Cloud Storage. How reliable?

[lowfreq]

Im not sure which sub-forum this should go, so I'll post it here since Im a new MBP owner.

At the moment I'm considering upgrading iCloud storage to 2 TB. Rationale for this is the fact that I have multiple hard drives I've accumulated throughout the years that contain photos, music, various documents etc.. and it would be nice to store those in a central location and also transfer the contents of those hard drives to one single HD.

Second reason is that it would be nice to access those documents wherever I am at.

Is cloud storage a pretty reliable method for longterm storage of files?

 

[matram]

In general you need to protect against two different types of events:
1) Accidentally deleted files
2) Hardware failure

The classical approach to accidentally deleted files is backup. iCloud is NOT a backup solution. Get CarbonCopyCloner or use TimeMachine with a separate HDD or use some backup service to save regular backups.

I do not know how Apple have built up their iCloud storage. But as a minimum I assume there is RAID5+hot spare which means protections against the failure of one HDD. So protection agains hardware failures would be better than what you have on you own computer.

You can buy off-line storage that is globally replicated between two sites. I do not believe Apple has that level of protection. Anyone knows?

Consider also the bandwidth requirements. I now have 250 Mbit up/down bandwidth so iCloud works well. In my old house with 2 Mbit, not so well.

 

[ascender]

iCloud works very well these days for storage and sync, so I'd have no hesitation in recommending it. Its matured to the point where pretty much everything I have is stored in the cloud.

But, like @matram says, you still need to do local backups. So I have Time Machine and CarbonCopyCloner here, with a HDD which gets put in a fireproof safe.

 

[HDFan]

iCloud is NOT a backup solution.

you still need to do local backups.

Use a 3-3-3 or 3-2-3 backup strategy - 3 backups in 3 media types in 3 locations, one off-site such as a bank vault. For cloud backups use a backup service such as CrashPlan or Backblaze, not iCloud.

 

[ascender]

iCloud isn't a backup solution but it is a "pretty reliable method for longterm storage of files".

I forgot, we use Backblaze on all our machines too 😃

 

[scouser75]

I definitely do not find it reliable. I uploaded 10 pictures about 4 hours ago of very low resolution and file size. They are yet to appear on the Files app! I've been through the whole shut down restart, toggle of iCloud Toggle back on etc and none of this works.

I did it on Dropbox and within a few seconds the pics were there.

Use Dropbox ;-)

 

[jeyf]

for work related or even personal documents i would find both a macOS and ios based applications that would organize and encrypt your cloud files.

I would keep at least 2 copies