Tag: Storage

I get that indexing encrypted backups is a royal pain in the ass, and that doing this well is challenging to boot. That said: the notion RIM would provide discrete, encrypted, backups of the PlayBook rather than solving the problem of indexed backups is absolutely absurd.

Even in an era of 500GB+ hard drives, ‘paying’ 13GB+ for each backup is ridiculous; this kind of storage cost simply doesn’t lead to a sustainable long-term backup schema (especially when you head north to 55GB+ backups). Most users, in response, will dial back to non-encrypted backups and thus reduce the security profile of what is meant to be a secure device. This is incredibly bad form for RIM, made worse by the company’s (often contrasting) focuses on (a) consumer markets; (b) professional – and thereby more security-conscious – markets.

Apple had the same problem with storing encrypted disk profiles in the previous iteration of their operating system – OS X Snow Leopard – though this was resolved in Lion. While the lessons learned by Apple likely are not perfectly equatable to RIM’s own situation, RIM needs to move the ball ahead if they are to simultaneously deliver to their dual markets. At this point they cannot afford to satisfy only one market or the other and hope to remain competitive.