Remember what can be replaced

by Jeff Garon
published on: 09/01/08 9:49:53 PM

As I watched television this Labor Day weekend, Hurricane Gustav bore down on the Louisiana coast. By Monday it has weakened to a tropical storm. But that doesn't change much in terms of impacts affecting southern Louisiana. Almost 2 million people have evacuated the region, being forced to "pick up and go" taking only their most irreplaceable possessions with them. As I write this, it looks like Gustav spared the residents of the entire Gulf region from the anguish and devastation that Hurricane Katrina caused.

Events like Gustav remind us that there is really only one way to best protect personal and corporate data on laptops, desktops and servers. People who backup their data to external hard drives, tapes and even thumb drives are only as safe as the last time they properly backed up their files. External drives and tapes must be stored and archived. And, someone has to be in charge of the disks and tapes. Backing up your files (from any device) and having those precious data files safely stored off-site, securely on the Internet is really the only safe option. Who wants that burden, while trying to deal with an emergency?

If you were told (right now) that you had to leave your home or business, and take with you only a handful of possessions, now is not the time to be worrying about backing up and securing your photograph, music or personal and business data, from your various devices. Laptops, desktops, servers, BlackBerry® and Smartphone devices can be replaced, but once you lose the precious data on these devices, it is lost forever.

It is Web Apps like Etelos Share that can provide this peace of mind. My goal at Etelos was to provide this type of service at a competitive cost so companies can be securely and automatically back up as often as needed with its data safely stored and always available. Computers and other devices can be replaced with insurance. No insurance policy can replace your data.

If your current backup plan does not include securely storing your irreplaceable data off-site, securely on the Internet, you are really not fully protected. It must be frustrating to have taken the necessary steps to backup data from any type of device, to have that supposedly "safe data" lost in a fire or flood.

Learn how an affordable, completely user controlled, secure data backup strategy can be implemented in less than 15 minutes. Protect your personal and corporate files, on all of your devices, from any location in the world.

Katrina should have taught all of us the power of having offsite secure real-time backup that is accessible anywhere anytime, and now Gustav and the potential storms that follow continue to reinforce that lesson. Preparedness and peace of mind - wouldn't it be great if everyone had Etelos Share?