[serf]

hearing the argument "This is for data, not for backups." strikes me as so strange.

I can understand why a company would care about the access policies; if you are storing some kind of database that is accessed constantly and routinely then it's nice to know -- but when did we become okay with categorizing bits beyond that?

I don't really care for the future of needing a subscription to backup cat photos, specifically. I'd rather bits be bits except in limited instances where the data is priced based upon access frequency/retention/guarantees. (yeah, it stands to reason that cold storage that has limited access should be a fair bit cheaper than hot storage where the data is ready to go ASAP.)

This kind of thing just accelerates the stenography arms-race wherein people try to store their terabytes of data as cat pictures.

[bingobongodude]

Where is the difference though seriously? If it is for "data" I might be accessing it every other minute. If it is for backups I might be accessing it every other minute as well. I do look at my cat pictures every other second though and yes I do encrypt them before and after I do so. The whole spiel of cold/hot storage ..