Here in NZ, we don't have the all-you-can-eat broadband packages that you generally get in Canada. We have a 20 GB/month plan, which is generally not too bad, unless you want to be a heavy duty cloud user.
I downloaded a trial version of Carbonite to backup all of my data to the cloud. I do onsite backups, but I like the idea of having the off site backups too. What I didn't count on is how much data I actually had to backup. I have something like 66 GB of data on my laptop, which actually isn't a lot of data now-a-day. And that doesn't count how much data is on Kristie's laptop.
Anyway, for those who aren't very good at math, 66 GB of data is a larger number than the 20 GB cap I have from my ISP. So not only didn't I get all my data uploaded to the cloud, but now that we reached our monthly limit, we're throttled to dial-up speed until the billing cycle has ended. I had given some thought to this issue afterwards thinking that even if I did get all the data uploaded to the cloud, if something catastrophic happened, it would take a couple months to get it all back.
I think NZ should start thinking about no limit caps from ISPs. As more and more of life's dealings will be done online, NZ will be left in the lurch as no one will have the bandwidth to do it all.
I downloaded a trial version of Carbonite to backup all of my data to the cloud. I do onsite backups, but I like the idea of having the off site backups too. What I didn't count on is how much data I actually had to backup. I have something like 66 GB of data on my laptop, which actually isn't a lot of data now-a-day. And that doesn't count how much data is on Kristie's laptop.
Anyway, for those who aren't very good at math, 66 GB of data is a larger number than the 20 GB cap I have from my ISP. So not only didn't I get all my data uploaded to the cloud, but now that we reached our monthly limit, we're throttled to dial-up speed until the billing cycle has ended. I had given some thought to this issue afterwards thinking that even if I did get all the data uploaded to the cloud, if something catastrophic happened, it would take a couple months to get it all back.
I think NZ should start thinking about no limit caps from ISPs. As more and more of life's dealings will be done online, NZ will be left in the lurch as no one will have the bandwidth to do it all.
25 March 2012 at 10:41
Hey Leo,
I feel your pain. I too have about 80 GB to backup. I'm just rsync'ing between 2 machines right now, but if we had a fire...
You may not have to wait too long before caps are raised. Pacific Fibre is expected to have it's trans-pacific link to the US backbone operational by 2014. It's supposed to offer "unlimited" bandwidth to Aus & NZ. Whatever unlimited means to those marketing folks at PF...
I know your situation is a bit different than ours because of the limited pipe in/out of NZ, which gives some reason to the current caps, but this post backs up why usage caps don't work in general(giving hope that they will be abolished someday): http://socialmediacollective.org/2011/12/05/bandwidth-hogs-dont-exist/. Our cap is something like 250 GB (on Shaw back here) and we haven't hit it yet.
Maybe one solution to your backup problem could be an external drive and a safety deposit box? This has worked for me in the past, but you have to remember to visit the bank every now and then :)
cheers,
Rod
25 March 2012 at 21:31
The idea of off site backup, like you suggested in a safety deposit box, isn't really practical as you'd have to go get the back up every time you add a few pictures.
I've heard the fibre line was coming here soon, so it will remain to be seen how well competition fares after that. In the mean time, I'm hoping nothing bad happens.