Is it smart to use DropBox for backups?

: Image via CrunchBase

What is DropBox?

By now I guess almost everybody must have heard and/or using DropBox. The idea behind DropBox is simple: a folder on your computer in which you can drop files which will then be automatically synced to the web, your other computers, and any of your friends with whom you’ve decided to share the folder.

DropBox has quickly gained a lot of traction among distributed teams, who were in need of a place to store their collaborations as simply as possible. Before DropBox, people had to refer to email, ftp, or custom websites to manage their files across machines but using the cross-platform concept of folders proved to be much more flexible.

Backups

Besides using DropBox for collaboration or syncing, a lot of people seem to be using the service for keeping quick and simple backups of their most important files. I have to admit, why go through the process of creating a full disk backup, or backup to external hard drive, when you can just as well just drop the files into the DropBox folder and have it instantly synced to the web and your other machines within seconds. It’s even more interesting becuase DropBox also keeps past revisions of your files for 30 days on the free account (and unlimited on the premium account) allowing you to get back to any version you might need to in case anything goes seriously wrong.

Security

So backing up to DropBox is popular, and for good reasons, but how save is it to actually do it? It turns out we’re not the first ones asking this question and the Security Overview on the DropBox site is quite extensive. In short:

Shared folders are viewable only by people you invite.
All transmission of file data and metadata occurs over an encrypted channel (SSL).
All files stored on Dropbox servers are encrypted (AES-256) and are inaccessible without your account password.
Dropbox website and client software have been hardened against attacks from hackers.
Dropbox employees are not able to view any user’s files.
Online access to your files requires your username and password.
Public files are only viewable by people who have a link to the file(s). Public folders are not browsable or searchable.

Also, DropBox uses Amazon S3 for storage which has quite an extensive SLA and is being used by more backup services like Mozy, so I doubt their servers are going to be the issue.

Conclusion

Backing up small files to DropBox is indeed a smart use of an innovative service. Their security seems to be well thought out and the fact that their data is hosted on Amazon S3 gives me full confidence in their abilities. Their free service offers 2GB of free storage which should give you enough space for those files that you might-not-have-backed-up-somewhere-else-yet. If you want you can upgrade to a premium account which gives you 50GB ($9.99 a month) or 100GB ($19.99 a month) of storage.