Carbonite: Even Backup Companies Can Make Mistakes

It had to happen. Carbonite has lost customer data after a supplier allegedly failed to keep up the software required to make the system work. Who exactly is at fault here is unclear, but the net result is that a maker of software that allows users to backup their computers has managed to lose customer data.

The reason I bring this up is not to throw stones at companies that provide great software to millions of consumers. We applaud and encourage innovation. But scaling large software projects is very challenging work, and things will go wrong from time to time. No, the reason I write is to shine the light on the fact that we, consumers, are responsible for our own data protection.

There is no perfect system, so get to know your backup program. Understand it's strengths and weaknesses so that you can effectively evaluate it's abilities when things go wrong. Because they will. If you have files of extraordinary importance, you may just need to take extraordinary steps to back them up.