jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

It's a nice feeling to know that all your stuff is backed up offsite and available from anywhere in the world, but what happens when your storage site closes down? In this case, copy.com is giving their customers three month's notice, but just suppose you went to your cloud one day, and it wasn't there - no warning?

http://www.diyphotography.net/when-the-cloud-evaporates-copy-com-is-shutting-down/

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

If all you lose is a cloud based BACKUP, then you have lost nothing..... right? Your data still exists on your computer and on your local backups. Ok, you lost the time you spent looking for your cloud backup service. BUT now it should take even less time to find a suitable replacement service right?

:)

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Of course. ;-)

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

You go out and buy more external hard drives and become your own "cloud backup".

Years ago I read of a pro on assignment is some remote corner of Central Asia in the far west of China who was using a cloud service to store photos since he couldn't take enough storage with him. He uploaded his stuff each time he returned to a major city for supplies etc. He was gone to the other side of beyond for 6 weeks straight for the last part of his assignment. He got to a connection to find that 5 weeks earlier the cloud service had gone belly up and given everyone a month to retrieve their files. He lost 6000 shots (after first cull) and was barely able to do a fairly decent job of putting together his assignment from what he had in his laptop and on memory chips from his camera.
He vowed to never use cloud for anything except a second backup again. If I remember right he also went out and bought enough memory chips for his camera that he could keep a typical assignment and one backup set on chips all the time.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Anyone who would make use of a cloud service for anything but a 2nd or 3rd backup is not really thinking very smart.

I have my originals on live connected external storage, a backup on live connected storage, a backup on disconnected external and a backup on Crashplan, a cloud service.

Losing my originals and two backups and I can still recover.

As for becoming your own "cloud backup" hopefully you mean placing those externals off site somewhere, and not just making them available to the internet thru a "my cloud" kind of idea?

The purpose for a cloud backup is to retain your important data disconnected and OFF SITE in case of a disaster, like a house fire.

jim quist Loc: Missouri

One thing I like about Zenfolio is the unlimited storage space, and the ability to make your files private so others cannot access them.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

I hear you about your floppy copies... better safe ;)

johneccles Loc: Leyland UK

I use Google Photos and Amazon Photos for cloud back up.
Just in case however I have also stored all my photos and three separate external hard drives so they should be safe enough !!
I did notice that "Copy's" announcement couldn't resist making a sneaky comment about Seagate drives.

Bultaco Loc: Aiken, SC

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: I never use a CLOUD only hardrdrives.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

First, as many have already said, cloud should be used for backup or archive, NOT primary storage. Secondly, if you use cloud, pick a cloud service like Amazon, Google or Microsoft which are VERY unlikely to go belly-up anytime soon. Finally, although maybe someone may be able to cite an example of a service going down without warning, the two cloud services I've seen go under both provided plenty of time (as the above example), to download and move the images to another service. Cloud is not an answer to all your storage needs - just another tool in the toolbox.

jgitomer Loc: Skippack Pennsylvania

Just bite the bullet and go with Google, Amazon, Microsoft, etc. and your cloud vendor going belly just won't happen.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Well, nothing is bulletproof. I don't trust "just" the cloud, "just" an external drive, or God forbid, "just my computer's had drive.

Ive doe backups, that have failed, so I don't rely on those either. I physically save the files on separate drive, as well as on my Amazon Prime. If one fails, maybe two, or even 3 things fail, I still have a 4th. If all 4 fail, I'm sue its a sign of the Zombie apocalypse, and I'll have more things to worry about.

Because of the newly reported Seagate issues, Even though I don't have any Seagates, I think I'm going to purchase at last one more external drive of a different brand than the rest just in case there is some huge issue that pops up with WD drives.