The Personal Blog of Shawn Hooghkirk

The Real Equation We Should Be Using When Buying

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This post is about myself finding a solution to backing up files online. It is not about buying Sugarsync and is certainty not an affiliate blog post with affiliate links. Simply, a story of how I went from thinking in just a monetary sense, into thinking time saving and ease of use. Enjoy.

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Lately I’ve decided rather than burning DVD’s to backup my files, to go with an online backup provider, specifically SugarSync. Now I can’t believe I didn’t do this sooner.

I think that the reason it took my so long to make the transition was because I just hadn’t been exposed to an alternative, until now.

I got my first PC about 13 years ago. At that time your only method was floppy discs and a couple of years later by CD. Either way, there wasn’t an option for backing up your stuff online that I knew of (and probably 99% of the population). So when I started hearing about companies offering online backup solutions in the last few years, I thought it was cool, but I really didn’t want another alternative. I was paying 25 cents per DVD, and I couldn’t see a solution more cost effective than that. So a friend of mine pretty much sold me on Sugarsync one day when I found out that not only could I backup my stuff online, I could also share a folder from my computer that he could access at any time.

So came the real equation:
Time, Ease of Use, and Convenience

Now there was a lot more going into this than I originally thought. The 25 cent DVD, with about 30 minutes to 1 hour of time, the hassle of loading a program and navigating — while also the “I’m backing up files, so I can waste time and browse the net since this ‘ has to be done.’ ” So now that 25 cent DVD was actually looking quite a bit more expensive, especially with time added in.

I find out all I have to do is sign up (under 1 minute), install program (under 3 minutes), select the folders I want to backup (under 20 minutes — this will be different for everyone), and I’m ready to rock n’ roll. Now everytime I open up a file in a folder I have chosen to backup, that file is automatically backed up within about 10 seconds of me hitting the save button. I also I find out I can access all of my files online at any computer with an internet connection. Oh and one more thing, about the friend I mentioned earlier. Now we don’t email files anymore, we share a folder and give instructions on where to find the file we have just created or updated — all for $5 a month (30 Gig’s).

You could say I’m completely sold and will never go back.

I was even considering buying a physical terabyte of space so I could basically do the same thing. When considering this $150 (average at the time) up front cost vs. $5 monthly, my SugarSync will last me 30 months or about 2.5 years before I reach that amount of money (plus, how long would that hard drive last anyways?). Obviously not the best scenario for someone with a ton of data to backup, but if you’re an average Internet user or business owner, it’s probably going to float your boat just fine.

Okay I could go on about this forever, but I want to drive home a very important point to you. It’s not just about money. It’s about time, ease of use, and convenience. In college I used to shop for toilet paper (getting a deal of a lifetime) $5.00 for 1,000 rolls, and guess what happened when I got home. I found out that my cost was just offset with Preperation H. Okay, that was a little far — but really, have you bought cheap toilet paper? The stuff is basically transparent.

Anyways, make sure you find out if a product or service is actually going to help you more than the ability of telling your friends that you kept your wallet a little fatter. Good things cost more money based on the equation that we were all made to believe. If X costs $10 and Y costs $5, buy Y because you’ll save money. But when something takes you more time to complete, or makes you jump through extra hoops compared to the alternative, it’s actually costing you more.

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