CrashPlan

I relied on Crashplan for document backup while completing my PhD abroad.

Kommentit: Outstanding performance over the 3 year period that I used it. Once my data was uploaded (it took nearly a year), I was assured that my PhD research was safe. I stopped using it because the internet in China was simply too restricted and curtailed to make it useful.

Hyvät puolet:

It runs continuously in the background to ensure that the files selected are backed up. The Crashplan client automatically backs up to ensure that customers are using the very latest client and are not in danger of security leaks. The Crashplan client is cross-platform and will run on Linux and Mac

Huonot puolet:

Code42 appears to have removed their plan for standard household users and now only has plans for small and large businesses. Unfortunate for the average household computer user. When I used Crashplan for backup in Beijing, China, the upload speeds were horrendously slow. I assume this was not the fault of Crashplan, but the result of serious Internet throttling by the internet provider or by state security apparatus in China where all connections to the outside world are severely curtailed. Backing up 200gb of data took nearly half a year. But my experience was likely unusual. Based on other user reports of Crashplan, the upload and download speeds are quite good.

Capable flexible backup solution

Kommentit: I used Crashplan for several years and found it to be an excellent reliable product. I no longer used it because the home user option was withdrawn and the small business pricing was prohibitive for a home user. If the option is ever reinstated I would not hesitate in returning to use the product.

Hyvät puolet:

Flexibility, reliability, ease of use, configuration options. Unlimited storage, file modification history. Local backup and peer to peer options.

Huonot puolet:

Withdrawal of home user option, which I understand given the economics of providing unlimited storage.

CrashPlan is an affordable and reliable online backup solution

Kommentit: It's great to know our data is secure and is continually being backed up. The tech support is excellent.

Hyvät puolet:

We are an architectural firm and have a huge amount of data, partly because of the large size of image files. The unlimited storage and reliability of the product gives us peace of mind.

Huonot puolet:

I haven't had any problems using this software.

Has so much potential but is being held back

Kommentit: Unlimited backup storage of my computer system with revision history

Hyvät puolet:

The fact that the cost vs amount of storage you receive is incredible with Crash Plan. I have looked through so many providers for online backups and I don't believe anyone comes close to what is offered by this software. The fact that once you you install the program and sign in, the interface is very straight forward allowing you to select what on your computer you want to back up, all the way down to the entire contents of your C: drive is great and makes the product easy to use. Notifications are also a great feature to notify you if there was a problem during a backup.

Huonot puolet:

My major issues come down to resource usage and customer support. This software, even though it does fantastic things, is an absolute resource hog. In the past I have been able to run constant backups incrementally at 15 minute intervals without much slow down of my systems. Within the past year however, on a 16GB memory system, as soon as crash plan begins to backup my memory usage jumps from about 15% to over 50% until I stop the program completely. On windows server 2012, the same issue happens, whether Crash Plan is installed for every user, or just my admin account, the instantaneous system slow down is there to where everyone on the system is effected. My two attempts at contacting support about the issue resulted in almost a 1 week wait time between calls/emails and the answer I ended up receiving was that they would no longer be supporting servers with the Crash Plan application. However present day their website still says it supports windows servers. The idea behind the program is amazing, I just wish the execution and support was more clear and helpful.

Solid Backup Software for Orgs of A Certain Size

Hyvät puolet:

Crashplan was easy to setup and provided great customer service for a fair price.

Huonot puolet:

Many of the features of Crashplan were aimed at enterprise clients, and the management portal was somewhat overwhelming for the needs of our small organization.