[MaxBarraclough]

> For stuff you don't need to restore in a rush, it's cheap

That was my thinking. It seems a good fit as a last-resort backup. Low month-on-month storage costs, high retrieval costs. So we're essentially betting that we'll never retrieve the data. Which seems fine.

Also, it apparently has strong assurances against data-loss. Lots of nines. [0]

> how my non tech wife could possibly have restored the files as the interfaces are all heavy

It's all web-API-based, right? Is there a a decent FOSS GUI to navigate it?

[0] https://aws.amazon.com/glacier/features/

[amiga_500]

If you retrieve the data slowly it's cheap. It's expensive if say you are a retailer who needs their database restored asap.

I use a Linux perl client!

[MaxBarraclough]

I suppose the biggest risk is failure-to-pay, as with all cloud backups/storage. If I allow my payment card to expire, Amazon aren't obligated to continue to store my data. If I drop off the grid for an extended holiday, that could be a real risk.

To my knowledge, Amazon offer no means of prepaying.

[DaiPlusPlus]

> If I allow my payment card to expire, Amazon aren't obligated to continue to store my data.

Business idea: cloud archive storage where you pay when you upload data and optionally pay a modest monthly fee for real-time access to stored data, but they'll guarantee to keep your data for you if you stop paying: you'll just need to pay to retrieve that data.

As the long-term archival data wouldn't need to be stored in a data-center: just a commodity tape-library box in a basement in a farm somewhere near a freeway I imagine it would be kinda cheap to run as a business. You could set-up a Foundation or other entity to ensure long-term continuity of operations and have it self-sufficient through an endowment. E.g. a $1m endowment would easily pay for something like this into perpetuity.

[MaxBarraclough]

If offered by an organisation that I can trust to still exist in, say, 40 years time, this might work. Maybe Google/Amazon/Microsoft have this credibility. Maybe. There's no way it would work as a start-up.

You'd also need to charge enough upfront that you can still turn a profit if they stop paying immediately. Asking for upfront payment of 40 years of data-storage fees, might be a problem.

> a commodity tape-library box in a basement in a farm somewhere near a freeway

I'm not a data-storage expert by any means, but that doesn't sound anywhere near good enough. You need to redundantly protect against flood, fire, crime, etc. You'll also need to be able to retrieve data at scale. You're essentially rolling your own Amazon Glacier.

[ValentineC]

There was Permanent.org, three months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22943620

[MaxBarraclough]

I agree with this comment on how that project completely fails to provide the necessary assurances of dependable longevity: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22944681

[DaiPlusPlus]

> Amazon aren't obligated to continue to store my data. If I drop off the grid for an extended holiday, that could be a real risk. To my knowledge, Amazon offer no means of prepaying.

Another option I've been meaning to set-up is two-way Synology sync between sites. My parents have a Synology box and now that they have a decent internet connection (DOCSIS, not ADSL's 768kbps upstream) we could backup each others' data on each other's Synology boxes. I just need to figure it out...

[amiga_500]

You get emails. Imho it's not a big risk.

[fomine3]

Possibly you miss the mail, the mail into spam, forget to fix it.