What do you think of cloud storage? Good or bad idea?

From my personal experience, I can tell you about dropbox. It is free and allows you to even find documents that you deleted in the past. It is stored in the cloud, and documents will not be lost due to hardware problems. I use it in conjuction with Karens Replicator with the back ups on my external drive.
The good think about cloud storage is that you do not have to worry about your hard drive going bad. You can also access, items like pictures etc, to show friends or even enemies when you are not at your computer.

I wouldn`t trust it

What happens if their computers explode

But, I guess it`s ok for replication, or if you just don`t have the storage space.

It depends on how you use the cloud. All media will fail eventually; how long it will last depends on the quality of the media and dumb luck. For that reason, one should not keep only one copy for all your data in only one place. The only way to ensure your data is safe is to keep multiple copies in multiple places.

Free cloud storage should be avoided since, historically, it has been known to disappear with little or no warning. Even paid for cloud storage can disappear, although it is less likely. If one uses cloud storage, your data must be encrypted before leaves your computer. Many cloud storage sites, especially the freebies, do not provide for data encryption so you would have to do that yourself. I do use Amazon's cloud storage (the first 5GB is free) to backup photos, etc. I make when on a trip but I also back them up on a thumb drive I keep in my pocket and a camera card I keep in my purse. I do not send sensitive data to Amazon. Once I get home and transfer the data to my desktop computer (and it is backed up) I delete the data on the Amazon cloud drive.

As already stated, keeping data in multiple places is the best way to keep it safe. At least two copies (the original and a copy) should be kept onsite and one copy should be kept offsite in a secure location (I use a safe deposit box at my credit union). An easy way to achieve offsite storage is to use a safe cloud backup solution. Both Carbonite and Crashplan (I prefer Carbonite) will automatically encrypt your data before it leaves the computer and send it up to their secure servers for only around $60/year.

I use it but to feel extra safe I encrypt private files before uploading. I use it as a remote backup of my other local physical backups.

Tookeri said:

I use it but to feel extra safe I encrypt private files before uploading. I use it as a remote backup of my other local physical backups.

Exactly!

Lady Fitzgerald said:

Tookeri said:

I use it but to feel extra safe I encrypt private files before uploading. I use it as a remote backup of my other local physical backups.

Exactly!

Funny, I was going to write the same thing about your post when I saw it. We posted at the same time