Amazon S3 - To Backup or Not to Backup

Question

So heres a question: Should I back up my data if I store using S3 (not RRS) or does S3 already handle a good enough multiple site data replication redundancy?

If backing up is desired, I'd like to hear what solutions people have done so far.

I assume a simple one is to just do a full data dump to my local hdd and replicate it manually.

Edit: At the moment I will be running completely off of Amazon, so preventing data inaccessibility when Amazon is down will be pointless.

My only worry is hardware failure wiping my data.

Answer 1

It depends on what risks you are trying to mitigate

• Ensure you can always access the data, even if Amazon goes down, stops providing the service, etc. For this, you need a local backup. Keep in mind that you will get charged for moving the data into S3 in the first place, and again for getting it back out. Incremental backups are an advantage here.
• Accidental removal of data. You need backups here, not necessarily local. It could just be another copy of the data in S3. This will cost more for the storage, but you won't get charged for moving the data back out of S3. Whatever data redundancy Amazon does will replicate the delete.
• Preventing data loss in case of hardware failure. What Amazon does is probably fine.

Answer 2

While not the same circumstances as yours, my thoughts remain the same.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r25854750-Free-Alternatives-to-Dropbox

 (If this is a business & "free" is a requirement, or even desire. If this is a business
 & you have no control over your website features. If this is a business & you're only
 looking into the clouds. ? Thinking your business, your IT, needs to take more
 responsibility for itself. Needs to have redundancy in place. Needs ...)


 > What about Wuala? 1 GB free and upgrade either..


 What about abc, what about xyz, what about 123?

 The point is that if one of them, any of them, is all you have to rely on, then that
 certainly is not enough.

 If you use these types of services as an additional (to more traditional) methods of
 doing things, that is fine. But if all you have is xyz, it is bound to fail.

 People complained when Amazon had their recent outage. They're a big boy. A little
 guy may have said, "enough", packed up shop & turned of the power. Gone (along with
 your data & "infrastructure").