Restart Radio: Backups and ‘the cloud’

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When was the last time you backed up your data? If that question gives you a sinking feeling – don’t worry, you’re not the only one!

This week we talk about how, why and where to backup. Drawing on stories from our Restart Parties, as well as your contributions to our Twitter poll, we explore what it is about storage that people find so daunting, and how to avoid losing data forever.

First, we look at the  semantics of ‘the cloud’ itself. With a growing sense that data is immaterial, it is easy to lose sight of the ‘thingness’ of the internet. But as ‘natural’ as this cloud may sound, it has its own massive physical and carbon footprint. The annual Greenpeace report ‘Clicking Green’ reveals that the IT sector takes up 7% of global energy usage, and this is rapidly growing.

So what’s the safest, surest, greenest way to avoid losing data? We compare Apple and Android solutions for smartphone storage, and critique apps which claim to do the job.

Happily, it seems that Apple and Google are committed to greener, cleaner data services. But it remains to be seen whether the clean energy sector can keep up with the ever-growing cloud.

Links to things we discussed:

• Greenpeace report ‘Clicking Clean’
• Ars Technica: The case for using iTunes to back up your phone
• Huffington Post: How to prevent losing data
• Edelman: Why people don’t trust the cloud 

[Feature Image “Clouds” by Flickr user Joe Shlabotnik is licensed under CC BY 2.0]