Look Huxley, Why don't we just do it the old-fashioned way?

Mani Babbar - http://flic.kr/p/78eFU6

I've always been someone who believes having that extra backup is a necessity rather than an option. My iMac at work had to have the same file structure and programs installed as my Macbook Pro, my mp3 folder had to be the same over those two devices plus my custom battlestation at home. This became quite time consuming having to work separate syncing programs to keep everything up to date, had to use an external hard drive for the music as it was so large.

Hints of OCD? Yeah, that happens, ectopic heartbeats were a regular occurrence when the syncing software displayed two files exactly the same and asked me to choose one. Bags had to be packed certain ways etc etc , you get the idea.. 

But it all started to change with the rising popularity of the murky fog that is cloud computing. I must have been introduced to Google Drive about 3 years ago now, and lets say I was incredibly hesitant, I DID NOT want another laborious system I had to keep synced with all my lovely tangible files and folders. I certainly didn't need yet another username and password combo to add to the list. But facets of my job call for jumping on dodgy and flakey beta tech and extrapolating what we can for adopting said tech with teaching and learning.

A couple of months went by, creating docs, forms, presentations, synchronous collaborating on projects etc I was accessing all me bits I needed from home/work/mobile etc when suddenly it dawned on me that I hadn't touched my precious files and folders on the local drives in ages, it had been 3 weeks since my last backup and sync.. '0 Files Changed'. 

And there I was, I wasn't a gibbering wreck rocking in the corner of the office hugging my TimeCapsule, I was in the middle of cloud computing at its finest, yes it was still in its early stages i.e no double authentication and all the other fine features that have cropped up in Google Drive the past couple of years, but it was everything I needed.

Here I am now, free of the fear of losing all my critical bits and bobs I call important. Yes I'm still a little sensible and 'choose' to liberate my data backup stylee and store it on an external drive but it.. doesn't worry me anymore. My photos, my receipts, my payslips, my work.. everything I now own digitally is on Drive. Yes even my mp3 folder got all cloudy and ended up in Spotify. 

As far as reliability is concerned and get asked it a million times while presenting Google Drive to anyone - 'Is it safe/secure?", I've always weighed it up in terms of what is more likely to happen, a) Google falling over/getting hacked, or b) hard drive crashing or memory stick suddenly thinking its formatted. Well I know from experience which is more likely to happen -.- 

My battlestation at home is now a dedicated gaming rig, and that's it.. If it all goes up in smoke because I clocked the Vs too hard, or let's not forget a good ole cyclic redundancy error (Sshhh new SSDs), its only hardware, parts, I can replace parts! No more spending hours trying to recover data, agreed I'll have to setup my? wallpaper again. 

The chains that bound me to hardware, gear and kit have been thoroughly broken, reminiscent of the ending scene to Demolition Man when Simon Phoenix gets all frozen then shatters into a gazillion pieces.

I would implore anyone to give it a go, especially if you find yourself carrying around multiple memory sticks, forget where you put files or generally get ancy about where stuff is/isn't. Signing off as a cloud convert and a Google advocate. 

Embrace the future and maybe you too will know how the three seashells work.