Why I Back Up in the Cloud

Pictures like these are a big reason why I back up in the cloud

In today’s information age everything seems to be done online: people are downloading movies, paying bills and talking with friends, family and even strangers online.  It is imperative that you back up your personal information and safeguard yourself as best you can.  Hard drive backups are good, but you should take your back ups to the next level and backup in the cloud.

Backing up in the cloud allows you to store your information/data remotely across numerous servers simultaneously.  For a while, this kind of computing was primarily confined to businesses and IT departments, but in the past couple years, more and more companies have begun to offer these kinds of solutions to individual consumers. Now regular folks can back up financial data, family photos, and everything in between, and they should.

I can remember when I was in college back in 1994, paying bills with checks and even going to the store to pay my bill in cash but that has all changed.  Now I might write a check or two a month and pay everything else online. With so much taking place online, it is extremely important to safeguard your financial information.  If the wrong people get their hands on it, they can ruin your identity in the blink of an eye.  I work so hard to keep my credit and credit score strong, but identity thieves don’t care how careful you are about paying bills or saving money.

Equally as important is safeguarding your family’s photos online. Thanks to tools like Facebook and Twitter, these photos are shared all the time with no thought involved, but this makes it difficult to strike a balance between public and private. I want my family and friends to see highlights of my vacations or sporting events, but I don’t want personal photos falling into the wrong hands either.

It isn’t always easy to protect yourself from cyber-intrusion, but backing up my memories and documents in the cloud brings me peace of mind. Knowing that my data is stored in more than one place, and that those closest to me can access everything securely is an awesome feeling. Losing these items would be devastating, and with just a little bit of effort, I am able to secure these memories and avoid heartbreak. Backing up all of your personal information in the cloud will be the best decision you ever made…it was for me.

Rob Babiak is the co-founder and author of Look What Mom Found…and Dad too, a blog about parenting and family-centric products.