If you have used computer hardware for any period of time, you probably know that all hardware will eventually fail. With it could go all your precious images and videos and the memories that you have captured over the years. You've probably thought about different ways to back up your computer, mobile phone, and other devices and have already put some of these strategies into place. But are you missing a simple trick or two that will allow you to make all of this really simple and foolproof?
In this useful and educational video, Omar Gonzalez talks about the different ways that you can back up your data, images, and videos. He shares various stages and backup strategies that he went through before he arrived at his current backup solution, which is a NAS. Now, having a huge NAS isn't for everyone, which is why this video is interesting.
In showing us his progress, he actually walks us through all the different options that are available, no matter what your backup data requirement or annual backup budget is. In my experience, how much data you have to store and how important it is to your clients has a high correlation to which stage you're at in your photography career or personal life. So, no matter whether you're a beginner who is looking for a way to back up your photos for the first time or a professional who already has a backup strategy, but wants to have more robust and flexible ways to access these backups, there's something in here for all of you.
The guiding principles are all the same, though: make sure that there isn't a single point of failure when it comes to storing your memories by having multiple copies of your files in multiple places. Gonzalez goes through these ideas too, so nothing is missed.
Having all of this information in one short 15-minute video allows even the beginner to understand the scope of backup procedures that they will have to work up to in the future. This is definitely a video that I would recommend to people who are exploring different ways to back up their data for the first time or if you're just wondering if you've missed out on something.
For my phone, I have been using the FolderSync Pro android app. Basically while the phone is charging, it will sync new photos, downloads, and other files to my NAS. Overall cheaper than the cloud, and I have easy access to them. I also use a smartphone that has a micro SD card slot, thus bulk media is stored on an extra 400GB micro SD card. If I am away from home for an extended period of time, and I want to backup the data, I can simply connect to the VPN server on my home network, and foldersync will backup to the NAS via the VPN.
Offsite storage of a large amount of storage is difficult, but if you have other family or close friends willing to share some NAS storage, you can set up encrypted pools that you split, e.g., sharing a 20TB pool (10TB per user) that is synced, then the most important data is.
The main challenge is when the primary NAS storage grows, e.g., 50-100+TB. As you expand your storage and add more HBAs to your NAS build, if you want to back it up to the cloud, it will get very expensive to a point that you are better off adding more redundancy to your current storage solution, such as more cold backups to bare drives that you place in a fire/water resistant safe.
Having more drive bays, ends up being far more economical, though only with a DIY NAS build (many turn-key NAS products will have you spending as much as $1600 for 6 bays, where a $400-$500 PC build will have you starting at 8 bays with room to expand with HBA cards, allowing you to easily have 30+ drives connected if you want, thus you can add more and more storage rather than being stuck with 4 or 6 bays where you end up having to replace smaller drives and having the array rebuild each time, which takes longer and longer as the the drives get larger, where a drive failure during that process can cost you all of the data on the array.
Thanks for these thoughts. I'll have to read through a few times to ingest all the ideas here.