How Smugmug backs up my photos?

ouki

I need some clarifications and hope you can help out -

• Where my photos are saved at, Amazon S3 datacenter or Smugmug independent datacenter? (I have Power account and I do not have Smugvault)
• If they are stored at Smugmug datacenter, how the backup is being done? Is there any sort of guarantee in the terms?

The reason I am asking is because I am already using Amazon S3 service for long time even before I signed up Smugmug. I'd like to backup my photos to Amazon S3. But if Smugmug is already storing data to Amazon, my backup is not longer necessary.

Andy

Your photos are kept at Amazon S3 - multiple copies in multiple locations. Does this help?

SamirD

And let me add that the images are very, very, very safe.

I've actually uploaded, downloaded, and compared images bit-for-bit with the original and they're an exact, perfect copy (as long as you don't rotate them, or let it auto-rotate via the orientation bit). My test batch was 100gb and I've added and tested several gb since then. It's as solid as it gets.

ouki

Thanks for the clarifications, guys.

PBolchover

Does Smugmug still keep a non-S3 backup of all of the photos?

Andy

PBolchover wrote: »

Does Smugmug still keep a non-S3 backup of all of the photos?

We don't. We use the insanely durable Amazon S3:

Q: How durable is Amazon S3?

Amazon S3 is designed to provide 99.999999999% durability of objects over a given year. This durability level corresponds to an average annual expected loss of 0.000000001% of objects. For example, if you store 10,000 objects with Amazon S3, you can on average expect to incur a loss of a single object once every 10,000,000 years. In addition, Amazon S3 is designed to sustain the concurrent loss of data in two facilities.

SamirD

PBolchover wrote: »

Does Smugmug still keep a non-S3 backup of all of the photos?

Nope. That's why you should have a local backup as well.

jfriend

PBolchover wrote: »

Does Smugmug still keep a non-S3 backup of all of the photos?

No single backup source should be relied upon. I keep a local hard drive copy (actually two local hard drive copies on separate drives) and a copy online with BackBlaze ($50/yr).

Funguyphoto

Backup Question
jfriend,

Sorry about digging up this old thread...But I have a couple of questions related to file/photo backup.

The Problem...
I have been using a pair of 500 GB Seagate USB drives as an "archive" for photos. I keep one drive at home and the other at work. I write new files and folders to the two drives from my main computer (HP Envy 15 laptop) as I accumulate new stuff. I need to upgrade to a new set of larger capacity USB drives because my collection has just exceeded the 500 GB capacity (I have about 70 GB ready to "archive").

The plan...
I have purchased two new Seagate drives...one 2 TB Go Flex Home unit (network interface) for my home and a second 2 TB Go Flex Desk at work. Both are set up and running and I am about to transfer the files. As a part of this switch I would like to start using an online backup system.

I've read through some of the threads about backing up photos here on DGrin and see that you have regularly recommended BackBlaze. I see on their site that external drives must connected to the computer or the data will not be retained (at least every 30 days?). CrashPlan provides a similar backup service that seems to forgo this requirement.

Because I use Smugmug only to provide access to edited versions of my photos to family, friends, and associates (I'm not a Pro), this question is a little off topic.

Questions...

• Do you have a (reasonably) detailed description a digital photo "archive" plan you are willing to share?
• Do you use (or think they have merit) anything like the gold plated (?) DVD's?
• Do Pro's (like Andy) really back up all their work on connected external hard drives (and BackBlaze)?
• Are there easy ways around the issues of "disconnected" external hard drives?
• Is an "archive" different than a "backup" (should it be)?
• Do you have any recommended resources for additional information related to these thoughts?

Jim

Andy

Funguyphoto wrote: »

jfriend,

Sorry about digging up this old thread...But I have a couple of questions related to file/photo backup.

The Problem...
I have been using a pair of 500 GB Seagate USB drives as an "archive" for photos. I keep one drive at home and the other at work. I write new files and folders to the two drives from my main computer (HP Envy 15 laptop) as I accumulate new stuff. I need to upgrade to a new set of larger capacity USB drives because my collection has just exceeded the 500 GB capacity (I have about 70 GB ready to "archive").

The plan...
I have purchased two new Seagate drives...one 2 TB Go Flex Home unit (network interface) for my home and a second 2 TB Go Flex Desk at work. Both are set up and running and I am about to transfer the files. As a part of this switch I would like to start using an online backup system.

I've read through some of the threads about backing up photos here on DGrin and see that you have regularly recommended BackBlaze. I see on their site that external drives must connected to the computer or the data will not be retained (at least every 30 days?). CrashPlan provides a similar backup service that seems to forgo this requirement.

Because I use Smugmug only to provide access to edited versions of my photos to family, friends, and associates (I'm not a Pro), this question is a little off topic.

Questions...

• Do you have a (reasonably) detailed description a digital photo "archive" plan you are willing to share?
• Do you use (or think they have merit) anything like the gold plated (?) DVD's?
• Do Pro's (like Andy) really back up all their work on connected external hard drives (and BackBlaze)?
• Are there easy ways around the issues of "disconnected" external hard drives?
• Is an "archive" different than a "backup" (should it be)?
• Do you have any recommended resources for additional information related to these thoughts?

Jim

I don't use any external drives. I have a Mac Pro with 3 2Tb Drives - and all is backed up to Backblaze constantly. I haven't worried about file loss in years, since using Backblaze.

Funguyphoto

Is every photo you have ever taken in the collection of files stored on the drives in your computer (and backed up on Backblaze).?

You have 6 TB of storage available in your computer and an unlimited amount at Backblaze. You could write to multiple drives on your computer (redundant partitions). Do you think you'll be able to use this method forever (i.e. will your collection eventually get so big that you want to "archive" some of it)?

Andy

Funguyphoto wrote: »

Is every photo you have ever taken in the collection of files stored on the drives in your computer (and backed up on Backblaze).?

Yes, because I'm good at deleting junk I don't need.

SamirD

Funguyphoto wrote: »

You could write to multiple drives on your computer (redundant partitions).

But when the purpose is reliability, why trust local drives when something automatically backs up the data in a more secure manner?

Local backups/archives have their advantages in terms of retrieval after a disaster. It would take me about a 20 minute drive to have access to everything in case of a catestrophic disaster (assuming that location isn't destroyed as well). My backups on SM would still exist even if all my backups are destroyed. But retrieval from SM isn't as trivial as a local copy, so that's the disadvantage to a backup that's far away.