However if it's a choice between onsite and offsite backups, which practically speaking it is for most people, definitely offsite wins. The risk of fire, theft,

However if it's a choice between onsite and offsite backups, which practically speaking it is for most people, definitely offsite wins. The risk of fire, theft, etc. is vastly greater than the risk that Apple has a critical syncing bug and no ability to recover lost data. (Normally they keep deleted files around for 30 days.) Yes, but it also happens that someone deletes a photo from a stream accidentally and does not realize within 30 days. For this reason, iCloud Photo Stream is not a backup - a backup keeps copies until the end of time.