Mozy in the UK – and – Check your Backups
I couldn’t think of 2 “issues” that go together so well. I’ll do the second one first (what?). While it may not appeal to everyone (but the subject is not the point), there exists a huge number of computer users out there who invest a lot of time in SecondLife and virtual worlds of a similar nature. The scene is huge, to the point where there are massive projects, like “Open Sim” which provide the software for hosting such a virtual worlds. In “Server crash, backup failure destroys Aesthetica build By: Maria Korolov” we learn that just last week, a “hosting” company damaged some disks during a routine move of equipment, and in doing so, lost some data. No big deal, right? Well, unfortunately, their “backups” were no good. Not only was there no known good backup to use to restore, but the backups themselves had not been checked in months! So, the customer lost many hours of work. Most tragically, he had been operating with a false sense of security for 5 months, assuming that useful nightly backups were being completed (because he was paying for it as part of his hosting plan).
What can you learn from this?
1. Check your backups. Do a test restore. I’ve said it before, and I’ll likely say it again. After all, what is a backup without a plan for recovery?
2. If you are relying on the hosting provider to also be your backup provider, CYA! That is, make at least one copy yourself from time to time.
For me, this is particularly interesting given the much bigger news that was just announced: Mozy has launched in the UK and Europe. This is a big deal, because Mozy is one of the largest players in the remote backup industry. Most troubling though is something an article by Daniel Robinson attributes to their chief marketing officer:
“This is accomplished using a “set and forget” model, according to Stockdale”
NO!!! NEVER set and forget with backups. Autosave in Excel works, too. Does that mean you shouldn’t bother to save real files? NO. If your data is important, then you, or someone you pay, should be heavily invested in testing it periodically, making sure the backups run, and understanding the recovery process. Set it and forget it is a horrible idea and Mozy should be ashamed to be linked to such an statement. As one of the largest and most influential voices in the market, they should promote better awareness. JEESH!
iTunes: Backing up your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch software
From http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1414:
Backing up your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
Your device is backed up by iTunes each time you:
- Sync with iTunes (automatically on the first sync, every time you connect it to the computer)
- Update in iTunes (occurs automatically without prompting)
- Restore in iTunes (prompts you to create a backup before the restore process begins)
Although iTunes backs up most of your device’s settings, downloaded applications, your audio, video, and photo content are not included in the backup.
If restoring from an iTunes backup, your device settings, downloaded applications, audio, video, and photo contents will re-sync to the device because the “Sync” option under the respective tabs will be checked in iTunes when restoring from a backup. If you choose to restore your device as a new user, downloaded applications, audio, video, and photo content will not be synced until you select the “Sync” option in iTunes under each tab.
You can manually back up or restore your iPhone or iPod touch from a backup. To do so, Control-click or right-click the iPhone or iPod touch icon on the left side of the iTunes window and choose Back Up or Restore from Backup*:
iTunes will not offer the option to restore from backup if no backups have been performed prior to accessing this option. For a list of content that iTunes backs up, as well as more information about backups, see iPhone and iPod touch: About backups and iPad: About backups.
For restoring and updating instructions, see apple’s support guide: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1414
Syncing is not Backup
Dave Greenbaum points out, quite well, that syncing is not the same as backing up.
http://theappleblog.com/2010/03/26/syncing-does-not-a-backup-make/
It is a really great post, which notes the distinction between making something available in multiple places and actually backing up. MobileMe, DropBox, and Sugarsync, for example, are not online backup services, they are sync services, and while they offer some potential to use file versioning to retrieve files, there is no guarantee! Of course, Mozy doesn’t guarantee anything either. But some folks do, like The Backup Plan 
iPad backup considerations
My guess is that Apple will sell 1 or 2 iPads this weekend. If they do, then there will be quite a few folks out there taking pictures loading pictures, storing music, books, files, apps, etc. So, remember, this is not an item that is approved for end-user service. So, if your device dies, or the screen cracks, or the battery dies, then you may end up sending the iPad in to Apple for warranty “repair” – depending on your service options. Apple has already stated that for battery issues, they will be sending out REPLACEMENT iPads, and it seems likely that the same may be true for most depot service orders for the iPad.
SO??? So, make sure you sync it with iTunes often. That is the only current backup method for the iPad, and doing so will make you feel much better if or when you do have to swap it out for a replacement.
Fileslinger review of Cloudberry Online Backup
Fileslinger has a great and thorough review of Clouberry Online Backup…which is not actually an online backup service. It is a slick and well designed client that helps the end user do their backups…and the destination is the Amazon S3 storage cloud. So, you buy this software, and then you also pay the (rather small) fees to Amazon for storage. Check out the article, it is well written and quite useful, as usual.
I do wonder sometimes about the business model in situations like this. I would personally lean towards distributing the software for free and wrapping the S3 service into monthly billing…it may have some more issues in terms of collection, but recurring income is better than 1 time income.
At $30 a pop, if you sold 100 licenses you’d bring in $3000.
If you were able to up charge the S3 service by about $1 a month, the same 100 customers would net $100 a month. But, over 3 years, you’d bring in $3600…and possibly much more if their data requirements expanded over time. Free downloads also remove the initial obstacle of purchasing software. This is the model Vembu is following for their @home service. This is NOT the model that Mozy or Carbonite follow….their models make almost no long-term sense, given that unlimited use generally means that costs will get bigger while revenue stays flat…so i guess they hope to make a lot of profit early on?
All that said, the Cloudberry Online Backup software does look really solid, and they have other offerings that also make use (and sense) of the sometimes confusing S3 interface.