Re: [PLUG] Physically Secure Backup Disk

[Soren Harward via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>]

On Wed, May 17, 2023 at 8:32 PM Steve Litt via plug
<plug@lists.phillylinux.org> wrote:
>
> Soren Harward via plug said on Mon, 15 May 2023 11:58:17 -0400
>
> >And I don't have to deal with
> >the inconvenience and points of failure that come with managing the
> >kind of hardware solutions that have been proposed in this thread.
>
> Read the Terms and Conditions of your Google Cloud Storage, and notice
> they take no responsibility for the loss or dispersal of your
> information. This is a *huge* point of failure: They don't care for
> your data like you would.

While true, this isn't much of an argument against cloud storage. The
other offsite storage locations proposed ITT include:

- offline HDD in safe deposit box
- NAS or offline HDD at friend's/relative's house
- NAS at some other colo data center

*None* of these will guarantee the integrity of your data. All of them
require that you trust your data to someone else. And even if the
other party has insurance that will cover catastrophic loss of your
hardware, the data will still be gone. That's why offsite backup is
just one component of a multi-layered data integrity plan.

Cloud storage is sufficiently cost-effective, convenient and reliable
to merit serious consideration in any such plan. Yes, uploading TBs of
data is the biggest drawback. But that's a one-time, initial hurdle. I
know vanishingly few people who generate data that needs to be backed
up faster than they can upload it on a mediocre broadband connection.
If you're shooting hours of 4k video every day and you live out in St
Marys, well, maybe cloud storage isn't for you. But for the rest of
us, it makes the most sense for an offsite backup solution.

So I'm putting down my marker for cloud storage as offsite backup:

Costs:

- about $23/month for storage costs (recurring): 4.6TB GCS archive
tier and 850GB GCS standard tier
- about two hours to set up and test duplicity (one time, initial)
- 10 sec/day to review backup confirmation emails (recurring)
- <1 hr/year maintaining duplicity config across software updates (recurring)

Benefits:

- offsite backup, with zero downtime or data loss since Mar 2016
- backups never more than 24 hours out of date
- files accessible from any computer with a web browser

If you've implemented an alternative solution, I'd love to see how it stacks up.
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