Anyone use Dropbox or similar as a back up

[MattDLEA]

just wondered what your thoughts on this were.

 

There is a little group of computers that are not connected to the server directly. These are the office computers and they are all set up as standalone but all have access to a shared folder on that is located on one computer. This works for them and i don't want to change it as they know what they are doing. But was thinking would dropbox be a better way of working with this and then at least all the files are getting backed up as well.

Just wondered also what the security and privacy aspects would be on this?

[Pete10141748]

There could be implications for using cloud storage like dropbox for files containing sensitive information.

 

When you say "it works for them they know what they are doing" setting them up to the server would be no different, surely? They'd still have a shortcut or mapped drive to a folder they can all access, what's the difference?

 

Personally, I'd advise against keeping anything important stand-alone, it's just asking for a headache down the line.

[Geoff]

For personal use I have a truecrypt file taking up the entirety of my dropbox allocated space. This gets round any privacy issues I might have about my data.

[GrumbleDook]

This is a good chance to have a look at risk-assessment if people hare happy to throw things into the pot ... remember that schools can differ with their needs and how they deal with things so just because someone else says it wouldn't work or is inappropriate then that doesn't mean it might not be fine for you.

 

A starter for 10 then ...

What questions would you ask yourself about a remotely hosted backup and how does this differ?

[MattDLEA]

Thats why I was asking Grumble. As I know they are looking at remote hosted backup and i wondered how it differed from this?

[GrumbleDook]

In which case let us start by asking what would we expect from a remote backup solution and see whether dropbox, and others, might they criteria.

If others out their already buy into a remotely hosted backup would they like to offer why they want for it and what were the important questions they asked?