My wife has asked me why I blog about the books that I read and the hotels that I stay at. After she asked the question, I realized that one of the main reasons that I do this, is so that I can find the information again when I need it.

Sure, I could make notes about the various hotels, or books, or cool software programs that I find, but where would I store them so that I could find them again? A blog, however, is a perfect way to store this information.

Not long ago, Kevin O’Keefe blogged about using a blog as a personal knowledge management tool. Kevin explained:

With a blog, you file what you read or hear and want to keep in a blog post. Make a note or two offering why the information is worthwhile. Upload key files to your blog. Blog live from seminars you attend. Why make hard copy notes that end up getting tossed or lost?

A blog gives you complete navigation by category & sub-category, tags, and a complete search. You can find what you want over the years.

Plus, the blog is fully searchable using Google.

In the little more than a year that I have had this blog, I have found myself searching my past posts to recover some information that I could not easily find another way. You may not want to post information for everyone in the world to see. Nevertheless, you may want to create a blog that is not publicly available, just to manage your own information.

As I was perusing my RSS reader this morning, I came across two blog posts that provided an interesting contrast. First was from the Illinois Trial Practice Weblog. There, Evan Schaeffer points us toward an article from PC World about why you should back up online.

In contrast, I found a post from Futurelawyer pointing us toward an article from Lifehacker warning of some of the dangers of online backups.

At first blush, these articles appear to contradict each other. A closer review reveals, however, that the concerns raised by Lifehacker are slightly different from what PC World is talking about. The PC World article gives a nice overview of some of the online backup services available. The Lifehacker post cautions people about using the unused disk space on their web server as a backup option.

As PC World points out, one of the drawbacks to online backups is the expense. Recognizing this, Lifehacker had previously suggested putting unused disk space on your web server to use. In their latest post, however, they reveal that some web hosts are deleting the backup files as violations of the terms of service. Thus, if you are going to consider using this space for a backup, make sure you read your terms of service.

That, of course, leaves unanswered the question of how you should backup. I believe that a multipronged approach is best. First I suggest a “local” backup of your computer on an external hard drive. I know that there are other media available. However, I think the hard drive is the easiest most convenient way to go. If you are in love with DVDs, so be it. You will need multiple hard drives because you will always need to keep at least one of these off site. This is to ensure that you have a copy of your data somewhere other than the same location your computer is.

If your computer crashes, it’s of no concern that your backup drive was sitting by your CPU. If your building, floods, burns down, is swept off to Oz, etc., then you will certainly regret the fact that your backup drive was destroyed along with your regular drive. Thus, it is essential that you keep at least one copy of the backup off site at all times.

If you have office that is separate from your house, this is fairly easy to do. Simply carry the backup drive from the office to your house and return the next morning with the next drive from your house to the office. This becomes more difficult if your office is in your house. If this is the case, you really need to find a location away from your house to regularly take your backups. This location, should be easy for you to access and it should be located somewhere that you can conveniently visit frequently.

In addition to using backup drives and keeping them offsite, I also recommend that you find an online backup service and backup those critical data files (such as client files) with the online service. This gives you added protection in the event that a natural disaster hits both your office and your off site storage location. This is certainly possible with events such as hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, tornadoes, etc. The online site gives you an additional location (hopefully in another part of the country) where your data can safely weather the storm.

I know this seems like overkill. However, if you ever lose your data because of a hard drive crash or a natural disaster, you won’t think that it is overkill at all.

Web-Tones recently posted an entry titled Darkside of SaaS. In the post, the author explains:

As we move more and more of our computing to the cloud one thing will become painfully obvious. It is not the service provider with the coolest interface or lowest cost that will win. It is the provider that can deliver 24/7 world class support.

He then asserts:

Here is a dirty little secret about SaaS: a major screw up on the provider’s part can bring your online world tumbling down in a NY second. Try to find a number that you can call and ask a question like WTF just happened? Nope, can’t do it. Just have to submit a ticket to the cloud and hope that someone responds in time to save that major deal you are working on.

I think he is right, as far as he goes, but the problems he highlights are not limited to SaaS applications. You have these same problems with the company that provides your internet service, or fixes your computer when it breaks, or, for that matter, services process for you.

Anytime that you are about to enter into agreements with providers, you need to ask yourself what happens if something goes drastically wrong. If you lose your connection to your SaaS provider, do you have another way to access the information? If your internet connection goes down, does your provider guarantee to have it back up in a certain period of time? Do you have an alternate connection you can use? When your computer crashes, does your service contract provide for on site service within 24 hours or do you have to send the computer off site to be fixed? When you must have someone served immediately, can you reach your process server and will she get the person served for you?

You should be asking the same type of questions with all of these service providers. Of course the answers you want may not be the same. For some people, it is vitally important that they be able to reach their service provider 24/7/365. For others, they may need to reach someone only between 7 am and 10 pm.

The important thing is that before you sign a contract for any of these services, you need to decide what is important to you. Then find a provider that will meet your requirements. If you must be able to speak with someone in support at 3 am on Saturdays, make sure you can do this. If you need guaranteed uptime of of a certain amount, find someone who will give you that guarantee and who actually has penalties that give the guarantee teeth.

As Web-Tones emphasized, depending on your requirements, cost may be the lowest factor in consideration when shopping for a SaaS or any other provider.