Re:What happens to your files when a cloud service dies?
by ljf on Friday January 20, 2012 @09:35AM
(#3489556)
Yup - they might tie it down so terribly, but I just have a dropbox accounts across a couple of computers - I have the same account on my personal PC, my office laptop and my crappy Jolicloud cheap linux laptop I use for surfing while watching TV.
So as long as I turn each on once in a while I not only have a cloud back-up, I also have 3 'physical' ones.
If one day Dropbox through the 'kill switch' - I'd just have to use one of the other devices without connecting to the internet first - as I don't like to leave machines running needlessly only one is ever on at a time.
In a way I think it's good that Dropbox limits the amount I can store - it makes me focus on the files I /NEED/ to have for a long time, and makes me do the work of backing up the other lesser items - like photos (that I care about but aren't going to lose me £££ if I lose them).
This demonstrates the dangers of SOPA quite nicely.
My worry is that in an attempt to create lock-in software vendors will try and tie storage and applications together so if you lose one you lose both.
Let's imagine something like basecamp got taken down , that would be a major disaster for many businesses. They don't only lose the app but they lose all of the data.