Online storage is becoming a little bigger in the recent years. It's been a big deal ever since people started offering it, but now I have a feeling, and I hope it's not a feeling that I'd see come to Life.

20GB, 100GB, 1TB, 5TB, 10TB, over however much you can afford is up to offer from many people and companies, but how long will it list as such?

I've often thought using online backup is similar to car insurance. You don't want to cause an accident, be in one, or forbid have to also use that insurance to pay for an on-the-road break-down, but you still pay. It's hard to tell when something will happen, but it's good to have it that there.

I've also thought that if car insurance didn't exist in the first place, people would drive a lot better than they do now - because there'd be no protection. You mess up your car, you pay for it. You mess up someone else's car, you pay for it. You total your car, it's gone -- Time to buy a new one, or the other person has to pay for it. I imagine people would drive way better.

Data Loss, Nooooo!

I'm sure some people have been through the terrifying moment where their hard drive decides to take a dive, and spit out every possible noise you didn't want to hear. Then it happens, you lose some data. Maybe even not important data, but you still have to do an hour (or more) of work to get everything situated again. There's setups to replicate data, make it faster, and so-on, but that still doesn't dismiss the fact that data loss may occur at anytime. So what do you naturally want to do?

Send it somewhere else where you think it'll be safe. With people that you think (or know) that are watching over it at all times, and providing data replication at levels maybe you can't afford. How often is it though that you have to use this backup? Once a month, a year? Every two years? Do you lose data enough to want off-site backup?

It's starting to strike me as Insurance

I hope I'm wrong, but this is what it appears as. And quite frankly, I'd rather keep not only a home solution going for replicated data, but also a remote source. I'd rather keep "personal" material at home, and lose it, than trust it with a party I don't know at all.

There's still useful Backup Services

Yep - I've recommended, and went on and on about Ubuntu One. How you pay a small amount, for a small amount of space. At least you know the odds are, it's going to be there. Plus, you get extra benefits for paying for it. Music streaming, etc. It's not just backup. These are the kind of services I'd rather see people getting, than just plain backup solutions that don't provide any other options with it -- otherwise it just looks like an insurance plan that you barely make use of.

Hm!

Image Credit Rene Gariepy