Another question : tape drive

[nmeyers at javalinux.net]

On Fri, May 09, 2003 at 02:31:39PM -0400, Jerry Feldman wrote:
> On Fri, 9 May 2003 11:38:28 -0600
> "Jack Coats" <jack at www.coats.org> wrote:
> 
> > I have a friend that wants to start a 'remote backup service'.
> > He is in Houston TX (far enough from Boston to keep most issues
> > that effect one place from effecting the other).
> > 
> > what would a remote service be worth to computer hobbiests?
> > 
> > I have priced some services that are so high $$ that you don't want
> > to use them unless you are making $$ out of it.  (like $100/gig/month
> > and you get charged bandwidth for restores :(  )
> I am very dubious of remote backups per se. 
> 1. Bandwidth. Residential bandwidth is generally limited to about 300K
> upload. (they vary).
> 2. Do you really want to entrust your data to someone else.
> 
> There are some very good reasons for remote backup in some
> circumstances. One is that it is offsite. If you have a catistrophic
> failure, fire, tornado, ..., that backup will probably be ok. 
> 
> Someone mentioned that there are 2 considreeations:
> 1. Redundancy, which can be handled locally through RAID.
> 2. Archive. 
> 
> I thill have problems pushing my data onto some site I know little
> about.  

No problem... there's plenty of good encryption software available :-).

But anything less than full guarantees on bandwidth, availability,
and reliability makes an offsite backup provider worthless. Even to a
"hobbyist", the value drops very quickly if you can't completely trust the
provider. Real data centers have high-reliability hardware, redundancy,
backup power, physical security, and lots of other goodies that help
make the service expensive.

Nathan Meyers
nmeyers at javalinux.net