Does cloud computing make no sense for me?

[ganchan]

In my apartment I've always had a desktop and a laptop computer, using a hardwired (Ethernet) broadband connection for both of them. With this setup, cloud services such as Crashplan (for backup) and Dropbox (for syncing between the two computers) have been very helpful and reassuring. But once I'm full-timing on the road, I'll be retiring the desktop and storing it, relying 100% on the laptop for my work. I'll also have a mobile hot spot with a modest data plan at best, and I'll only be online for a couple hours at a time -- which makes lengthy automated backup sessions impractical or impossible to complete.

So.... does cloud computing no longer make sense for me? Should I focus on non-cloud options? I suppose I could leave the desktop at my parents' house in New Mexico (with archived permanent files on it that I update periodically), keep an external hard drive in my storage unit in Texas (ditto on the updates), and carry USB sticks with me on the road for daily backup purposes. Since I earn a living on my computer, I definitely need to protect the data I accumulate both off-site and on-site.

 

[Wabbit]

Not sure how your backups are done, maybe just manually backup when your on a WiFi conn?

Maybe an external cloud device? Prob $200(ish) for 4TB.

 

[ganchan]

Public wi-fi isn't very secure, and I'm carrying sensitive client data, financial records etc. Anyway, Crashplan currently takes something like 9 hours for each backup, which means that, since I may only be online a couple hours a day, it would probably take days to complete a single backup.

Also worried about how quickly a small mobile data plan will chew through its data allotment. I need those gigs for other stuff.

 

[Wabbit]

I don't know, but if it takes 9 hours, that sounds like a full backup. If you are wanting not only to backup, but also have that data in a different location, maybe backup to DvD and mail it? Doesn't it tell you how big the backup file is?

 

[Almost There]

Sounds like you'd be better off doing an old fashioned file specific back up to either sticks or an external hard drive.

Using major amounts of bought data to do back ups isn't really practical when we're on the road.

If you're worried about loss of data due to fire, get a fire box to store the back up in.

 

[ganchan]

Sounds like you'd be better off doing an old fashioned file specific back up to either sticks or an external hard drive.

Using major amounts of bought data to do back ups isn't really practical when we're on the road.

If you're worried about loss of data due to fire, get a fire box to store the back up in.

Yeah, I'm leaning toward the old-school solution at this point. Off-site is off-site, whether it's on a cloud server or in my parent's bedroom closet. I'll confine more frequent incremental updates to my thumb drives. Heck, if I want to put an individual file "in the cloud," I can always email it to myself as an attachment.... 

Cloud is cool if you have cheap data transfer and robust secure bandwidth. I won't.

 

[LeeRevell]

Having worked in a military crypto environment for several years followed by 24 years as a state employee in an IT shop handling sensitive teacher, student and employee data, I cannot trust "the Cloud". I have no idea where the data is stored, what security protocols they use and just who has access to the data.
So, I avoid the Cloud like the plague. I do backups periodically of my personal data on an external HD, and specific folders onto thumb drives more often.
But my data size is miniscule compared to yours. My system likely wouldn't meet your needs.

 

[TMG51]

Get a solid state external hard drive. They're cheap now.

 

[DannyB1954]

I am willing to hold in my cloud system all your credit card info. Send name, card numbers, expiration dates, and security codes.

I guess that I am old and sceptical. Why would someone hold your data for free if that data was not useful to them?

 

[leef]

I used to use Crashplan and Backblaze, using incremental backups that synced only what had changed.  I now prefer to use as cloud service and put all my user files in the cloud directory.  

Files get synced immediately upon save, or when I reconnect if I'm not on the internet.  If I'm using my iPhone Verizon hotspot when on the Macbook, and moving something really large to the cloud directory, I will make sure hotspot is not on, or wait until I'm on wifi.

I use a tiny app on the Macbook called Bandwidth+, which keeps a running tally of bandwidth from different sources right on the top bar, visible at all times.  This is so I can make sure the cloud software, or something else running in the background is not eating up bandwidth unexpectedly. 

I also backup periodically to a USB drive.

After trying OneDrive, iCloud, Box, Google Drive, and Dropbox, I settled on Dropbox because it was the most stable.  Although I normally only use one computer, I did a 2 computer sync test, and Dropbox was the only one that didn't get confused.

HTH

 

[eDJ_]

A friend of mine showed my his new 6 Terabyte external Hard Drive the other day. 

He was explaining how he could put everything on it he needed carrying it with him
in what looked like a hollowed out Book. 

If you could find a secure connection to the internet that isn't a public network
you could probably do as he does.   Thus a 6 to 8 TB SSD HD could serve as your
cloud.

When I asked him how he got the idea for this he explained a friend of his had one of
these big external HD's and downloaded loads of Movies that were zipped.   The source
had a self extracting zip so that when he finished the DL to the hard drive it would open
and he could view movies and TV shows from there.   Then it would be like streaming
that media. 

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/248557/WD-My-Book-6TB-External-Hard/

 

[wayne49]

A friend of mine showed my his new 6 Terabyte external Hard Drive the other day. 

He was explaining how he could put everything on it he needed carrying it with him
in what looked like a hollowed out Book. 

If you could find a secure connection to the internet that isn't a public network
you could probably do as he does.   Thus a 6 to 8 TB SSD HD could serve as your
cloud.

Not sure why an Internet connection is necessary.

An external HD connected via USB can be used without Internet.

There are Network Attached Storage (NAS) solutions, but this would require a static IP address and making the storage device available on the Internet.

Using an encrypted VPN service to upload your encrypted files to a cloud service would work, but wifi bandwidth will be a constant issue.

Physically off site and secure from all threats (fire, flood, theft, etc.) is complicated for a single computer user who lives in a vehicle and is nomadic.

 

[eDJ_]

Wayne wrote:

An external HD connected via USB can be used without Internet.

I think what he was trying to tell me was that he needed the internet to get the contend he wanted to save into that SSD Hard Drive to start with.   Later he could use it off line so that it would serve him like a cloud.  6 TB of files to read,  video to watch, and images to view could keep a person with plenty to do without the net and space left over for any production work he would do to upload later when he's back to a connection point of some kind.

 

[MrNoodly]

I use a laptop and a couple of 1T external drives. Some really important stuff is also on old fashioned data DVDs. Before I retired, I did video editing for ten years. That stuff eats up storage. I had 9T worth of drives full of work, backing each other up. But I never sent/took anything off-site. I lived dangerously and survived without incident. Never even had a drive go bad. Hurray for luck.

 

[GotSmart]

This subject is giving me a brain cloud.  :huh:

 

[LeeRevell]

Over the years, I lost two PCs due to viruses. The first one died, and I had not backed anything up. Lost a huge collection of pics and data files. I did have most of it backed up when the second machine got hit. Still, it hurt.
So now, I back up much more often. Began wit CDs, but quickly outgrew that, as it took too many for storing it all. Went to DVD, but even then it grew to five of them, and I was getting a lot of disk failures, at least half of a package wouldn't format.
Then went to thumb drives, which worked better and went a lot quicker. Now, I augment that with the external HD, wich works the best.
I want my backups where I know where thety are, and can access them at will.
I have no confidence in the Cloud. That is somebody else's domain.

 

[mpruet]

I would not use the cloud either for backup or for transfer as it will eat up way too much of your monthly band width.  Also your backup will be rather slow.  I'd suggest getting an external storage device for backups as well as software which allows for both incremental and full backups.  Also, I'd suggest making mirror images of your system periodically. 

By using an external device you can perform a full recovery if it is needed and you are not able to get internet access.  Yes - I had to do a full restore in the Yukon last summer because of an upgrade that went bad.  If I had not been able to restore from a local external device, I would not have had my system for several weeks until I got back to the states...