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CrashPlan is exiting the consumer market

blog.code42.com

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Re: CrashPlan is exiting the consumer market

#291

Post by sbarre »

cuckcuckspruce wrote: post #137
freeone3000 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not "abuse" if you claim it's unlimited and people use it as if it were.

I have a feeling (if this has not already happened) that someone is going to sue over the use of the term 'unlimited' and some court is going to rule that 'unlimited' does not mean 'without limits' but 'an reasonable amount based on the average expected use'.

This was sorted out back in the dial-up days when providers (including the one I worked for) offered "unlimited" dial-up service.

Customers sometimes argued that they should be able to stay connected 24/7 all month long because that's "unlimited".

Our definition (that we indicated in our terms) was "you will never be billed a surcharge for usage during a month", but there was no guarantee of being able to use a certain number of hours. So we reserved the right to de-prioritize (i.e. disconnect) high-usage users during peak times to allow other users to get on when our lines got full.

I'm sure somewhere in Crash Plan's terms of service they define what the term "unlimited" means in the context of their offering, and I would bet it means "there will never be a surcharge for usage of storage".

So they will never ding you for using more than X storage, but there's no guarantee that you can store a specific amount of data on the service.

Re: CrashPlan is exiting the consumer market

#292

Post by cm2187 »

Thespian2 wrote: post #251

Like many in this thread, I'm here looking for alternatives. CrashPlan was sufficient for my family needs, and none of the other services I looked at hit the same sweet spot. Slow, saturated uploads, and their bloated client were tolerable for what I was paying, and what I got. We've got a few mentioned replacement possibilities scattered in the comments and replies below, but I'd like to put forth my "asks" for solu…

I am not sure if synology allows for snapshots (I am sure there must be an option for that) but it certainly the cheapest solution over the long run. With cloudstation you can sync a folder to your NAS dropbox style (be careful to use a different user on each machine) which you can access from outside of your home if you open a port. You are in control of your data. Doesn't protect you against your home burning but you could have one in each home of the family. Modern hard drives are monstrously large. You don't need a massive system unless you have loads of data.

[Edit] actually you can probably just rsync the diskstation volume with a backup volume on the same NAS.

[Edit#2] actually you don't even need rsync. Synology has a utility called Hyper Backup that does time machine like incremental backups, either on the same NAS, or on a remote NAS.

Re: CrashPlan is exiting the consumer market

#293

Post by magicalhippo »

DelightOne wrote: post #284
Grue3 wrote: post #149

Damn, this came out of left field. CrashPlan was a constant pain to use for me (slow uploads, weird bugs where it wouldn't start up after updating, actually deleting all my backups when I didn't renew my 4-year old subscription over winter holidays with barely any warning). But the other services simply couldn't compare on price and backup retention. Having old versions/deleted files always available saved my ass so…

Are you allowed to go with the business plan without having a business? What do you put in as company name then?

Another bummed out Crashplan user here. They offer account migration[1]. Of course you then have to pay per computer, and you lose the computer-to-computer backup feature.

[1]: https://www.crashplanpro.com/migration/

Re: CrashPlan is exiting the consumer market

#294

Post by corford »

Thespian2 wrote: post #288
corford wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think https://www.spideroak.com fits your list (specifically "One" which is their consumer solution/app). I'm a happy user who's had an account with them for years (it costs me under $10/month iirc). It has/supports: * Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android * Lets you share your quota across unlimited machines/devices * Lets you whitelist/blacklist folders & files to be backed up (by pointing and clicking and/or by s…

Thanks corford. I think I looked at spideroak a few years ago. Good to see they are still around. Might be my best fit. A friend also suggested grabbing this table, export to your own spreadsheet and sort by what matters for you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_online_backup_se...

Ha, I think your friend is right :) The size of that list just goes to show there isn't a "one size fits all" backup solution out there. SpiderOak is my sweet spot but YMMV.

Think they offer a free trial (or they used to at least) so no harm in giving it a whirl. Good luck on your quest!

Re: CrashPlan is exiting the consumer market

#295

Post by fencepost »

Oletros wrote: post #153
mikevm wrote: post #146

I don't understand all the whining in this thread. Their new offer is pretty unbeatable: Back up for free until the end of your current CrashPlan for Home subscription, then enjoy a 75% discount for your next 12 months. After that, CrashPlan for Small Business costs $10 per device each month. So after the first discounted 12 months it will only cost $10 per backed up device. And you get: * Unlimited storage * Unlimit…

Perhaps a lot of the "whining" comes from the people using the Family Plan. Going from $149/year for 2-10 computers to $240-$1200/year is not a little increase

If I were actively whining it'd be about the apparent demise of the peer-to-peer option which is what I've been using for years. Heck, I have some old backup archives from old systems in there that I never got around to figuring out how to import. Guess there's new urgency if I want to pull anything out of those.

That said, Crashplan itself has been a lot less reliable in recent months than I'd like - little things like my laptop only being able to back up to a home system when I'm NOT on the same network, even though I can access other services on the same machine. Guess it's time to move a new backup system higher on my priority list.

Edit: The thing I really like(d) and will miss about Crashplan is the ease of adding another system to it. Either by signing into my account after installing the client on a new box (e.g. when I added a laptop) or by sharing a short code with my parents that they could simply enter to back up to my system with no real configuration required.

Re: CrashPlan is exiting the consumer market

#296

Post by brianwski »

rrauenza wrote: post #243
brianwski wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a calculator on this web page: https://www.backblaze.com/b2/cloud-storage-pricing.html (Scroll down to "B2 Cost Calculator") If you type in the size of your hard drive, that will be the "predictable bill" you will get each day.

That is pretty awesome (but I'd still rather have a fixed fee). Also -- how do I know my 3rd party B2 backup system isn't going to cause me extra charges from using API's inefficiently?

> how do I know my 3rd party B2 backup system isn't going to cause me extra charges from using API's inefficiently?

Uploads are completely free. I think what you will find is the bulk of your charges will simply be "storage" (at half a penny per GByte per month), the API charges aren't intended to nickle and dime you. We are simply trying to discourage abuse of our API servers.

Creating a Backblaze B2 account is totally free, and if you stay under 10 GBytes it is totally free (and we will cap you to that until you give us a credit card). Seriously, try it out! There is a handy "Reports" page after you log in (look for the word "Reports" along the left. It will tell you EXACTLY what API calls have occurred and how many times.

If you need more than 10 GBytes and are still worried about cost, as part of your experiment look for "Caps & Alerts" along the left after you sign into your B2 account. You can setup daily "Caps" (like for $1/day) so that you absolutely won't exceed your budget until you are comfortable with the B2 service!

Re: CrashPlan is exiting the consumer market

#297

Post by fencepost »

Havoc wrote: post #236

Not sure I need a backup solution anymore to be honest. All my stuff is on something cloud-y already anyway. (Cloud =/= backup I know). Realistically my data loss risk profile is pretty low. So not sure I need to spend coin on backup... Much more scared of say Lastpass dropping dead.

The reason for backup in that case isn't so much dying hardware as it is data corruption or malicious activity.

Backup needs to account for a bunch of failure modes: data failure (corruption, malware, "Windows Ate My Data," user error), hardware failure/loss (drive death, laptop legs), building failure ("all my backups are in that safe that reached 600 degrees internally.....").

Used to be that for serious emergencies you could usually get data recovered by a lab, but with SSDs that's iffy at best or likely not happening at all with drive encryption.

Re: CrashPlan is exiting the consumer market

#298

Post by magicalhippo »

brianwski wrote: post #222
domador wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for sharing that fascinating insider insight regarding non-zero-sum competition and advertising! This whole CrashPlan Home episode deepens my skepticism about services that claim to offer an unlimited amount of a physical resource (atoms on a hard drive, in this case) for a fixed price. Code42 has mentioned certain reasons for exiting the home user market, but I wonder if an unmentioned reason is the cost of p…

> Is the cost of disk space the reason why BackBlaze expunges files deleted on a backed-up computer fromthe backup on your servers after 30 days? The original reason was to prevent customers who owned a single 1 TByte hard drive from filling it with content, backing it up to Backblaze, writing down the date, then emptying the hard drive and filling it with DIFFERENT content, backing up to Backblaze, writing down the…

Lack of file versioning and not persisting deleted files means Backblaze isn't even on my radar.

The mentions here of poor restore options doesn't sound all that positive either, but due to the former I'm not even considering going as far as trying you guys out.

The way things are looking I'm probably going to stay with Crashplan, migrating to their business plan. I'm not a data hoarder (backup set is ~400GB), but I haven't found anything else which has the same feature set for a reasonable price.

Re: CrashPlan is exiting the consumer market

#299

Post by rrauenza »

brianwski wrote: post #296
rrauenza wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is pretty awesome (but I'd still rather have a fixed fee). Also -- how do I know my 3rd party B2 backup system isn't going to cause me extra charges from using API's inefficiently?

> how do I know my 3rd party B2 backup system isn't going to cause me extra charges from using API's inefficiently? Uploads are completely free. I think what you will find is the bulk of your charges will simply be "storage" (at half a penny per GByte per month), the API charges aren't intended to nickle and dime you. We are simply trying to discourage abuse of our API servers. Creating a Backblaze B2 account is tota…

... Backblaze B2 is sounding pretty good.

What I would miss, however, is the central management and reporting and alerts that crashplan gives me (e.g., host X hasn't been backed up in N days!)

That of course is all dependent on the client, which all seem standalone.

Re: CrashPlan is exiting the consumer market

#300

Post by brianwski »

taohansen wrote: post #266
brianwski wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a calculator on this web page: https://www.backblaze.com/b2/cloud-storage-pricing.html (Scroll down to "B2 Cost Calculator") If you type in the size of your hard drive, that will be the "predictable bill" you will get each day.

just make a client front-end for Linux, please! there’s literally dozens of us who would pay for the privilege. or let us pay what the Mac and Windows users do for whatever frontend we want. switching everyone over to the B2 protocol is one thing, but making us pay more for the privilege of doing the same backups your Windows/Mac users do is another.

> making us pay more for the privilege of doing the same backups your Windows/Mac users do is another

Just to be clear, it should be LESS expensive to use B2 in most cases. If you need less than 10 GBytes it is totally free in B2, but it is $5/month using the Backblaze Online Backup client. If you have 500 GBytes to backup, that is only $2.50/month using B2, but $5/month using the Backblaze Online Backup client. You break even at 1 TByte. And it costs you money if you have 2 TBytes to store.

Backblaze is not charging a premium for the B2 service. Let me put it this way: if somebody ELSE was willing to offer Backblaze storage at B2 prices we never would have built our own storage for the online Backup client. I'm not kidding. The only reason we had to build the storage layer is that to this day, Amazon S3 gouges customers at 4x what it actually costs them to provide the service. And don't even get me started at Amazon S3 downloads cost.

Backblaze Online Backup charges $5/month, and of that maybe $0.50 is profit (50 cents) living on the AVERAGES (make money on some customers, lose money on others). If it was based on Amazon S3 we would be losing $15.00/month by charging $5/month.

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