Last Friday evening, I stopped at a local convenience store for just a few seconds. 
Twenty minutes later, I reached towards my phone cradle to make a call and realized my phone was gone.
Stolen, you ask? It certainly appeared that way.
I acted quickly. I returned home and immediately called my carrier to report the phone as stolen. They issued a block that would prevent anyone from using the phone on another network.
The next day I called the carrier back to see what I could do to get a new phone. I was lost after all and was already feeling highly anxious. I am sure you would feel that way too.
The nice woman on the phone told me she could send another phone and then asked if I had a backup. I sheepishly replied, “No”. The shame is that I am a developer by profession. Of anyone out there, I should know better. Heck, I even spent two years working for a company whose main selling point was providing companies quality backups.
Yet here I was…up the proverbial creek – without a paddle, or a backup. Nope my last backup was done 6 months prior. 6 months! Outrageous!!!!
Now, fortunately this story does have a happy ending. 3 hours after I hung up the phone with my carrier, I returned to my car to clean it. Guess what? My phone was there. It had accidentally fallen out of the cradle and fell under the seat. It was there all the time. Never stolen. I was a VERY lucky girl.
I consider it all to be an omen and a reason for me to share this warning with others. Do not find yourself in the same unfortunate position. As technology professionals, we really should know better and we really should ensure that we do regular backups of our machines AND devices. Especially our devices. These days they tend to hold more valuable information than our computers.
So please, take the time to make that backup right now.
And also, don’t leave your phones in your car, even for a second.
Take Care,
Sara
saramorgan.net 