The PutPlace Blog

So you’ve decided to set up a digital storage plan? Congratulations! But, before you take your victory lap, review these 12 common backup mistakes and do your best to avoid them. Your data and your sanity will thank you.

1. Lack of Consistency: It’s important to have a number of places to store your data. Even more important? Being consistent in using them. Get into the habit of using the defaults that your operating system suggests (My Documents or Documents, Music, Video, and so forth) for your data.
2. If You Have to Remember, You’re Going to Forget: The human mind is an undependable backup system. Let your computer, or better yet, your backup software, do the heavy lifting here. An automated schedule frees up your mind for the more important things, like remembering to Twitter about your pancake breakfast.
3. Be Thorough: Microsoft Windows is particularly bad at dumping valuable stuff (like your mail file) under c:\Documents and Settings. Make sure you grab your user directory from this location as well.
4. Making a Copy of a Copy of Copy: Can’t remember the last time you backed up a directory? Don’t start down the slippery slope of copying over everything every time. Invest in reliable backup software to manage incremental backups and keep track of what needs to be backed up and what doesn’t.
5. Trust and Verify: Running backups is great. But like putting money in the bank, it’s always worthwhile to make regular withdrawals to see where your savings are at. Make a point of dipping into the backup once in a while to make sure the content is there and up-to-date.
6. I Don’t Need to Backup, I Use YouTube: Web services like Flickr and YouTube are great for keeping photos and videos stored online. However, what they’re keeping isn’t always exactly what you uploaded. For example, many people don’t realise that YouTube doesn’t retain your original video file. Flickr, on the other hand, does actually store the original size, even if you’re only using their free service. If you’re really attached to the original, be sure to save it somewhere else as well.
7. Don’t Forget Your Bookmarks: If you’re like us, you spend most of your day in your browser and live and die by the dozen bookmarks on your browser toolbar. Don’t forget to export these and back them up periodically.
8. No LOLs for Lost Chats: If you’re an avid IM user who saves their chat transcripts, be sure to include those in your backups. Skype automatically saves transcripts of chat conversations, and MSN Messenger does the same. Just grab these files, add them to your backup queue and you’ll always be ready to wow them at 4Chan with your IM pwnage.
9. Forget the Expiration Date: If you’re saving important business or personal documents (like financial statements, medical records, etc) don’t assume that you only need to keep them for seven years. Data retention laws are changing, and differ from country to country. To be safe, plan on keeping these documents forever. You might even consider creating a special subdirectory in your backup for long term storage items. Better yet, encrypt and password protect it.
10. Don’t Lose Your Encryption Key: If you do use heavy-duty encryption, make sure to store your key somewhere safe. Maybe print out a copy and send it to your lawyer or stick it in a safety deposit box. If you can’t find it and need to backup, it’s a major pain in the behind.
11. Save More than You Need: The costs for large portable hard drives and online storage have come down considerably in the past few years. Because of this, the need to pick and choose which data to save has essentially disappeared. Want a full terabyte storage unit for your videos, music and photos? No problem. You may never need it all, but it’s always better to have too much space than too little.
12. Keep it Secret, Keep it Safe: Finally, if you’re using a portable hard drive, be sure to keep it in a safe place. This probably doesn’t include your backpack or laptop bag. A safety deposit box isn’t always the best idea either, especially if you need emergency access after business hours. And be sure to pick an off-site location. There’s no point in having a prudently backed-up hard drive go up in flames because it’s sitting next to your PC during a house fire. Find a happy medium. We used to keep our backups in our Mom’s basement.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that, hey, we do this online backup thing pretty well. Sign up and get 2 GB of free storage.

Photo by So Misguided.

We are trying to decide whether to backport our new Mac client to the older version of the Mac (Tiger). Tell us what you use in the poll below.

Joel Spolsky goes to town on Windows Mesh. We agree synchronisation is not the problem, transit and memory are the problem. Getting stuff from a to b and remembering (for years) that you did so, and not doing the move if its there already.

I met Debbie Landa at the excellent drinks reception organised by Enterprise Ireland (big shout out to John, Hilary and Fergus for organising it).

I was somewhat casually pitching her the PutPlace idea when she totally blew me away by announcing that this would be a good candidate for Under The Radar.

One thing led to another and bingo, there we are presenting at Under The Radar on 3-Jun-08.

Looking forward to it!

PutPlace secures funding round and strengthens Board

Successful PutPlace funding round led by EI and private investors; Michael O’Callaghan appointed as Chairman; Pat Lynch joins Board and Katherine Lucey joins as COO

DUBLIN, IRELAND; Friday, 4^th April 2008 - PutPlace, provider of automated, real-time back-up, publishing and sharing services for digital data, today announced the successful conclusion of a funding round and the strengthening of its board.  Industry veterans Pat Lynch and Michael O’Callaghan join existing board members Joe Drumgoole (founder) and Brian Caulfield.  The funding round was a co-investment between existing and new investors and Enterprise Ireland.

Joe Drumgoole, CEO PutPlace, stated “PutPlace is a response to a pain point experienced by most consumers in trying to manage their expanding digital content.  Whether the issue is multiple devices, changing devices over time, or unforeseen data loss, consumers can now relax in the knowledge that their selected content is easily and automatically backed-up and managed.  This funding round will be used to commercialise this exciting market opportunity.  I am delighted to welcome Pat Lynch and Mike O’Callaghan to our board”.

Michael O’Callaghan, newly appointed Chairman, stated “PutPlace’s usability and functionality immediately impressed me.  This is a real solution to a real consumer problem.  I look forward to working with PutPlace to fulfill the company’s obvious potential”.

Brian Caulfield, IT entrepreneur and venture capital investor, welcomed the funding round: “I have been involved with PutPlace since its inception.  The concept of managing all data across a lifetime of devices and technologies is hugely compelling.  The PutPlace team has taken a complicated idea and made it simple and usable – they are now in a strong position to accelerate service roll out and capture the market”.

Pat Lynch, who joins the board, said “I am delighted to bring a group of investors to PutPlace.  The company is an excellent example of Irish software talent and I believe that PutPlace’s strong product vision has the potential for significant market traction”.

PutPlace is also pleased to announce that Katherine Lucey has joined the management team as COO.  “Katherine brings a wealth of experience in software marketing and management.  Her skills will greatly enhance our ability to move quickly to secure a lead position in this dynamic market”, stated Joe Drumgoole, CEO PutPlace.

About PutPlace
Established in January 2006, PutPlace is a simple, rules-based, set-and-forget Digital Butler.  Born to handle digital content at home at work and on the web, PutPlace works in the background to organize, back-up and share content exactly as the user specifies.  PutPlace connects content across a lifetime of devices and web-sites and enables users to easily secure, organize and share it.  By operating in real-time, PutPlace creates instant back-up of valuable content full remote access.  PutPlace is a subscription-based service in private beta, with full launch planned for early spring.  The company is based in at the Digital Hub in Dublin, Ireland. 

Joe Drumgoole (CEO)
Joe Drumgoole is the founder of PutPlace.com. A Computer Science graduate of Trinity College,  He previously headed up Engineering organisations at CR2, Cape Clear and Oracle and brings over twenty years of product development experience to the table at PutPlace.

Mike O’Callaghan (Chairman)
Michael O’Callaghan is COO at Babelgum, where he is responsible for the company’s business operations as well as infrastructure and network operations.  Before joining Babelgum, Michael was Vice President and General Manager of Oracle’s European Development Centre in Dublin and Chairman of Oracle’s main operating company in Europe.  Prior to Oracle, Michael established and led Microsoft’s European Product Development Centre in Ireland and in total has over twenty five years industry experience in indigenous and multi-national companies.  Michael holds a B.E.  from University College Cork.

Brian Caulfield (Board Member)
2007 recipient of the Irish Software Association “Technology Person of the Year”, Brian is a Computer Engineering graduate from Trinity College Dublin.  In 1992 Brian co-founded Exceptis Technologies where he was CEO and CTO.  Exceptis developed dispute management software for the electronic card payments sector that was sold to blue-chip banking customers in Europe, the United States and Asia.  Exceptis was sold to Trintech Group (NASDAQ: TTPA) in November 2000.  Brian has co-founded two other venture capital backed software start-ups, Similarity Systems and Prediction Dynamics.  More recently, Brian has worked with Trinity Venture Capital, representing them on the boards of AePONA and SteelTrace.

Pat Lynch (Board Member)
Pat founded Microtech Cleanroom Services in 1998 having previously worked in senior financial roles with US multinationals Seagate Technology and Summit Technology.  Pat is a serial investor in high-potential technology start-ups and has significant experience in bringing companies to scale.

Katherine Lucey (Management Team)
Katherine has a strong track record in international software marketing.  Most recently, she led the execution of an aggressive marketing plan for SteelTrace that resulted in a doubling of revenues, quarter-on-quarter.  SteelTrace was sold to Compuware in 2006.  She previously worked with Openet Telecom and the Irish Software Association. 

Twenty Major now makes it three years in a row for the Best Blog Award. PutPlace is delighted to be associated with Irish Blog Awards again this year and will be contacting all the winners in the coming weeks to offer them a free years subscription to PutPlace.com.

Congratulations to all the other winners as well.

The Onion has the story.