Want a real education? Back up your own data. That’s the lesson students and faculty at New Zealand’s Victoria University of Wellington learned last week when the IT staff did some routine maintenance. The result: a factory reset of every PC connected to its network and a university of PCs with empty desktop folders and C: drives. Oops!
All kidding aside, as we become more and more reliant on cloud computing and storage, it is easy to forget that our local computers (specifically local document, picture, video, music, and desktop folders) don’t automatically back up. You may not store anything locally (good), but if you still think you are doing yourself a favor by storing sensitive financial data only on your local drives, back them up.
Thanks, Victoria University of Wellington IT staff, for this teachable moment. Sorry to all the students who lost a year’s worth of data. This probably isn’t the way you wanted to get schooled.
Author’s note: This is not a sponsored post. I am the author of this article and it expresses my own opinions. I am not, nor is my company, receiving compensation for it.
About Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with AI strategy, implementation and governance, as well as technology, media and marketing. Named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Technology, he is a bestselling author, covers tech and business for Fox 5’s Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN, and writes the popular daily business blog Think About This. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.