The Newest Computer Battleground: Backup

If you had told me five years ago that within an hour I would see two commercials on TV for two different online backup systems, I would have laughed heartily, yet that's just what I saw last week, as backup as become the newest (and one of the biggest) turf wars in computing today.

Carbonite and Mozy both took their pitches to TV, which comes as a bit of a surprise given the relatively small size of both companies, although that might also speak to the low price of TV ads right now. This growing market even has a relatively consistent $50-60/year price point. With so many companies in this space right now, (iDrive, Apple's MobileMe, SOS on PC,  and Dropbox to mention a few more) look for some sort of consolidation. With the pricing for most of these services already in the same ballpark, online backup is already headed towards commodity status.

Kudos to both Mozy and Carbonite for their aggressive plans to attract more users. This market could practically disappear overnight if Apple and Microsoft decided to integrate large, online backup as part of the OS. If Apple were to make MobileMe free, and beef up the backup tools, would there be any need for another service? Time Machine already gives them a decent backup mechanism that could have an online component added to it.

In the meantime, sit back and enjoy the biggest computer turf war since the great browser wars of the 90's. Oh, and don't be surprised if this one has a similar outcome. Then again, 15 years later, the new browser war probably takes the cake as the second biggest battleground.

Archiving To Hard Drive? Be Very Careful

There were a few exciting projects around here at R Cubed Networks before The Digital Lifestyle. Sadly, their time has passed, and they only exist on a few hard drives living in the closet. However, final cut pro guru Larry Jordan has sounded the warning bells about archiving to hard drive.

In his September newsletter, Jordan said he has talked to hard drive engineers, indicating the lifespan of data sitting on an unplugged drive may be much shorter than we thought:

According to what I've been told, the life-span of a magnetic signal on a hard disk is between a year and a year and a half. The issue is complex, as you'll see, but this is a MUCH shorter shelf-life than I was expecting.

The way to keep the files on your hard disks safe is to connect the hard drive to your computer every six months or so and, ideally, copy all the files from one drive to another. Failing that, use a program like Micromat's TechTool Pro, or ProSoft's Drive Genius, to do a complete scan of your hard drive. Doing so will replenish any magnetic signals that are starting to fade.

If you'll excuse us, we have some data moving to do...

iPhone 2.1 Software, and a Quick Word of Warning

iPhone 2.1 software is now officially available, but just a quick tip: don't try to install it just before heading to work: although 2.1 promises fasters syncs and backups right around the corner, the initially backup to load the software is proving to be slow. Dog slow. Like into hour two slow.

So don't start it, if you plan on going anywhere with your phone in the next few hour(s).