Full house for data security

Here's the final addition to my security and backup strategy: cloud backup to Carbonite. However good your backup system, you need a reliable and up-to-date off-site arrangement. Over the past year a number of systems have become available and, also, viable because of faster internet connections. The pack includes Backblaze, Jungle Disk and Carbonite. The two main contenders for ease of use, according to the Macfanboys of the podcasts, are Backblaze and Carbonite. I tried both and finally settled for Carbonite because I felt the Mac interface was better. The subscription cost $100 for two years' service and the installation of the software was automatic and painless. Backup started immediately and I was told that there was a total of 30GB (essentially this is all the user files but excluding system files and applications). I also excluded movie and TV-show downloads because they are large files and, in any case, are backed up locally. I have a fast internet connection with up to 1.5MB upload speed, and it took just three days to polish off the 30GB. From now on Carbonite works in the background and, of course, incremental updates are relatively small. In common with other similar systems, Carbonite offers encryption of the data on upload and download. I now have a full house of protection: Carbonite for off-site, Drobo for reliable home backup, and PGP Whole Disk Encryption to protect my data in the event of loss of my MacBook Pro. Fingers crossed and a pinch of salt over the shoulder…..