College Student's Big-Hearted Idea has Flourished into 3rd Annual "World Backup Day"

SAN FRANCISCO, March 27, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- A simple idea sparked by comments on reddit about backing up data has blossomed into a global "holiday" called World Backup Day, and is celebrating its third anniversary on March 31.  The event has gained momentum and advocates every year, and now World Backup Day has a presenting sponsor, Code 42 Software, the top-rated backup company behind CrashPlan, to help increase awareness even further. Backblaze, another highly regarded company specializing in backup services, is also on-board as a sponsor. 

The notion for World Backup Day originated with Youngstown State University student Ismail Jadun, who was inspired by comments on reddit, the popular social news website.  Ismail and his fellow "redditors" were discussing the inherent need for backing up data, and he decided to declare the day before April Fool's Day as the perfect time to back up files.  Ismail quickly created an official website, www.WorldBackupDay.com, and started spreading the word among the collaborative reddit community and other social media channels.

"I'm thrilled with the response to World Backup Day, and I hope it's made a difference in people's lives," said World Backup Day founder Ismail Jadun.  "We all know someone who has lost critical data, whether it was their videos, photos, music, reports, or personal stuff.  Hopefully this day will make everyone think about their situation, learn about the various storage options and get their files backed up.  I also hope that World Backup Day sparks conversations about the enormous task of saving our increasingly digital data and heritage for future generations."

"Everyone understands the hopelessness and frustration of losing important data, and I'm proud that the idea for World Backup Day was sparked by a discussion on reddit," said Erik Martin, GM of reddit.  "The reddit community has remained closely involved in helping make March 31 the day people think about the impact of data in our lives, and to do something positive about it."

Many people think their documents are safe because they're saved on the computer's hard drive.  However, as noted on WorldBackupDay.com, mechanical hard drives fail at an annual rate of 3%, and this rate gets higher as the drive gets older.  With a three-year-old drive, the annual failure rate is 6%.  While some data can possibly be recovered, the best way to avoid potentially catastrophic loss of data would simply be to back it up.

"Digital media is core to the lives and livelihoods of millions," said Matthew Dornquast, CEO of CrashPlan developer Code 42 Software. "The partnership with World Backup Day aligns perfectly with our mission to deliver easy and secure backup solutions for consumers and businesses alike."  

Key points about backing up data from WorldBackupDay.com:

• Items to backup:  Your computer, laptop, phone, iPod, tablet, other wireless devices, photos and videos on social networks.
• Common ways to lose data:  Theft, hardware failure, natural disaster, alien invasion, obsolete file formats, you forgot where you put it (really, it has happened).
• Backup options:  Backing up is easy. Once set up, your data should be backing up automatically. There are two main types of backup solutions:
  • Local backup: An external hard drive that can be easily retrieved at home. 
  • Cloud/offsite backup: An online backup service or hard drive securely placed in a different location.
  • Having both local and offsite backups gives you piece of mind knowing your files are safe and secure.

For more information on World Backup Day, exclusive deals, and giveaways, visit www.WorldBackupDay.com.  To become part of the conversation, check out @WorldBackupDay on Twitter, Facebook.com/WorldBackupDay on Facebook, worldbackupday.tumblr.com on Tumblr, and www.reddit.com.

About Code 42 Software, Inc.

Code 42 Software, a privately held company based in Minneapolis, Minn., has been developing software to protect the world's data since 2001. Code 42 offers enterprise backup, CrashPlan PROe, which is being used by thousands of companies around the world to safeguard their data. CrashPlan and CrashPlan PRO offer industry-leading backup software for homes and small businesses. All products offer multi-destination, cross-platform backup to both public and managed private clouds. For more information, visit www.code42.com.     

SOURCE reddit