The Official DataDoggies Blog

Welcome to 2009, my friends.  DataDoggies had a wonderful year, and we hope you did as well.

For 2009, we plan on updating our software to 5.5.  What does this mean to you?  Well, the new version has a new (and prettier) interface and will include a new feature many have asked for: Continuous Data Protection (CDP).  With the CDP feature, our software watches your files and automatically uploads them to our server when they change.  Therefore there is no need to wait for the next scheduled backup, your data is uploaded immediately.  We will also be fixing some very minor bugs with this release as well.

Our customers will be able to use the old version, but we encourage everyone to upgrade to the newest software once our upgrades are complete.  At some point, we will end support for the old version.  Besides, everyone wants to be on the latest and greatest, right?

Once the upgrade is complete and the new software is available, we will posting the download link here.  We plan on having this done by the beginning of March.  Stay tuned.

For those of you in the northern Indiana area, we will be attending several public events this year as well.  Once those events draw near we will be posting the times and locations here as well.  I look forward to meeting some of our customers, so if you have time be sure to stop out.  Most of these functions are for charity and I know you would have a good time.

Remember we still have our free installation promotion going until February.  So if you haven’t starting protecting your data yet, now is a great time to begin.

Have a great day, and remember to check back often for news and updates!

If you’ve been wanting to back up your information, but were not sure if you could handle the initial configuration, now is the time to start!

Until February 1st, we are offereing free assisted installations!  We normally charge $15 for this service.  When you sign up for our service, just make sure you select the “Please help me ” option and we will assist you with installing the software, configuring the backup and answer any quesitons you have.  Best of all, we do all of this remotely via the internet and phone so we can get you started right away.

With our 14 day free trial and now free installation, there is no better time to start protecting your data!  Sign up at our website or call 1-888-868-9133 .

Hello!  I wanted to let everyone know that we’ve started advertising during the Delilah After Dark show on our local radio station, 101.5 FM!

Haven’t heard our commercial yet?  No problem!  You can listen to it right here:

DataDoggies 101.5 Radio Ad

I’ve been using computers for over 25 years now, 15 of them professionally.  I wanted to share with you some of the history, at least from my perspective, of how we’ve stored data over the years.

Back in the 80’s, the only place you could really store data was on a floppy disk, or if you were Daddy Warbucks, you might be able to afford a whopping 20 megabyte hard disk.  There was no real place to back up your information, other than a floppy disk.  And if something happened to that disk, you were done for.  The best we could do to protect ourselves was to make a second copy of the disk, and hope nothing happened to it.

In the early 90’s not much had changed, we still had floppy disks.  The only real difference was instead of carrying around that one disk which stored our whole world,  we now had 20 or 30 of them!  I remember people being very finicky about the handling of those disks too.  While at work one day I casually tossed a floppy over to a co-worker so he could run the diagnostic stored on it.  Of course this disk happened to fly over the desk of our boss, which prompted him to stand up and yell “Stop throwing that disk around!  You’ll knock the bits off it!”.  Of course we knew that was ridiculous, but his point was clear; disks were still not very secure way of storing data.  One crack, one tear, one particle of dust landing the wrong way, and disk was useless.

By the mid to late 90’s, things were improving.  We were now able to burn CDs, which was a great way to archive information.  Unfortunately, burning a single CD back then took almost an hour.  Also, we started to see an explosion in hard drive capacities.  1 gigabyte drives started appearing and by the end of the decade we had 20 gigabyte drives.  Also during this time a wonderful, new technology was starting to make its way to the average person; the Internet.  We weren’t sure exactly sure how at the time, but it was clear that this one technological marvel was going to change the way we worked with computers.

Now we are well into a new millennium, and quite frankly there are more ways of storing data now than I could ever write about.  The short list includes USB flash drives, internal hard drives, external hard drives, CDs and the internet.   The real problem we face now is too many choices.  Most people, confused by so many options, take the simplest route and rely solely on their internal hard drives to store all of their information.  With single hard disks reaching 1500 gigabytes in capacity, it’s really easy to throw all of our eggs in one basket, so to speak.  Unfortunatly, most will never make a single backup of their important files despite all of the options.

One of our most important jobs here at DataDoggies is educating people about the real risk of data loss.  Make sure you check back in the next few weeks as I will be discussing some of the current threats regarding the security of your data, and some of the best methods of protecting yourself.

DataDoggies,  Friendly.  Loyal.  Protective.  What’s in a company’s name, or its slogan?  I can’t comment on most organizations, but I can certainly tell you about ours.

When starting DataDoggies, I wanted to create an environment where every customer would feel welcome and appreciated.  I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve heard where someone calls customer service and feels like they are being talked down to or otherwise treated disrespectfully.  I think some companies have forgotten how to treat customers.  They need someone that actually enjoys speaking with you - someone that is friendly. 

At DataDoggies, although we often refer to our subscribers as customers, we like to think of them as investors.  Investors expect a return on their investment, not just some place to throw their money.  It isn’t good enough to just provide x service for y price anymore.  We need to continue to improve our product so that our customers get better value for their investment.  When a customer contacts us, for any reason, they should expect exceptional service.  Not just the first time, but every time.  This is our way of providing value, of being loyal.

It goes without saying that our product, online data backup, is designed to preserve our customer’s information.  We are always looking for and implementing new technologies and procedures to make sure that the one thing the customer trusted us with, their data, is always safe.   We realize your families memories such as pictures, videos, or even recipes are simply too important to lose.  Although each of the values that make up our slogan is essential, it is our priority to be protective of our customer’s data.

It is no secret to those that know me that I am a huge dog lover.  My wife and I volunteer with our local Humane Society and have fostered and found homes for many dogs that had no where else to go.  So why do we feel so strongly about helping dogs?  Through our relationship with these wonderful animals, we’ve found that almost all of them have the values that make up our slogan.  The most interesting thing to me is that most dogs aren’t trained to be friendly, loyal or protective.  They are born with these attributes. 

DataDoggies, from day one, made a promise to always provide a friendly, loyal and protective service.  Our company was born with these virtues and will always seek to maintain them, no matter what it takes. 

This blog is part of fulfilling our promise.  Please be sure to check this page often for news, technical updates and discussions about events that relate to our service.  It is important to us that we have an ongoing relationship with the public. Sharing information about us is one of the best ways to accomplish that.

Thank you for your time,