How to survive inevitable cloud failures - sainanderser

A couple of people are As thoroughly engulfed in the mishmash of online-only services jointly dubbed "the cloud" as I am. Organism a modern, forever-seaborne technology author, I've arranged my workflow to be altogether independent of my physical location. I need the ability to plum downcast in look of some computer in the world, and get from minimal flutter.

Most of my work is stored in SkyDrive. I coordinate story assignments with coworkers using Google Docs, and live the rest on of my life in Gmail, Evernote, HipChat, and Pixlr. Heck, I even subscribe to Slacker Radio and numerous video streaming services so that a world of entertainment is always just a URL inaccurate—allover with synchronized playlists and instant queues. (Yep, I'm a cord cutter.)

Now that the disclaimers are out of the way, countenance's turn to the lousy. Several incidents during the past week drove home a bleak realization: Yes, the cloud is flexible and powerful and paradigm-shattering—simply you just stern't depend on it completely.

Where's the Advil?

The headaches started last Friday when Microsoft's Windows Azure cloud up avail melted push down for an extended point. That didn't bother Maine, personally—I'm not a business looking to "quickly build, deploy and manage applications across a worldwide network of Microsoft-managed datacenters." Nevertheless, the outage soon facing pages to consumer-veneer applications. Multiple Xbox features went down for the enumeration: Becloud-stored halt saves, Xbox SmartGlass, and symmetric Halo 4's online functionality were disrupted for various hours.

If you were hoping to fill your entertainment void with an impromptu moving-picture show, you were also out of fortune: Microsoft's Xbox Movie and Music services crapped out, too. And some users reported running into problems with Netflix the same day, though the problems weren't widespread.

Microsoft wasn't the only source of my cloud consternation during the past calendar week. After stumbling across Spike Telly's Ink Victoron Hulu Plus, I binged on the initiative season in just three days, and was overeager to jump into the second time of year the side by side evening—only to find that the show had been scrubbed from Hulu's servers. Grrr.

Gmail wasn't the only Google service with quirks this week.

Then, earlier this week, an enterprising TechHive editor was attempting to access his Gmail history from Mobile Creation Congress in Barcelona, entirely to find himself stymied for a short period. It was a temporary hiccup, but arsenic anyone WHO's ever been on Twitter in the middle of a Gmail, SkyDrive, surgery Amazon Vane Services outage can tell you, unscheduled downtime from a major cloud service provider can make up a lot of grief for a lot of people.

Finally, to top it whol off, Zendesk—a nonclassical cloud-founded support services provider—was hacked, leaking the email addresses and occasionally the phone numbers of Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest users. So even when the cloud was employed this week, information technology wasn't keeping our data invulnerable, and this wasn't the first time it happened.

A brief intermission

Despite appearances heretofore, the point of this article isn't to drive you away from the cloud. The flip is not falling, and scorn the aforementioned headaches, Web-based services tend to be exceptionally reliable and secure.

Nope, I'm not scared of the cloud. I'm a child of the Internet age, and I veritably bask in its ever-connected possibilities. Too many other people, however, dive into the swarm whole-hog, with nary a thought spent connected its downsides, and this exposes them to disoblige and outright disaster. A little forethought give notice go down a long mode toward insulating your data from the cloud's surprise storms.

Taking the online offline

Simply put, anything you have worth worrying about shouldn't be left exclusive on someone else's servers, no matter whether it's email, simple files, or eve euphony and movies. The old "back up your information!" tenet holds twice true even when you'Ra dabbling in the cloud. So, if you possess control all over your files, a service outage will leave you frustrated, but not crippled.

Saving your Google Docs to your computer is easy-peasy.

Once your information is derived to your PC, you'rhenium also safe from the other perils of the cloud, including the threat of lost information or the dreaded platform "shut up-in." In fact, I chose all my cloud services supported the central principle of data redundancy.

To wit: SkyDrive's desktop app saves topical anesthetic copies of your files directly happening your computer. (Dropbox, Google Drive off, SugarSync, and most early cloud synchronization services do the same.) Pixlr lets you save your edited images in an online footlocker or straight to your computer, spell Evernote has a handy-dandy export option, American Samoa does Microsoft's OneNote. HipChat was foisted upon me by my PCWorld bosses, but I enjoyment Digsby for all my other instant messaging services, and Digsby allows Pine Tree State to pull through transcripts of my conversations directly to my computing machine.

Google makes things a little trickier, as Google Docs save up in a Weird application-specific format. Nonetheless, if you want to congest your files in unrivaled big .zip, select wholly the files and folders on your Take homepage, then fall into place More > Download. From there, you can choose the initialize you'd like your files exported in. Google Calendar has a direct export option. To save your Gmail messages, simply download them using an email guest look-alike Expectation or Thunderbird. Nice and easy.

Most data- or file-focused cloud services offer similar ways to export your information, so you assume't induce to use the same services I dress.

Once all your valuable information is safely stored away on your hard drive, you can do some you want with it, thoughtless of whether the cloud service from which it originated is functional. Just be surely to save all that data to another storehouse device arsenic part of your regular backup plan. (You do have a regular backup plan, Don't you?) Also, don't forget to periodically download your cloud-stored data from services that lack machine rifle local saving options.

OH, and while we're at it, you should really be encrypting any rightfully tender data you store in the overcast.

I want my MTV!

Plex not but streams media, it serves as an attractive home theater of operations–PC user interface and provides descriptions and graphics for your movies (just comparable Netflix).

Things get a bit trickier when you turn to the humankind of cloud-hosted cyclosis media. Services like Spotify and Netflix don't allow you to export your playlists or queues, essentially lockup you into their platforms. While you can't do about this aside from writing an angry letter (which will in all likelihood be ignored), you can create a self-controlled streaming backup to help you brave the unpredictable service outage or compensate for an Ink Master-esque missing show.

To start, you'll necessitate to have approximately DRM-free, locally stored media of your own, either aside purchasing it online or past ripping your physical music and movies to your hard drive.

Once that's done, you'll wishing to install and configure the Plex Media Server software on your PC or waiter, pointing it toward your media treasure trove in the physical process. Plex is an awing piece of software. After the Media Server is arrange, it can flow your amusement collection to new computers, most major peregrine platforms, Samsung and LG smart TVs, Roku boxes, and yes, the Xbox 360 console. You can even stream in-browser or via a sacred Windows 8 app, though that app—wish the other mobile Plex clients—will set you plunk for a few bucks. The Plex Media Host software transcodes outgoing media, ensuring it'll work without a hitch on receiving devices. I in person possess, love, and recommend it.

Is going to the trouble of setting up Plex just to safeguard against a Shirker or Hulu outage really worthwhile, when those outages usually shake themselves knocked out inside a few hours? Probably not. Just Plexis a accessible way to make a point your favorite songs and shows are available anywhere there's an Cyberspace connection, even if they're non available on the major streaming services.

When it rains, IT pours

Predestinate, the swarm whole caboodle like a charm 99 percent of the time—but if you pauperization a crucial cloud-stored file during that dejected 1 percent, these fail-safes can personify proverbial lifesavers. And even if you're non disquieted by the melodic theme of Gmail passing down for a few hours, keeping a firm grasp on where your files are stored can protect you from accidental data loss or crawling platform lock-in.

Given its upsides, you'd be crazy to let few hiccups sour you along the cloud. But you'd be even crazier to bank happening the cloud completely.