Backing up your data isn’t just an option these days, it’s a requirement.
Prior to the proliferation of digital content, the majority of one’s assets were tangible and one had to take special precautions to protect it. For example, storing photo albums away from heat, humidity or sunlight.
Today, however, digital content or “data” constitutes a large portion of our assets and tools. Backing up this electronic content is mandatory, if we want to ensure its longevity.
The introduction of the various ‘cloud’ services allows us to back up data in remote locations; while this is a great option, it should be done selectively. Don’t store sensitive data in the ‘cloud’, as there is always a chance for it to fall in the wrong hands, no matter how secure such venues proclaim to be.
Backing up your work locally is a must, but one has to use reliable hardware and software.
After several failures of Western Digital drives over the years, I’ve switched to using LaCie drives. Not only they are reliable, they are also stylish and compact. After some research, I decided to use the upgraded version of the supplied software, Genie9, which performs its tasks ‘on the fly’, constantly monitoring my system for changes.
An added benefit of backing up data is that should you screw up with one of your files, e.g. if you overwrite something by accident, you can go to the backed up data and restore that file. This feature is invaluable for client work, and has saved me a lot of time by not having to recreate designs that I overwrote by mistake.
So backup, backup, backup your data. It’s your second most important asset in life, after yourself and your family.
What do you think of file synching between devices? I too am cautious about what cloud storage services to use, but I’ve been wanting to use instead a file syncing software so that when I save to one device, for example my pc, it automatically updates the same file to my laptop, and any other device that runs the software. This would essentially function the same as a backup.