can’t do with the back up services. It is the new way of having data storage and access all at the same time.
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