I wrote about setting up redundant e-mail services a few months ago. Since then, FastMail1 has had some ups and downs with another rough patch and then rolling out their own replicated systems to help avoid future problems.
I’m still with FastMail. The combination of laziness on my part (I’m really quite happy with the features and set-up I have), the steps FastMail has taken to keep their service available in the event of future issues and the fact I’ve paid the account in advance for the next few years has kept me using their service as my primary mail provider.
However, my recent hard drive disaster has me thinking that backups are good, so I’ve also signed up for an account at TuffMail2 and have started sending copies of my mail there as well. A couple bucks a month for 
e-mail insurance 
if you will.
Everything on the TuffMail side has been a good experience so far. A support ticket I opened was handled quickly and capably, and they went above and beyond to help me migrate my existing mail over to my TuffMail account. The spam filtering seems to be doing a pretty good job too.
Since I’m unwilling to host my own e-mail, having it in two places seems like a good idea.
E-mail was the only service where I relied exclusively on the provider to do backups3, and now I’ve got a backup there as well. With my calendaring I’ve got local copies of the iCalendars from Google Calendar on two machines and with contacts I’ve got local copies on two machines plus Plaxo as well. Backups are good.
- I’m recommending FastMail again, so that link has a referral ID in it for me to get some small credit if you sign up. [back]
- Which unfortunately doesn’t have a migration tool like FastMail does, but does have fast and friendly support staff that were willing to do it for me. [back]
- Though I’ve got local copies of the mail on 2 machines. [back]