to cloud or not to cloud

I'm trying to figure out what to do about data storage and preservation in the age of the cloud.

Until now I have pretty much eschewed cloud storage. It's not that I have any well-thought objections. It's just that I never got around to setting it up. Fearing that my computer can die and I would lose all my data, I have been making a half-hearted attempt at backing up on thumb drives. But I have made back-ups irregularly at best.

I started looking at the possibility of cloud storage. I have the accounts and the storage space available. But I haven't gotten around to figuring out what to do and how to do it. Fortunately for me, Sharon is pretty good with this and has friends who are better.

But after discussing this with her, I am still torn.

I have been storing all my data in one folder on my hard drive. I set things up that way on purpose, so that when I want to back things up it's relatively easy. I don't really care about backing up programs, since I can reinstall. But data? They can't be replaced as easily.

Until last night, I was under the impression that using cloud storage involved some kind of process of regularly syncing my computer to the cloud -- that I'd tell the software what folder(s) to back up and how frequently. Then, at some determined intervals a sync would happen. That's based on a paradigm that I witnessed for years. But after talking with Sharon, I learned that that's not the way this works anymore. The paradigm has shifted. Now, the cloud storage will show up in Windows Explorer as just another folder, and I'll be working with files that are stored somewhere else instead of in my computer.

This all makes me vaguely uncomfortable. Maybe I'm just a dinosaur, but the idea of my files not being on my computer makes me uncomfortable. Sharon pointed out some definite advantages to this scheme. Notably, with access to my ID and password, I can log into my cloud account on another computer elsewhere. There can be very useful. And storing things on the cloud can certainly make things safer than if I just keep backups on a thumb drive in my desk drawer. And yet...and yet...it still doesn't feel right.

I suspect that what I'll do is go to the cloud storage scheme as Sharon recommends, but periodically back up the cloud stuff on my hard-drive.

If anyone who sees this is tech-savvy and has thoughts on the matter, I'd be curious about what you think.