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ChemIT sharing their recommendations and best-practices. May be of particular value to research groups. |
Key point: It's not a question of if a hard drive will fail. Only a question of when. Thus, make sure your unique data is not on just one hard drive.- Backups is a term which applies to restoring current or very recent data.
- Archiving is a term focusing more on restoring prior versions of data or older data.
Synchronizing, especially without access to prior versions, can confer very limited data protection since undesired changes get sync'ed. What can happen to a hacked DropBox.com account demonstrate this danger.
ChemIT-recommended services
| Costs
| Resource links
| Notes and considerations
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EZ-Backup
| Per computer: $5.50/mo (First 18 GB, compressed)
| http://www.it.cornell.edu/services/ezbackup/fees/ | Default setting is to backup full computer, including the OS, which makes for a larger backup and thus potentially more expensive. But the most cost-effective method will requiring carefully and accurately focusing backup on just user's unique docs, not full OS. There is an archive service available.
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File server
| Per group: $9 for 150GB $30 for 500GB $60 for 1TB (onwards)
| http://www.it.cornell.edu/services/sharedfile/fees.cfm | Service backs up all files there via EZ-Backup at no additional cost. Versioning (access to prior versions and deleted files) is available, and obviously takes up some of the allocated space (~20%). Set up private folders for each member. By default, can't see each others files. Has capacity for shared folders, if sharing is desired. CIFS are Windows and Mac-friendly. Accessible from off-campus via VPN. NetID-based so usernames and password are easy to remember.
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Box.com
| Free to CU members, up to 10GB More data, via formal request.
| http://www.it.cornell.edu/services/box/about.cfm | Good for working files. Good for sharing, including to your own, other computers. Limited space. Individual file size limit is 2GB. Limits on file names and path lengths. Cornell-contracted. Use and rights governed differently than with your group's private DropBox.com accounts, for example. More space may be available to individuals; contact ChemIT to explore this option. Service stores prior versions of files, and in most cases also deleted files. Consider backing up files in case account gets hacked or of a bad internal actor. NetID-based so usernames and password are easy to remember.
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