Cloud Computing

We at Quality Matters have like other businesses to carry out data back-up as a routine , but there are times when the auto back-up fails or is missed for some other reason.

Any missed back-up could cause a problem if it is needed and you can bet on it that it will be needed when the missed back-up  failed to capture some vital information.

What is the answer?    We recently signed up to a system called  Dropbox.  Put simply it takes all your data and stores it securely in the cloud.  The cloud being a datacentre with all the security, connectivity and redundancy built in.  

Data security is important and the Dropbox system encrypts the data during  upload and download and then stores it securely.

A quote from the Dropbox website ‘Today, more than 45 million people across every continent use Dropbox to always have their stuff at hand’.

The data is automatically updated as soon as it is used.  The real beauty of this system is that I can access any live data from anywhere in the world.  If I open a file and need to change it, the  new data is saved into Dropbox.  I can also recover a deleted file as needed.

The one down-side is that you do need an internet connection to make a change, but you can work off-line on the copy stored locally on a pc or laptop and any changes are uploaded when an internet connection is available.

I started with a 2GB trial free of charge then updated to 50GB for a very reasonable price.  There is a 100GB version and the top tier gives you 1TB.

I know that I can recover all my data when I need it.  Back-up …..One more task that I don’t have to worry about.