A Digital Life...

A lot of my digital life is tucked away on some nameless, faceless server in Google's domain.  My blogs, my email, some documents, my contacts, my calendar, an experimental website that hasn't been shared yet, heck even a phone number are all under Google's umbrella.

Last weekend Google had a hiccup.  It seems that around 150,000 GMail users couldn't access their accounts - absolutely no part of their Google life.  Google has stated that they're working to resolve the problem, and that all the data does exist and will be restored.  That may well be true, and for those users who were affected, I hope it is.  Thankfully, my account and my data weren't in that group.

The event has caused me to reconsider how I structure my virtual world.  It is very nice to have fewer papers, smaller filing cabinets, and years of financial and legal data stored on a device the size of my thumb.  But what about those more fluid things like the calendar, email, and contacts?  Where do I turn if they're suddenly not available to me?  Have you asked yourself that question?  Think about your contact list...when was the last time you picked up an old-fashioned phone book to look up someone's number?

Last night the emails out on Google's servers was downloaded safely to a hard drive in my house, along with contacts and at least a portion of my calendar (the important parts).

Now there is a decision to make.  Do I jump off the Good Ship Google?  Or do I increase the frequency of data backups?  Not only should I backup the data more often, to mitigate another Google snafu, but there's this line in Google's user agreement:  Google reserves the right to terminate your account at any time, for any reason, with or without notice.  Hmm, makes one think, doesn't it?

In the short term, I've set up an email on one of the domains that I own.  While I haven't decided to make the migration to that new email, I've put a life raft in the water, so to speak.  I'm looking into options to move my blogs to another host, with cost being a major factor in my decision.  Calendars, contacts, and online document storage are another issue that I haven't quite resolved yet.  If I choose to switch over to new services, you'll be the first to know.

Do you have an "emergency plan" if your online presence became unavailable to you?  Have you backed up your information regularly?  Think about the volume of data - years' worth of contacts, emails (which may include bills, proofs-of-payment, etc.), work or personal calendar items....what happens if your lose it?

A helpful link, if you're a GMail user and would like to back up your GMail: Lifehacker.com - Back Up Your GMail the Easy or Cheap Way