Cloud Backup vs On Site Backup vs Off Site Backup

So you are working away as normal on the document that you have been working on for 4 months now. There is only one copy of this document, and if it gets lost, your company goes down. So you are working away and you start hearing squeaks and crashes and bangs from the inside of your computer... You quickly rush to back up your documents, but before you have time to back them up, Your computer goes off. You have lost your documents, family photos, music and memories that can't be replaced. Should have backed up before hand...

So you learned your lesson from losing your documents the first time and have wisely set up a backup schedule to meet your needs. Now you face the problem of storage. Where do you store your backups? On site, off site or in the cloud?

I would recommend using an external hard drive for backups. The 'ideal' solution would be to store your backups in the cloud, but these services can be pricey and sometimes slow. There are a few free services out there that offer limited amounts of free space. I would recommend the following:

• Adrive.com
• Dropbox.com

These services offer free space and paid, premium space. Adrive offers 50 gigabytes of free space and Dropbox offers 2 gigabytes free.

You could also back your documents up onto CD's and store them off site. But whatever you do, DO NOT STORE THE BACKUPS ONSITE! If you need to, make 3 backups and store them in different places, so if your house goes on fire (hopefully not!) you will still have a backup of your important files.

Let us know what you think in the comments or by email. Pat@TheGeekPanel.com