Online Archive Suggestions?

[Spinal]

I've been looking at my data storage... and I'm not happy with what I do... it's all sync'ed and backed up within multiple hard drives in my house.

I used to use Mozy (and before that, Carbonite) for backups - but never really liked them as recovery took ages for files of any substantial size. (I have several TB of photographs and videos I want to keep). Plus, they are backup, not archive solutions.

I've been looking at livedrive, who do an online archive solution - but don't know how reliable they are...

I really just need something that I can upload 2-3TB of data, and forget about until I need to add some more... and then, at some point in the future, recover it all to a local HD...

Anyone care to share what they use as their archive solutions?

M.

[neilz]

JustCloud looks good, and I found their 'secret link' in the footer which gives a 35% discount if you choose them (apparently very few people scroll down to the bottom of the page so very few people see the link, hence them calling it 'secret'...)

JustCloud :: Secret Link

Free short trial, then $9.95 a month if paid monthly, $4.95 a month if paid 2 years upfront.

[Spinal]

Thanks - I get a 503 error on the page...

Hope it's an issue with my ISP...

[camerafodder]

Forgive me for asking but aren't you an IT security consultant?

[Spinal]

Originally Posted by camerafodder

Forgive me for asking but aren't you an IT security consultant?

I am

That said...

1) Security != Archiving

2) I'm looking for a home solution... I'm sure that if I had a chat with EMC, T-Systems, RackSpace or one of the other cloud providers they would be happy to take several hundred grand a month to provide me with an enterprise class solution... but I only need something to archive my videos and pictures...

3) If you're referring to cloud archiving not being secure enough; I feel it is... it's all in PGP encrypted volumes; and then they add their own encryption (usually AES256)... so good enough for a couple of baby snaps

M.

[Sp!ke]

Why not use google?

Picassa even.

[pespro]

I was going to suggest Mozy until i read you had already used them.. What do you do for your job? IT Security is something i find interesting and maybe one day would like to get into.

[Spinal]

Originally Posted by Sp!ke

Why not use google?

Picassa even.

Google is expensive - google cloud storage charge about $0.12 per GB of data storage (and then another 12c/GB for getting the data out). For a rough size of 3TB, that's about $360 a month... Compared to livedrive of $15 for 5TB it's a little non-competitive... (though for all I know, livedrive are hosted in someone's basement with no DR).

Picasa doesn't store the pictures in RAW format that I know of. It also wont store my videos and other bits and pieces in weird and wonderful historic formats.

Originally Posted by pespro

I was going to suggest Mozy until i read you had already used them.. What do you do for your job? IT Security is something i find interesting and maybe one day would like to get into.

Mozy is ok, but they do (did?) backup, not archiving. I need to archive data, so upload it once, then turn off the local hard drive (which will go into a fireproof safe) and have it sit on their servers for years... Mozy would wipe it after xx days if you removed it from your computer.

I'm a product agnostic security consultant. My specialisation is vulnerability scanning, pen.testing and contractual mitigation. I.e. My background is in pen.testing, but since 2 years or so, I now work with organisations that need to reduce the amount of money their clients will demand of them when it all hits the courts... So my work is mainly policy, procedure and process based... (and I still can't spell them! )

M.

[pespro]

Originally Posted by Spinal

Mozy is ok, but they do (did?) backup, not archiving. I need to archive data, so upload it once, then turn off the local hard drive (which will go into a fireproof safe) and have it sit on their servers for years... Mozy would wipe it after xx days if you removed it from your computer.

I'm a product agnostic security consultant. My specialisation is vulnerability scanning, pen.testing and contractual mitigation. I.e. My background is in pen.testing, but since 2 years or so, I now work with organisations that need to reduce the amount of money their clients will demand of them when it all hits the courts... So my work is mainly policy, procedure and process based... (and I still can't spell them! )

M.

Ah right i see what you mean with Mozy.
The pen testing sounds good, i did some of that at uni and enjoyed it. I used to use Backtrack every week but then just got bored of it until a new exploit came out.

I still have it on a usb external drive and take it to work each day but i only use Orphrack on it to break into computers where the users dont know the passwords.

If you dont use Backtrack for a while its really easy to forgot even the basic commands.

[Beetnik]

if you want to store it and forget it why not load it up onto another hard drive and deposit it with your bank's safe custody service?

[Spinal]

Beetnick - that's actually a really good idea... was considering leaving it with a friend, etc... but didn't think of a bank... Have a safe box in Italy...

Will drop by my local barclays (old post office, I know they have deposit boxes) to find out prices asap!

M.

[neilz]

Old fashioned though it sounds, aren't DATs meant to be the most durable removable medium? I know servers often still use them, mine do. Hard drives can randomly fail, tapes less so

[g1nganinja]

Originally Posted by neilz

Old fashioned though it sounds, aren't DATs meant to be the most durable removable medium? I know servers often still use them, mine do. Hard drives can randomly fail, tapes less so

Neilz

DAT is the least reliable of all tape mediums in existence of for the last 2 decades plus with the possible exception of the QIC 80 travan formats. The physical devices within limited use are ok, but the media itself is. 4mm version of the original exabyte 8mm standard. Inherently this media is prone to be crap, very high surface to head contact area, based upon standard iron particles in the media substrate, in Essence its scratchy and rusty. You remember how VHS was after a few uses and that was retail treated!!
Live drive is a good option - a good friend of mine has just gone there as DC manager and he is exacting in what he does and would not go there unless their set up was "properly professional"

[Messa]

I just let the wife know, she never forgets anything I do !

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