Bobby and Sean Finalize their theses,
unaware that their sysadmin is...
the Bovine Operator From Hell!*
The Backup Motel. Files check in, but they don't check out!
"Don't worry, Mr. Simms. Your data is stored
on a three-way redundant server cluster."
Bovine Operator From Hell: Farsite enables cooperating but not-completely-trusting clients to collaboratively share storage resources, using cryptography, redundancy, and Byzantine-fault-tolerance to protect user data. There is no central sysadmin with the power to invade user privacy or destroy user data. See the real BOFH for examples of the destruction a malicious operator can wreak.
The Backup Motel: It's a truism in the IT industry that backups always succeed but restores always fail. Farsite's on-line redundant storage is immediately accessible and verifiable, unlike off-line backups.
Meteor Strike: Unlike Farsite's inherently distributed storage, servers are vulnerable to geographically localized faults. Clustering technology can eliminate a single point of failure, but server clusters still represent a single site of failure, such as the comp center in this cartoon.
See the Farsite FAQ for more information.
*Apologies are also owed to Simon Travaglia for the BOFH spoof in the first cartoon above.