I spend way too much time thinking about data storage and backup. I’ve been a professional photographer for nearly 10 years, and have accumulated over 10 terabytes of pictures, video, and project data. I have finally implemented a storage and backup scheme that I’m happy with. It took a long time to set up, but I have direct access to all of my media now, and have comfort in knowing that it is securely backed up. (read more »)

Those of you who follow me on social media know that I complain often about the work required to keep my data securely and reliably backed up. Since 1997, I’ve been a hardcore Crashplan user. I love that it features continuous, versioned backups to multiple destinations, and that it supports multiple platforms. You can backup any Mac, Windows or Linux machine to virtually any destination (folder, second computer, or cloud).

I continue to recommend Crashplan over Time Machine for normal users; for a very-small monthy subscription fee, you can back up every machine in your family to an external drive, and to the cloud—a fast, local backup plus a secure offsite backup, all in one solution.

Unfortunately, I am not a typical user. I have about 10 terabytes of data that I need to keep easily accessible and securely backed up. About half of that are static image files, which are stored on a redundant NAS volume and backed up offsite, which leaves the other half—about 5 TB—needing to be actively backed up. (read more »)