Choosing and using cloud storage: syncing is not backup

Hook

Boss, most companies have cloud storage now — Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, one or another. But most people use it as a thumb drive that lives online. And then things go wrong: a file half-synced and gone; two people editing the same document and ending up with two; and the worst kind of all — the entire accounting database corrupted. Today we settle how cloud storage should be used, and the single most important line: syncing is not backup.

The first hurdle: filenames

Start with the least conspicuous and most common source of trouble: filenames. When cloud storage fails to sync, seven times out of ten it is the filename. Three things to remember. One, too long. Add folder after folder and the whole path exceeds the system's limit. It looks fine on your computer, and the moment it syncs it jams — and it will not necessarily tell you. Two, special characters. Slashes, colons, question marks, asterisks, quotation marks, pipes — different systems have different rules. You can type it on one machine and on another it turns into gibberish or will not sync at all. Three, spaces. One space is fine, but two spaces, or one trailing space at the end, are invisible to the eye and perfectly clear to a machine. So LTT's approach is simple, as the fifteenth and nineteenth lessons covered: use one fixed naming convention, use only letters, digits, hyphens and underscores, and always write dates yymmdd. It is not fussiness. It is so the file can still be found and opened ten years from now.

The most expensive lesson: keep the database out of the synced folder

Now the most expensive lesson. Older accounting software — UBS-style systems built on DBF files — does not keep its data in one file. It keeps a set of files that move together. Press "post" and it changes several files at once. If that folder is being synced, the cloud sees the files change and starts uploading; halfway through the upload the program changes another one; the two sides fight, and the result is the most frightening sentence there is: "database corrupted, cannot be opened". Worse still, the sync uploads the corrupted version too. You thought there was a good copy in the cloud — there is not; the cloud copy is corrupted as well. So the rule is hard: a database that the program writes to constantly must not sit in a synced folder. Keep it locally on the machine and back it up separately — export a copy at the end of every working day and put that in the cloud. Syncing is for sharing, not for survival.

Version history: it has saved a lot of people

Now some good news. Cloud storage has a feature plenty of bosses have never used, and it has saved a lot of people: version history. You will know the scene. An Excel file you spent three days on, and a colleague slips, overwrites it or deletes half of it, saves and closes. Before? Do it again. Now: right-click the file, find version history, and pull back yesterday's version. Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive and Box all have it; only the name and the retention period differ. Two cautions. One, it only keeps versions for a period, so genuinely important year-end files still need a separate copy — do not rely on version history alone. Two, it saves you from a bad edit, not from a dead machine. A burnt-out drive or a ransomware encryption needs a backup, not version history.

Streaming or mirror?

One last very practical setting. Cloud storage today usually offers two modes. Mirror — what is in the cloud is genuinely also on your computer. The upside: it opens with no connection, and it is fast. The cost: it eats disk space. Streaming — you see a listing, and the file only downloads when you click it. The upside: hundreds of gigabytes of company files are visible on a small laptop. The cost: no connection, no file. How to choose? The few folders you use every day — set them to keep on this device, especially if you travel or work at clients' premises. Files from years ago — streaming is fine. And one aside: a lot of companies still keep a very old SharePoint folder with a frightening path length and permissions nobody remembers. There is no rush to migrate it — but stop adding new things to it. Draw a line (the approach from the twenty-third lesson): seal the old, and new work follows the new rules.

To close

In summary, five lines. Syncing is not backup. When a sync fails, look at the filename first — too long, special characters, a stray space. A database the program writes to must not sit in a synced folder. Version history saves you from a bad edit; backup saves you from a dead machine. Keep the everyday folders on the device, stream the old ones, and seal the old warehouse instead of adding to it. Which provider? Honestly, all four can do this job. The difference is whether you have a set of rules. Without rules, any of them will be equally messy. Want a set of file rules drawn up for your company? Grab a coffee first and talk about your business. For the accounting, come to LTT. I am LTT, helping SME bosses get their accounts straight. Follow us, and see you next time.