Backup Strategy
Answered
What is the recommended backup strategy for an organization / Employee Network? It looks like the only way to backup is to export the app items to Excel, one app at a time, and then you lose the conversation (comments).
Is there a way to use the API to loop through all apps in a company and export the data on a nightly basis? Has anyone written sharable code for this, or what do you suggest for an automated backup solution?
We Love Podio, thanks!!
-
hi sara - thanks for your reply
But if you look above you will also see users have put some ideas forward unfortunately phil didn't feel the need to reply- which doesn't really look good as other people won't bother if they dont see their comments are not been acted on or listened to.
Maybe phil could make a concerted effort to go over the input people have already supplied, the best way to keep these comments alive is to partake.
I must agree with Jason Cara above podio need to prioritise implementing features- Backup should be number one!
hopefully we will get a reply / solution soon
-
Hey guys,
I can assure you that Phil is following this thread with great interest, and we also report the feedback from the people using Podio to the team.
You can also see Phils comment from Feb 12th in this thread: https://help.podio.com/entries/21724222-How-do-I-delete-many-line-items-at-once- where he agrees that we should focus more on your feedback when developing Podio (I've attached his comment as a screenshot to this comment as well).
Thanks again for being active and providing us with your use cases, we really appreciate it and I present the most asked questions/most wanted features regularly at our All Hands meetings for all of the team to know.
/Gustav - Podio
-
Hey Gustav,
Thanks for addressing this. Although, a comment from Oct 12th, 2012 by Phil is hard to get excited about. That was over 4 months ago. Can you see why we're asking for an update? That's quite awhile ago and that tends to make people think that they've been forgotten about in this day and age.
Phil agrees it needs to happen, sure, but it needs to actually happen. Isn't he in the role to be able to do that within the company? Or does he have to wait for the news article online of when someone loses data on Podio? Talk about a sales-killer, but maybe that would light a fire under someone.
I love Podio, which is why I'm writing this, and have recommended it to many people, who are also enjoying it (aside from still having no way to bulk-update their sales prospects every single day in their Sales CRM app, *cough cough*)...
Even if everything gets backed up to tape every night, let us at least know that. And a timeline of when we can expect something would be fantastic.
Thanks for the reply, Gustav.
-
Hi All,
Sorry for not chipping in for a while. So two points:
1) We have refocussed our dev effort internally to apply more resource on community requests, and clearly this is one of the more popular ones.
2) This is complex. We are looking at possible solutions and I'm also talking to specalised cloud-backup vendors too so that we might leverage their techmology and accelerate this.
Sorry I cannot be more specific, but it's not dropped off the radar.
In the mean time, I can assure you we are backing up all your data every hour, and we are bringing a new disaster recovery datacenter online in the next month too, so we're also taking the data security part very seriously.
Cheers,
Phil
-
As if on cue, I deleted something that shouldn't have been deleted. Maybe subconsciously I wanted to see how bad it actually is. It's pretty bad. 1 second it's there, then the next second it's gone. No undo button, no trash to look in, nothing. Just gone.
You all know it's only because we love you that we're so hard on you, right? Like I said above, this Podio stuff is addictive, and my company is completely addicted to it. But one bad move, one disgruntled employee, one person who doesn't know what their doing, and crucial information is gone forever never to return. Start from ground zero folks.
That's why when we see instant updating being added as a feature, we think to ourselves, "The folks at Podio don't get it. They aren't prioritizing correctly." I don't think anyone using Podio ever said, "Damn, I really hate having to hit refresh. That's driving me nuts."
"Damn, I wish I could get back what I just deleted!", however, I'm sure someone, somewhere screams at a computer monitor with a Podio logo in the top left every day. :-)
-
Jason had a good point. I was relieved to read Phil's recent assurances, and I passed them on to my boss. But we could use instructions on how to retrieve data from Podio's backup.
I rather like the idea of deleted items or maybe even previous versions, going into a Podio trashcan that we can rummage through at need, sort of like the Windows Rycyle Bin.
And if our personal trashcan gets too full, you can animate wavy lines above it to warn us it's time to take out the garbage. Uh, belay that last suggestion. I am clearly not getting enough sleep.
-
As a Consultant and Development company who deliver Podio implementations we have struck these questions a lot.
We are testing our own automated backup solution that will install on your Server or Desktop and regularly pull down the changed data on your Podio site to your local or server drives.
This will allow you to take your own snapshots and even backup the data to another cloud provider or dropbox type provider.
We only bring changed content as we don't want to cause a huge bandwidth problem.
The backup software is first and we are also designing a restore utility that will allow you to restore a workspace or app to the same of a different location. (with all the data, files, images and tasks) We are reviewing whether we can include comments.
We have setup a registration page at http://www.100rails.com/podiobackup, so leave us your details and we will let you know when we have the beta product ready for wider testing.
We thought that it would be a better strategy to be a separate provider of backup as this means you are not totally reliant on Podio (which is a risk reducer) and that the software is installed locally and not another cloud product.
Please let me know what you think...
-
@Phil Chambers,
I'll give you my two cents ;-)
We do some Podio development for our customers and besides all the problems as described above (which I also fully agree) I would like to comment on to something extra to keep in mind.
We often see that customers need some time to understand what's possible when they use a new system like Podio and after a while they want to change certain Apps. OOPS! That's a real bummer. For instance merging two Apps is impossible because you lose all stored comments, attached files, tasks etc. Also clone a certain App to another Workspace with it's contents is useless if you lose these relevant extra data. Even the API can't deal with this easily.
At this moment we stopped with implementing Podio at our clients, although I really liked it and we use it for ourselves.
So Backup is one thing but an import function like there is when you import an Excel file would be preferable.
And of course, I agree with the above writers, that it would be very handy to have an idea what the schedule is for launching this feature?
Donald
-
At the end of a project we need to be able to deliver all important project records to a buyer. We currently use Sharefile to accomplish this and it is great but is essentially an FTP site. We would love to use Podio to automate receipt of important files with webforms as well as enhance team communication but it appears that there is no way to bundle up the valuable files we have collected and hand them off to a third party. I can force team-members to use it but I can't force buyers to use Podio.
My industry is construction and development which is a HUGE part of the world marketplace. Without a comprehensive backup solution Podio will never get traction in that marketplace. Add this basic feature and the floodgates will open.
-
Sorry to hear Jessica,
You can create a back-up solution via the API if you have a developer to assist you - or contact a Podio Partner if you don't have a developer in-house: https://company.podio.com/partners
//Sara - Podio
-
It is great to see bulk deletes added as a feature. Bulk edits would be awesome next. With the new bulk deletes feature, it makes it very easy for someone to delete many records by accident, thereby increasing the need for an admin capability to restore deletes.
Bulk deletes are very dangerous without a restore option!!!
-
If anyone's interested, I built a small PHP script to use the Podio API and automatically export all workspace apps as Excel files. You can find it here: http://www.globi.ca/blog/podio-backup/
Let me know if you find it useful or need help.
-
Thanks Andreas for your PHP API, I havent used it as yet although it sounds like a good workaround solution.
its a shame it has had to come from a user rather than podio DEV team.
it's quite obvious from the above comments the podio team are far more interested in implementing other changes rather than acting on the actual backup concerns from users of the system.
Whats the point in having podio Chat? maybe so we can all moan and talk to each other about the lack of user controlled backup and how podio doesn't appear to be concerned what its users want.
Sort it out podio- This backup issue is becoming very boring now!
-
Hi Andreas,
Wauv! Really great initiative with the Podio backup script! Appreciate the time you've put into this.
As a non so PHP savvy user I'm not sure how to use it though. Have you considered maybe making a short screen recording on how to do it, and add that to your blog? I assume, that the main Podio PHP script should be installed on a webserver or?
Anders
-
Thanks for the comments on my backup script. I'll see about creating a step-by-step implementation guide.
I don't think that the Podio team is not interested in implementing a backup solution. They do backup their databases all the time to make sure nothing gets lost. If you accidentally delete something, they can get it back for you within some timeframe (I think 2 weeks - can't remember the exact backup retention I read about).
The issue is that the type of backup solution most people are looking for is INSANELY complicated to implement.
Podio's amazing strength comes from it's super flexibility. Everything is linked to everything, and then sometimes linked to everything again. How do you export such data in a useable format?
1) export an item's details - super easy
2) export an item's comment stream - fairly easy
3) export an item's contact references - moderately easy
4) exporting an item's files - fairly easy
5) representing the above 4 items in a useable external way - quite difficult
6) importing anything back into Podio - insanely difficult (you need to re-create all the links to other things)
I'm not trying to defend Podio on this issue, but fully understand the complexity involved. It's as complex as Podio itself - not just a simple add-on.
-
Hi Andreas
Thanks for your email, it's not a case of defending podio i appreciate your comments. I think podio is great and i fully understand the complexity of the backup task podio face, however I think it's a fundamental flaw to have come this far without having a workable backup strategy in place. it comes down to communication from the podio team unfortunately once again that came from yourself and not them.
-
Due to many requests, I have made an easier to use version of the script with detailed instructions for non-technical users: http://www.globi.ca/blog/easy-podio-backup/
-
Hey Andreas,
Really cool to see your script and thanks for sharing it with others. What's your preferred t-shirt size? :)
Hey Darren, good to get your feedback but I'm not really sure what you're referring to in the communications part. Our CTO Phil commented in this thread February 27 and he's monitoring this thread daily.
Let us know your thoughts,
/Gustav
-
Hey Andreas,
Many thanks for sharing the backup script, it is highly appreciated!
@Gustav: I know it has been discussed many times, but is there any update from Potion team regarding an integrated backup/restore feature?
Podio it's really great, but the lack of a sound backup/restore feature is frustrating when we implement business-critical workflows. We've been considering moving our entire process of delivering consulting services on Podio, but we can't take this risk without a reliable backup/restore.
Any time frame for that?
Many thanks,
Sebastian
-
@Andreas Huttenrauch, great effort you've put in this somehow difficult topic. A really good alternative for individual and manual exporting to excel ;-)
But beware that it isn't a real back-up. For instance most of us use a lot of attachments and this is not backed-up. Also comments, tasks etc. aren't backed-up this way.
So we still need a real back-up system ...
-
@Gustav: Thank you for the compliment. My t-shirt size is medium :-)
@Donald Thiery: I'm aware that the backup script doesn't get comments, etc. I could provide one that does this, but the resulting output is way less usable. The point of this this backup is to get the critical data out of Podio just in case. It's for peace of mind. If Podio goes down for a few hours, my team could continue functioning for the most part. I'm not concerned about Podio losing data, because they have internal backups that take care of this.
-
Hey Gustav
Thanks for your mention, what i refer to is lack of any substantial updates on this thread; we are now entering the 2nd week in May its 8-9 weeks ago since Phil commented, a lot of data can be written to podio in that time by a lot of people. As we are highlighting dates lets forget that this issue was raised back on the 20th of july 2012. Thats a lot of time with a lot of data and still no solution insight.
There has been a lot of activity and requests since July but unfortunately not a great deal updating on the implementation of backup strategy.
Sorry if i'm coming across very frustrated here, that's because i am. I love using podio but feel this is an issue the podio dev team should be making a priority over the implementation of other features. I fully understand the complexities of this but do feel systems should have comprehensive backup strategies firmly in place when considering a SAAS/ web application. Whilst Data maybe backed up substantially from a podio data retention point of view. Podio stores users highly valuable data and quite often entire business structure. For users not to feel assured and in control of their own data is a highly unworkable model and lets Podio down.
I guess it would be great if we could have more feedback from Phil (if is he monitoring this thread daily)/ others from the Podio team. A rough ETA is something that has been asked for many times,In addition further thoughts on a solution, a beta for users to interact with and test. General communication and updates rather than receiving another email notification from another user requesting a backup strategy instead of the Podio team providing news of a solution.
Look forward to hearing some great news on the status of the Backup issues.
hope this helps and expands on my above comments.
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
182 comments