All of this talk of the "cloud" is fine and dandy, but if you are relying on some datacenter that you access via the internet for your data protection / backup plan, you will eventually be in deep doo doo. Same thing if your backup plan is a plain old external hard drive. Sadly, most folks backup plans aren't more elaborate than what I just described. They are either using a central data service like Carbonite or have a USB external hard drive. For some reason they feel all safe and protected. They aren't.
If you only have your backup in the "cloud", any disruption in your internet connection will leave you and your data on separate islands. Good luck trying to get someone from the data center on the phone. I know, the Internet is "always" up, sure, until you "really" need it.
If, like me, you don't want some strange it professional hanging on to your data for you, you might try an
external hard drive. This is fine, assuming your external hard drive is using some form of RAID (at least RAID 1 with mirroring).
OK, that long winded rant has brought me to a great backup/storage solution (integrated archive systems is what the big boys call it) that I would get for my Mom. It has it's own cloud solution (you can access your data over the internet) with no monthly fees and it has RAID 1 mirroring. The only thing that I don't like is the name "“ the Western Digital My Book Live Duo (WDBVHT0040JCH-NESN). The My Book Live Duo comes in 4TB and 6TB (plan on cutting that number in 1/2 with RAID though).
Sure you could accomplish a similar type thing by leaving a home computer running all of the time and using a program like GoToMyPC or TeamViewer. Unfortunatley that comes with another set of problems like having your computer on constantly, security issues, and having to restart and restore your pc from time-to-time.
Treat the My Book Live Duo as a normal external hard drive (again, use the RAID 1 setting) and your data is pretty darn safe. Or get more technical, put it on the internet and create your own cloud for access to your data from anywhere the internet is on. Another nice thing is that Western Digital is viewed as one of the data protection authorities… they should be in business for a while. Enjoy.