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Palm Pre shows why you need backups for your backups

by Jay on December 7, 2009

: Image by Jared Klett via Flickr

In yet another nail in the coffin for Palm’s failed iPhone-killer handset, Palm Pre users are reporting continued and unresolved failures of their cloud-based data backups. The Pre is designed to allow users to backup their handsets’ address book, calendar, and task list to an online Profile, just like Microsoft/Danger’s Sidekick.

Unfortunately, just like October’s infamous Danger data flameout, many Pre users are persistently unable to access their online Profiles. Doubly unfortunate is that standard Pre support documentation tells users to reset flaky handsets — thereby wiping local copies of user data — and then resync the device to the online Profile. Thus, Palm is telling Pre users to wipe handset data that it can’t replace thanks to its faulty cloud-based backup system. Just like Microsoft did with the Danger Sidekick a few weeks ago.

One of the basic truisms of data management is never have a single point of failure. That logic extends not just to devices (which should have physically separate backups) or locations (which should have geographically separate backups) but to providers. Put another way: If you can’t trust a Palm handset with a sole copy of your data, why would you trust a Palm service as its sole backup? Quality control is an aspect of corporate culture, and if it isn’t present in hardware don’t expect it to be there in software.

True data redundancy means a third-party copy. Maybe that’s a data image on your local PC. Maybe that’s an online backup service. Maybe it’s both. Whatever the case, your data should be guaranteed by more than one corporate logo — ideally several.