A cloud backup plan is not overkill for a quantity surveying student with drawings, measurements, reports and field photographs. It provides off-device resilience, but synchronisation alone is not backup when deletion or corruption immediately spreads to every device.
Map each project from field capture to final submission
Estimate current data, weekly change and annual growth. Separate active drawings from completed archives, measure real upload speed and decide how quickly a lost project must return. Check version history, retention, encryption and account-recovery controls before choosing a provider.
No cloud-backup subscription or verified service price appears in the factpacks. The Seagate Expansion 2TB at R1,399 and LaCie Rugged 2TB at R1,920 are verified local-drive references, not cloud services. Confirm live provider limits, supported clients, privacy terms, recovery process and internet requirements independently.
Use a unique password and available multifactor protection, encrypt sensitive site data where appropriate and keep one independent local copy. Restore a complete project with linked files before trusting the plan. Budget for long initial uploads and limited connectivity during fieldwork.
Buy enough protected capacity for versions and growth. Local storage supports fast work, while cloud backup protects against loss of the device or premises.
Confirm that cancelled or graduated accounts do not silently remove the only remote copy of submitted work.
Protecting surveying projects? > Compare Evetech laptops and storage around the full project lifecycle.