off-site backup "CrashPlan"

Terry Evans · August 16, 2013, 07:02:53 PM

Anyone heard of CrashPlan? My IT guy is recommending a plan he sells through CrashPlan. $3.96 per month for unlimited backup. Must pay for 4 years in advance which is still only $192.

What is everyone else using?

I currently use swappable, removable hard drives but that's getting cumbersome and a pain when a drive fails.

Thanks for any input!!

Conan_Ward · August 19, 2013, 09:04:27 AM

I use the software itself at home without paying to just make sure i've got my 'essential' stuff backed up for the most part. Softwares fairly basic, but also seems to get the job done better than windows backup did. It also emails me my basic backup stats for how much i'm backing up, where to, change in # of files, % backed up, time, etc.

Pricewise, its a lot cheaper than what they offer straight through the website, so thats always a bonus. I'm not sure what business pricing is (or if he's selling that or just home based). If he's offering the business plan, thats 360/yr which is an even better deal.

Realistically, it's best to have both the hard drives in place and the online and should be able to manage both with crashplan fairly easy.

So, I think its a great service, if internet polls have any weight, it took over 50% of the vote in the last hive 5 on lifehacker http://lifehacker.com/most-popular-online-backup-service-crashplan-1039674096 but, this is all biased towards personal and not business use.

Jon Robinson · August 19, 2013, 10:37:37 AM

We use it here for all our backups. I really like it. It is also nice to be able to backup to a local drive too. So I have it backed up online and to a local drive that I rotate offsite every week.

Bob · August 19, 2013, 11:28:34 AM

I'm using Axis Backup. Includes making TAM available to me online within 4-6 hours after a disaster on temporary basis while we recover. Good to have cloud backup but in an emergency how quick can you get back to servicing while you too recover from disaster. Reason we went with Axis.

Hans Manhave · August 19, 2013, 11:33:36 AM

When the cloud goes down, is that fog? Outlook/Hotmail had three days of that last week. I thought it was just me being kidnapped by the NSA or the Chinese. I'll never know. But that is the most recent example of why I/we won't "cloud". When fog happens, there is no warning, no explanation, no nothing.

I will have to look into this Crashplan for home use even if there is weekly fog at my house.

Jeff Golas · August 19, 2013, 01:27:38 PM

Are you using Office 365 or just Outlook.com?

Gene Foraker · August 19, 2013, 01:56:32 PM

What am I using? Well, I know it is not the best, but it is cheap and I think good enough. I still use the old technology nightly back-up tape which I take off site every several days. I also have an iosafe external drive which also backs everything up daily. I don't live in an area with hurricanes and the only rare tornado is only an F0 or F1 and the agency is in the ground floor of a block building with the computer room in an interior windowless room. I'd say fire is the main danger, and the iosafe covers that pretty well.

Jeff Zylstra · August 19, 2013, 03:10:27 PM

Quote from: Gene Foraker on August 19, 2013, 01:56:32 PM
What am I using? Well, I know it is not the best, but it is cheap and I think good enough. I still use the old technology nightly back-up tape which I take off site every several days. I also have an iosafe external drive which also backs everything up daily. I don't live in an area with hurricanes and the only rare tornado is only an F0 or F1 and the agency is in the ground floor of a block building with the computer room in an interior windowless room. I'd say fire is the main danger, and the iosafe covers that pretty well.

My only comment to that is to run a restore every once in a while to test the reliability of the tape(s), and replace your tapes at least every 2 years if not sooner. Just because you have your backup software set to "verify" the tape doesn't mean that it will restore when you need it to. I was counting on that and got burned several years ago.

Now I use the IOStore with USB hard drives as secondary backups. Just remember that ALL data degrades after a period of time.

Billy Welsh · August 19, 2013, 03:24:29 PM

Quote from: Jeff Zylstra on August 19, 2013, 03:10:27 PM

My only comment to that is to run a restore every once in a while to test the reliability of the tape(s), and replace your tapes at least every 2 years if not sooner. Just because you have your backup software set to "verify" the tape doesn't mean that it will restore when you need it to. I was counting on that and got burned several years ago.

Agreed, agreed, agreed!

One of the lowest points of my career here - when I finally got the (borrowed) compatible hardware to pull data off of our tape during the Katrina exile, and we got ~ 50%. I decided after that the "Verify" function was almost useless. Never bothered to test the tape on the "home" hardware - moved off tapes as soon as I could after that wonderful experience. We were using a 2-year tape replacement cycle.

Jeff Zylstra · August 19, 2013, 03:55:48 PM

Quote from: Billy Welsh on August 19, 2013, 03:24:29 PM
Quote from: Jeff Zylstra on August 19, 2013, 03:10:27 PM

My only comment to that is to run a restore every once in a while to test the reliability of the tape(s), and replace your tapes at least every 2 years if not sooner. Just because you have your backup software set to "verify" the tape doesn't mean that it will restore when you need it to. I was counting on that and got burned several years ago.

Agreed, agreed, agreed!

One of the lowest points of my career here - when I finally got the (borrowed) compatible hardware to pull data off of our tape during the Katrina exile, and we got ~ 50%. I decided after that the "Verify" function was almost useless. Never bothered to test the tape on the "home" hardware - moved off tapes as soon as I could after that wonderful experience. We were using a 2-year tape replacement cycle.

Sorry to hear about that Billy. Even if it does make me feel a little bit better about what happened. Everyone thinks that just because you know a little bit about computers, that you can fix anything, bring anything back from the dead, etc.... Not true. Those who know a little bit just look more ridiculous when something doesn't work.

There are no guarantees. That's why having at least 2 forms of current backup is a good idea.

Gene Foraker · August 19, 2013, 04:52:42 PM

Yes, I restore a small file or two every once in a while. Verify usually only checks that the file name is written, not data for data depending upon the software. The tape software I use does a byte for byte comparison which takes as long as the backup. I use SBS 2003 built in backup utility for the iosafe and it does not do a good verify. I also check how many meg of data gets backed up and the time taken. The iosafe is hooked up with a eSATA connection, so its pretty fast. The tape is an internal ide drive, which I would never do again. I haven't found the tapes needing replacement all that often, though they are used what, maybe every 2 weeks? Newer tapes seem to just dirty the drive heads more often.

Bloody Jack Kidd · August 23, 2013, 08:22:50 AM

Quote from: Flag Waving American on August 19, 2013, 11:33:36 AM
When the cloud goes down, is that fog?

Next big thing - The Fog... like the Cloud, but more mysterious.

Billy Welsh · August 23, 2013, 12:50:01 PM

Quote from: Bloody Jack Kidd on August 23, 2013, 08:22:50 AM
Quote from: Flag Waving American on August 19, 2013, 11:33:36 AM
When the cloud goes down, is that fog?

Next big thing - The Fog... like the Cloud, but more mysterious.

Oh, man, that was a tough day - in a staff meeting, and one of the employees who is totally clueless about tech saying "I think we need to be in the cloud." Almost drew blood biting my tongue so hard. We ARE in the cloud and have been in some form or fashion for YEARS!!!

Hans Manhave · August 23, 2013, 04:34:47 PM

http://search.dilbert.com/comic/Cloud%20Computing