No sigh was necessary, I understand. I even mentioned that I have a NAS and off-site backup... so either you didn't read it all or you stopped the moment you encountered the word "Dropbox" and started typing.
That said, people DO use DropBox as backup.
If you take a walk around the British Library and asked every PhD student working there how they "Backup" their research and work in progress, I bet every single person who believes that they have a backup will say "Dropbox", and the only exceptions will be a few who don't really have a backup.
I know that because I ensured my girlfriend does have a real backup solution in place that is tested. Not one of her peers seems to.
DropBox is used for backup because they've made file sync so damn easy that most people can be convinced that if a file exists in many places, it is backed-up.
My whole point is that now storage for long term backup is priced in a way that is affordable to most, that consumer services may emerge that offer true backup to consumers and can successfully migrate people from lesser solutions (DropBox, stacks of CD-ROMs, etc).
One of the things about backup is that it needs to be easy. Currently the size and cost of backups make it expensive, and the only way to reduce the cost makes it difficult (HDD local copies stored at a friends' house for example).
By reducing the cost, perhaps we can finally increase the ease... and then a day may come in which most people have a real backup solution.
"I even mentioned that I have a NAS and off-site backup... so either you didn't read it all or you stopped the moment you encountered the word "Dropbox" and started typing."
No offense, but this post doesn't quite match what you wrote originally. My sigh was in response to the phrase "Dropbox should work here, ...". You didn't state security as your concern as to why not use Dropbox, rather it was cost. This might lead someone who only needs <2GB backed up to believe that Dropbox is perfectly fine for that task.
"DropBox is used for backup because they've made file sync so damn easy that most people can be convinced that if a file exists in many places, it is backed-up."
And that's exactly what I'm scared about and why I'm saying it again and again that you shouldn't do it - if only one person listens and avoids potential data loss because of it I've already reached my goal.
"One of the things about backup is that it needs to be easy. Currently the size and cost of backups make it expensive, and the only way to reduce the cost makes it difficult (HDD local copies stored at a friends' house for example). By reducing the cost, perhaps we can finally increase the ease... and then a day may come in which most people have a real backup solution."
Agreed. IMO no consumer backup system is quite there yet. TimeMachine is very close, if only it would do better logging and have some more intelligence about warning messages.
"No offense, but this post doesn't quite match what you wrote originally. My sigh was in response to the phrase "Dropbox should work here, ...". You didn't state security as your concern as to why not use Dropbox, rather it was cost. This might lead someone who only needs <2GB backed up to believe that Dropbox is perfectly fine for that task."
A fair point.
In my case, Dropbox use is in addition to local RAID (scratch) NAS (network scratch, access of larger files) + off-site (backup).
I only use Dropbox for syncing and sharing.
The sync vs backup is an interesting one, simply because most consumers couldn't tell you the difference.
For example: Q: "Are your contacts backed up?". A: "Yes, they're sync'd to Google".
I did conflate my scenario with thinking about my girlfriend's peers in my post. And then reacted from my perspective again... my bad.
"Agreed. IMO no consumer backup system is quite there yet. TimeMachine is very close, if only it would do better logging and have some more intelligence about warning messages"
Vigorous agreement here too, except for the TimeMachine bit as that is Mac only and doesn't work for <insert any other system or device that isn't Apple Mac OSX).
"Vigorous agreement here too, except for the TimeMachine bit as that is Mac only and doesn't work for <insert any other system or device that isn't Apple Mac OSX)."
Well yes, obviously it only works in a mac-only household/office. I still think it's a good solution for non technically experienced users who only have macs since it's so simple that you could literally explain your grandma how to setup. I don't think mobile devices are that important on the other hand. The important data on them should usually be synched to your computer and as long as that is backuped, you should be fine. On windows I think that the built-in backup since Windows 7 is finally decent, albeit not yet grandma-proof ;).
To be fair though, Dropbox is way better than any other backup solution consumers usually use. Personally, I've never seen data loss occur on Dropbox, but I'm sure it can happen - it's just way less likely than the average user messing up their own backup.
That said, people DO use DropBox as backup.
If you take a walk around the British Library and asked every PhD student working there how they "Backup" their research and work in progress, I bet every single person who believes that they have a backup will say "Dropbox", and the only exceptions will be a few who don't really have a backup.
I know that because I ensured my girlfriend does have a real backup solution in place that is tested. Not one of her peers seems to.
DropBox is used for backup because they've made file sync so damn easy that most people can be convinced that if a file exists in many places, it is backed-up.
My whole point is that now storage for long term backup is priced in a way that is affordable to most, that consumer services may emerge that offer true backup to consumers and can successfully migrate people from lesser solutions (DropBox, stacks of CD-ROMs, etc).
One of the things about backup is that it needs to be easy. Currently the size and cost of backups make it expensive, and the only way to reduce the cost makes it difficult (HDD local copies stored at a friends' house for example).
By reducing the cost, perhaps we can finally increase the ease... and then a day may come in which most people have a real backup solution.