S3, how do I love thee…

Ahh, new love, you remember what it felt like, don’t you? I do, because I’m in love again, or at least I think I am. It’s so new and fresh and it’s making me happy and it’s called “S3.”

I know, sounds like the name for a spy or a prisoner. S3 is new in town, people have started whispering, and many have outright declared their intentions. Luckily, there is room for all of us, because the amount of space is massive.

Just look up. There you  have it. Sky and clouds. What is this “cloud” thing that people are taking about? I’m not really sure myself, but I do know that it seems rather limitless and it’s very inexpensive. Feels kind of like infinity, or staring out in space. What’s on the other side? I don’t pretend to know, but then, again, I’m in lurv.

It’s like I’ve had everyone’s extra luggage stuffed in my bedroom (having to keep a close eye on it) and now S3 is going to take care of it all for me. It will be safe, secure, and untouchable, and in a place so massive no one will be able to find it but me. I can get at it whenever I want to. My house can burn down and it will still be there, floating above me, out there somewhere, protected and content.

It’s another word for freedom, cause people, I’ve been hanging on to your luggage for years, and I want my own space back! Everytime I get a new client, I’m responsible for not only their files, but their usernames and passwords, and backups of backups. Sometimes they disappear for years only to show up on my porch and ask me if their favorite pair of purple socks is still in that duffel bag they gave me for safekeeping.

Heck, I’m a designer, not the keymaster, but there it is. You can’t very well get rid of that stuff in case someone comes back and needs it desperately. I can write in any contract that I’m not responsible for keeping stuff more than 2 years after a project is completed, but I keep it anyway, or try to.

Sometimes my extra hard drives will just give out one day, with hardly any notice, leaving me scrambling to move the data over before the last whizzy gasp and dimming of the light. Sometimes I don’t make it in time, and have to take the boxy cadaver to the specialist, who will do his best to retrive the lost items. But they are never the same, nor am I.

I’m sick with worry for hours. Will I get back the results of late night creative burst I haven’t yet had a chance to use? Will all my college coursework be lost in the burned out wires, never to be retrieved? But do I really want to? Doesn’t matter. I still gnash my teeth about it.

So back to S3, who rides up on his white horse. He hands me a rose, proposes, and I accept. I’m going to back up my website data to Amazon’s S3 storage service, and it’s going to happen automatically with the help of his new friend, Backup Buddy. The operant word here is automatically.

Backup Buddy will do scheduled backups and automatically upload them to your S3 account, so I don’t have to. My shoulder muscles are relaxing just thinking about it. I have yet to get all my sites up and running with S3 and Backup Buddy, but I’m on my way.

This will make upgrading WordPress that much less of a hassle. Yes, when you are in the admin window and see the upgrade announcement, it’s tempting just to press the button without backing up first and without turning off your plugins, but to avoid the white screen of death, it must be done in this order.

Now, at least, I’m one step closer to automatic nirvana.