So after watching TWiET, I 'm starting to think my theory that the 2 in 3-2-1 is obsolete

[G+_John Mink]

So after watching TWiET, I'm starting to think my theory that the 2 in 3-2-1 is obsolete.

 

3 copies, 2 mediums, 1 offsite.

 

Rather than ask if this is true (as people never want to say "yes" you can skip this part of backing up), i'd ask, "what 2nd medium" would people recommend and what benefit would they expect to (or actually do) see from that non-HDD medium.

 

Don't get me wrong, 3 & 1 are the KEY here, but different mediums?

 

Maybe we need to come up with a new 2!

[G+_Bruce Jordan]

Very good question.   I will quietly (without saying "yes") watch with interest  :-)

[G+_John Mink]

Bruce Jordan I expect you're far from alone.

[G+_610GARAGE]

I don't believe that two mediums is necessary for a standard backup. From what I heard (and correct me if this is wrong); a person would use two backup mediums to increase the chances that one of the mediums could be read in 10 years or so and increase the probability that the data would last that long. So it would only make sense in an archival backup. 

 

Also, anly good online backup service should be doing daily tape drive backups of your data, so you could consider them a second medium by proxy... mabey?

[G+_John Mink]

610bob i've heard people say that they count the cloud as a 2nd medium...but it's specifically NOT a medium.

 

Besides, what if it's something I don't want on the cloud for security reasons?  Or what if it's just a large collection of whatever that is too large to feasibly move it to the cloud?

 

To your other point, I never heard a good argument for 2nd mediums, but I suppose that might be the logic?

[G+_Ben Tyger]

I'm guilty of just 2-1. I only have 2 copies, 2 formats (original disk copy & cloud) and 1 off site in the cloud.

[G+_John Mink]

Ben Tyger I don't think the cloud is the worst place to have your only backup...certainly better than a local external & nowhere else.

 

That said, why not put things on an external/ other machine?  Is there no concern about how long a full restore would take after your local machine dies?  Do you just not really store things locally (like google docs/skydrive/other cloud platforms)?

[G+_Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ]

It's not as simple as 3-2-1 for most of us. 

 

It used to be when a power user had a whole GIGABYTE of data, but not that many of us have data plants in the realm of 5-10 TERRABYTES, it's just not feasible to do 3-2-1.

 

In my system, there is a gradation of my redundancy. My documents and photos (comprising less than 2GB) strictly follow 3-2-1 with the cloud service as a copy, but NOT as a separate medium. 

 

Video assets are divided between 3-2-1 and 2-1-1: FINISHED files have three copies, but raw video assets exist on two disaster-resistant arrays in physically distant locations. I use the Internet for syncing... but NOT for storage. -- In my 200TB plant, this takes up 80% of the storage space.

 

Then there are  the music, movie and TV files. I use 2-1-0. I always have two copies... as long as you count the cloud.

 

It comes down to speed and practicality. This is what works for me.

[G+_Ben Tyger]

John Mink As Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ  said it really depends on the size your data set. At home, I have a about a 1 TB data set. 90% of it is static data. Once that 90% is uploaded, it doesn't change. So bandwidth usage / time isn't a real issue. If I had to deal with catastrophic damage, I can get a pre-seeded drive from my cloud provider (CrashPlan) for a moderate charge. So downloading the whole data set is not an issue.

 

I'm not afraid of a single disk failure. In most cases most of my data is stored on my home server that is backed by some level of RAID. For the little bit of data that is on the desktops / laptops, I run a local CrashPlan client. Most of that data is about 5GB per a machine do re-downloading the local data is not an issue.

 

I run my owncloud software (OwnCloud) so don't really use GDrive / Dropbox / SkyDrive. Also since these services sync data near instantly I consider them closer a RAID system than a backup system. RAID is not a backup. 

 

I really should just setup a large local external drive keep a backed up local version of it. CrashPlan software makes that pretty easy too. It is just finding the time / money.