Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Taking e-mail to the cloud

I have taken my email to the cloud. For years I have used Outlook and later Windows Mail to download my email to my computer and have worked with it and filed it there. There was always a certain comfort in having it all stored right here in my lap.

But I became uneasy about local data storage a few years ago when I had a computer hard drive crash on me. Lost a lot of pictures in that one and all my saved emails and other documents. Interestingly I had recently bought an external hard drive to store data in case of a computer crash. It didn't work either. Somewhere in the fruitless search for someone who could get my pictures off the external hard drive an expert told me that since a hard drive is a mechanical instrument they will all eventually fail.

About a year ago I started backing up my data on-line (i.e. on "the cloud"), primarily so I don't lose my photos, but since I haven't had to use it to retrieve my data, I still am uneasy about it. I am not especially concerned about someone else getting into it, because one of my principals is transparency. I don't have any secrets other than social security number and the like, and they are not out there.

I have held off to the last on going on'line with my email, but have recently made the change. I am still a little uncomfortable not having it stored right here with me, but am gradually building confidence in the cloud. Wish me luck.

1 comment:

  1. Good luck!

    I don't think you'll need it though. I love being able to access my email from any computer in the world.

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