Backup For Cloud Apps

Yes, I clicked the delete button. Yes, I regret it now. Yes, I belatedly realized why the Backupify service makes sense.

At first it seems an odd business model. Backupify is a cloud service that backs up other cloud services, storing the data archives on Amazon.com‘s ( AMZN – news – people ) cloud storage service. Part of the appeal of cloud applications is that they’re operated by Internet companies in professionally run data centers, instead of running on our unreliable PCs. So our data should be safe there, right? Why should we feel the need to back up our e-mail and Google Docs spreadsheets when Google stores multiple copies of every bit of data we entrust to its services?

One of the first things Backupify cofounder Robert May told me on that front is that "one-third of data loss is the result of user error." Ouch.

Here’s my story. I had helped a political campaign in my area set up a website and associated Google Apps accounts, primarily for sending and receiving e-mail associated with the campaign’s domain. Several weeks after losing the primary, the candidate called and asked me to shut down the accounts of campaign staffers and volunteers who would no longer be needing them. A couple of weeks after that, the candidate called in a panic because the campaign manager had apparently stored the only copy of important campaign records in Google Docs.

Those documents were now irretrievably lost because when a Google Apps account is deleted, all the documents and e-mails go with it. Even though these had been shared documents–and in fact showed up in the listing of available documents in the candidate’s account–all that was left were links to files that no longer existed.

I discovered all this while reading through similar tales of woe in the Google Apps support forums from users who had, for example, deleted the account of an employee who was no longer with the firm, only to find out they’d deleted important company information at the same time. Possibly, Google could do a better job of allowing an administrator to reassign documents to a different user rather than simply deleting them. On the other hand, I’m sure I clicked right past an "Are You Sure?" warning. I was following my client’s instructions, but I wish I’d stopped to make sure we both understood the implications of deleting those accounts.

Backupify could have helped. Its backup service for Google Apps starts at $9.95 per month for a plan that covers up to 10 accounts.

"For $10 a month to ensure we have an additional backup of our content, you really can’t go wrong," says John Daly, the webmaster of babies411.com, a parent information website. His firm uses Google Apps heavily in preparing Web content for publication, and also uses Backupify with the BaseCamp project management tool.

So far Daly hasn’t had to use Backupify to retrieve lost information. "It’s more that it gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling," he says. "I check it once a week, just to be sure everything is being backed up."