Secure cloud backup : Review

Crashplan
www.code42.com/crashplan

With names like Adobe and Uber counted among its clients, the aptly-named Crashplan promises to be your data recovery saviour in the event of—well—a crash (or more likely, a catastrophe).

While heavily marketed to the consumer, Crashplan also provides enterprise services and gives businesses the option of using Crashplan's cloud or managed on-site private cloud services installed on local hardware. In all cases Crashplan can backup data from Windows, MacOS X, and Linux clients with unlimited data storage (well, there may be a limit for your private cloud), along with no limits of file size and, impressively, versioning—meaning you can wind back to previous versions of a file indefinitely (well, to its original first state backup).

It also employs a smart backup service where the most recently changed files are backed up first, in addition to data de-duplication and compression. For restoring, users can restore to any supported device which includes the aforementioned Windows, MacOS X, and Linux platforms as well as Android, iOS and Windows Phone. The mobile client also supports geo-location and remote-wipe functionality.

Security is supported by private key encryption as well as the option for encrypted key databases to be stored on premises as part of a managed private cloud or private cloud installation, while a centralised administration console provides a comprehensive overview of all connected devices and status of backup retention as well as being able to set granular access and policy control. Like some of the other products covered here, in order to reduce bandwidth costs for initial backups, Crashplan can send you a hard drive to fill and send back and act as a 'Seed' for the backup.

Finally, although there's clients for all the major platforms and mobile operating systems, there's the option of creating your own programs to interface with Crashplan via the company's EDGE API platform.

With a private cloud installation pricing starts at $5 per user per month, or using Crashplan's cloud comes in at $10 per device per month. The core product can be extended with the company's file sync and share service, appropriately named Shareplan, for $10 per user per month.

  1. Summary page
  2. Backblaze
  3. Druva
  4. Rackspace
  5. Carbonite
  6. Mozy
  7. Cloudberry
  8. Zoolz

Tags cloud storagemozycarboniterackspacereviewBackBlazeCrashPlanDruvaZoolzsecure backup servicesCloudberryCode42secure cloud backup

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