Tech note: backing up gdocs

Though I was not affected by the Gmail lockout a couple of weeks ago, and even though full service was restored (as far as I know,) it was definitely a strike against cloud computing and made me concerned for the information that I keep on Google services.

I use GDocs to collaborate with cowriters and often for jotting down notes or even writing on the go. I have several computers and having in progress works in the cloud saves me from keeping track of jump drives (which is a good thing, as I suck at that.)

I love Google. Let me just preface anything I'm going to say with that. I love Google. Seriously. However, it's not perfect and any computer system can fall prey to DDOS or just plain equipment failure. So rather than scream and cry and get angry with Google for something that can and will happen to any service provider, I decided to find another service to back up my Google data.

There are many options, but these are the two I chose. One, just a good old fashioned back up to my hard drive using gdoc back up. This keeps the files in your possession, however, you do need to make sure that it's running. Two, I chose Backupify. I've just started the service, so I can't tell you how it will play out, but currently you can have up to five accounts backed up for free. This includes Facebook and Twitter (I don't say anything important enough to keep on those, but you might) and your Gmail, Blogger, etc. You get up to 2GB of data for free. After that, they jack up the price.

The free plan only backs up weekly, but for me, at the moment, that's good enough. I might pay the $5/month if I like the service.

Anyway, just a little tidbit. I know a few of you also collab on Gdocs and thought this info might be handy.