With the advent of cloud storage, daily backups to external hardisks have became a secondary precaution. With two macs connected via the cloud, fast fibre connections and a 30-day revision history and auto-saves, backups are being created about as soon as I type.
I began using Dropbox by 2010 at least. It wasn’t the first cloud storage available but won us over early with a decent 2GB of free storage, and more importantly, an intuitive interface which worked seamlessly in the background.
Then Dropbox doubled .edu referral space. By then I had made Dropbox a compulsory tool for my research students. I would have to ensure students actually stored their thesis files inside the Dropbox folder but I could stop asking about their backup schedule.
Meanwhile, I reached 15gb though referrals. Enough space for a semester’s worth of files, I organised my module files in semestral folders and switched them around every July and December – when I prepared for the new semester.
Then in October 2012, DropBox announced a Space Race! This promised some 30gb to the winners and NUS students and staff put our large numbers to good use. and won!
The seduction was complete – Dropbox was taking over my home directory. I began storing various versions of my lectures, public talks and images there, added “Camera Uploads” when it was suggested.
Meanwhile last July, Dropbox had doubled its storage offerings to shake off competitors.
Resistance was futile.
I purchased 100GB for US$100/year and am floating in the clouds now.
Otterman speaks... 