Suggestion for “Data Independence And Survival Best Practices”

Hi Karl,

Good job on http://www.la-grange.net/2009/02/16/data-independence

I read it today, and wanted to make one little suggestion:
Right now you have:
• Best Practices For Users
	• Data Local Copy

I would add a counterpart:
	• Remote Backup

Suggested text:

Whenever possible, always keep a secure remote backup of your data.

As a counterpart to the good practice of always having a local  
duplicate of data remotely held in a data silo, it is generally wise  
to organize remote backup of the kind of data you would usually only  
keep on a local computer. A local computer can be stolen, crash,  
break, burn or be flooded. In the latter two cases, the data you may  
have backed up on any media in your house or office is likely to be  
destroyed. too.

In the words of Linus Torvalds: “ Only wimps use tape backup: _real_  
men just upload their important stuff on ftp, and let the rest of the  
world mirror it ;)”. His strategy of course only works for non- 
sensitive data, although some hackers have been known to upload  
heavily-encrypted data to bittorent.

For the rest of us, remote backup can be achieved, for example, by  
renting cheap server space, using a webmail service with plenty of  
disk space, or register on a remote backup service.

-- 
olivier

Received on Thursday, 19 February 2009 19:31:15 UTC