I’m a big fan of cloud computing and online storage. I predominately use Google Docs over a local Office application and work out of Gmail instead of an email client. I’ve convinced myself that companies like Google have better backup systems then I have at home. However, it seems my faith in corporate server farms may be misplaced.
TechCrunch is reporting that online backup service Carbonite almost lost data belonging to some 7500+ subscribers. The news came from a report in The Boston Globe which alleged:
“The newspaper gets the information from a lawsuit that was filed by the Boston company last week, alleging that two of its service providers sold it over $3 million worth of defective hardware, linking this to the loss of their customer’s data and as a result, bringing “substantial damage” to its business and reputation.”
Fortunately (after confirmation by TechCrunch) it was determined no data was lost during this incident (which happened in 2007). Regardless, stories like this are certainly going to undermine what little faith people have in cloud services. It’s already a tough sell, due mostly to the fact regular (non-geek) people don’t get it. News like this will make it even harder for users to put their trust in anything beyond their local hard drive.
Bob Starr, code named Starbuck, is a geek with a passion for film journalism and technology. You can follow Bob on Twitter (
