The cloud has gained popularity in recent years, and is often recommended as a way to store and backup your photos, but what do you do when the service kicks the bucket?
That’s exactly what millions of users are about to find out, with Copy dropping the bomb and announcing it will be shutting down on May 1, 2016.
The popular online storage solution, offered by Barracuda, informed users at the beginning of the month that they have three months to find an alternative storage solution for any files currently stored on the cloud service.
Stating that the company’s “focus has shifted”, after providing the service for over four years, the message found on Copy’s homepage states that the resources invested in the service will be allocated elsewhere in the company.
Ensuring its users don’t only have enough time to move their data, but also have the ability to do so, Barracuda has brought Mover on board:
“We have partnered with Mover to make migrating your data to another service as easy as possible and have created a step by step guide that walks you through the process of moving your data to a local hard drive or another cloud storage solution.”
This step will affect both paid and free users, and although paid subscribers were told they’ll get an email with detailed information on their options, they don’t really have options.
According to the FAQ section, all accounts without exception will become inaccessible and all files will be deleted automatically on May 1st. All accounts will still be fully functional until then, but paid subscribers will not be charged during the service’s last 90 days. Users with annual subscriptions will receive a refund for the remaining months.
In a dedicated blog post, VP and GM of Storage Business Rod Mathews says they have “begun a process to focus our resources on our most strategic initiatives and to drive more innovation and faster growth within those products”. The specific features Mathews referred to are backup, data protection and business continuity in the cloud.
The VP and GM ended his post with the standard “we’ll do our best to help you” message one would expect, but I give him a huge thumbs up for including his email address and inviting users to reach out to him directly with any questions.
Along with the consumer cloud service, Barracuda will also discontinue the business cloud service called CudaDrive.
The discontinuation of Copy and CudaDrive should make current and potential clouds users think about whether or not they’re prepared for a similar scenario with their online storage solution.
While this definitely isn’t the end of cloud-based storage, it will likely send some people back to relying solely on physical, on-site storage devices.
Amazon’s 50TB sci-fi suitcase is probably a bit over the top for most people, but will no doubt give you greater peace of mind than using Seagate’s hard drives. You know, due to the class action lawsuit filed against it for providing consistently faulty hard drives.
