by Calvin Robinson on March 29, 2010.

Between Dropbox/Google Docs, Spotify and Flickr, is there really any need for backups anymore?

Dropbox keeps all your files in the cloud, important documents and crap alike.
If you want to keep things 100% cloud based of course, there’s Google Documents – now that they allow uploading of any file type.

Spotify is my favourite app, music used to take up so much space on my macbook pro, now it’s all streamed directly from the cloud. If I know I’m going out of coverage, I can mark playlists for offline use. The libraries are vast, and once Spotify allows mp3 imports (which it will, soon), iTunes will be under a great threat.

Everyone’s familiar with Flickr. With programs like iPhoto you can upload all your photos and share them with your friends in a matter of clicks, or mark them as private for your own reference.

The best thing about all of these apps is that they’re not desktop exclusive – I have them all on my Google Nexus One and iPhone too.

I’ve never been very good at backing up – I bought an Apple Time Capsule for that very reason. It takes care of everything for me, in the background. I remember frantically searching through backup DVDs, CDs and even floppy disks, when I suffered a data loss in the past. Bloody hard drives are so unreliable! These days it’s so damn simple.

The ‘Documents’ directory on all my computers is an alias to my Dropbox directory. Everything is saved in the cloud. My mp3s are long gone, backed away on an iPod Classic in a drawer somewhere and all the images I care about are on Flickr. There’s no need for mp3s and photos clogging up disk space when all my devices are running Spotify Premium, Flickr Pro and Dropbox.

Of course, all these subscriptions add up. But when the basic services are so good, there’s not always a need to go pro.

Keep it Cloud™