I have only evaluated local backup/network storage products and Dropbox. CrashPlan is far and away superior to these. It's more reliable. It scales easily, and the management doesn't kill you. Neither do the finance folks for that matter!
I formerly used SOS Online Backup. It was a very similar system, originally offering unlimited backups at a price similar to Code42. After more than a year of backups, SOS informed me that they'd be reducing my storage from unlimited to 2tb, and, increasing my monthly rate by …
We looked at file sync solutions that require an end user to move data independently, and two major things stuck out:
1. The human error factor was high. You cannot trust people to move files, even if they are important or they've agreed to move them on a certain schedule, and …
Prior to CrashPlan we did not have any centrally deployed or managed backup solution with which to compare. Much of our backups were being completed on a per user basis and were therefore unreliable.
These were the default ad hoc backup systems used before we implemented CrashPlan. While each can be made somewhat reliable, depending on user habits and practices, none provide true continuous versioned backup, none allow a single administrative overview, and only Time Machine …
If you don't need the old computer (Crashplan backs up only user files by default anyway) you may want to go with a synchronization system. Having the file both online and synched on multiple computers makes it easy to work on. No matter when or where, you can work on your …
We selected Crashplan because it was cross platform and the most cost effective solution at the time. The closest contender was LiveBackup but after evaluating the two side by side, Crashplan was the clear winner due to the ease of use for the end users and administrators.
Individuals (SOHO), families and SMBs, who have a tight budget for offsite critical company data backup are well suited to this product. Especially if you want your data to be hosted locally (Australia in our case). Larger companies, with higher requirements and budgets would be better served elsewhere. Especially when you consider the poor technical support. Although, to be fair, their poor support may just be issues with their Pro/SMB products, as opposed to their enterprise products. However, if that is the case it's a pretty poor show/indicator still.
Well-Suited Scenarios: Large Design Files: Dropbox is well-suited for architects who work with large design files, such as blueprints, CAD files, and 3D models. Dropbox's large file sharing capabilities make it easy to share these files with team members and clients, while its version control features allow architects to track changes over time. Limited Customization: Dropbox may be less appropriate for me who require a high level of customization in my workflow or project management.
Code42 is the most affordable backup system offering unlimited storage that I could find. I came from SOS Online Backup, which I ultimately decided to drop after my monthly rate for their unlimited plan increased by 20x.
With Code42's unlimited storage option, I don't have to worry about the fact that my backups are significant in space. As a photographer with thousands of images at stake, I need to run large backups often.
Code42 runs continuously and silently in the background of my desktop computer. It is truly "set and go", so I don't have to think about it when I'm away. It runs until the designated drive has been fully backed up to my cloud storage. It will then automatically email me once the backup is complete (or, it will email me if it encounters any errors).
Customer service is above par. Anytime I need help, a chat agent is available (chat is my communication preference), they are always friendly, and go above and beyond to resolve my needs.
The Code42 program installed on your computer is Java-based vs. a native application. While this makes development for Code42 easier, there are a lot of drawbacks to Java programs including more resources usage, less stability, and overall more clunky interface.
While this was also in the Pros category - Code42 is an extremely powerful and flexible program, which adds a great deal of complexity. Setting up Code42 isn't always a simple procedure, and depending on the complexity of your backup set, can take a while to tinker around with the settings to get everything to work properly.
The Code42 desktop program consists of a Java program front end, as well as a backend service - there are times when the backend service will crash, and the front end Java program will refuse to load. Typically, restarting the service or restarting the computer will resolve the issue, but sometimes more in-depth troubleshooting is required.
Perhaps one of the biggest downsides to Code42 is its price - at $10/month/computer Code42 is more than double the price of some existing backup services such as Backblaze (priced at $50/year/computer). To add salt to the wound, about a year and a half ago, Code42 (Crashplan at the time) discontinued their consumer options - which were very reasonably priced at $60/year for a single computer or a family plan priced at $150/year for up to 10 computers. When these options were discontinued, the cost of backing up with Code42 was effectively doubled for the same feature set.
Along with the previous example, before Crashplan became Code42, Crashplan had the option to back up to a remote machine on a different network with a free Crashplan account. This option was eliminated when the consumer line of services were discontinued.
While the backup service provided by Code42 are still first in class, the above two controversial changes have broken some trust between Code42 and its clients.
At one point 2 gigs [were] deemed enough for the "Free" version of Dropbox and its competition. However as even the most simple picture from a phone gets larger, 2 gigs might no longer be enough. Might want to increase the free size to adjust for file size inflation.
Dropbox's app is very presumptive of updating itself every time you log on to a system that it's installed on. I know that's a feature you can turn off, but the assumption to turn that feature on by default is annoying.
Dropbox could use a phone app function that would initiate a download to a designated computer hard drive. It would eliminate having to see the file on your phone, go to your computer, turn it on and then download the file.
Dropbox is a user-friendly, easy tool which requires little to no skill and they offer a free version with a good amount of storage available. There are other file sharing tools available however at a cost. Dropbox free version I have used for years and it serves every purpose I need.
Dropbox is dead simple to us since right out of the box, it creates a folder on your PC and anything added to it gets synced to the cloud and any other device signed into that account. You can then dive deeper into permissions, version history, etc. Overall though, the minimalist approach is welcome since not everyone we work with is highly technical and that itself saves us time and money. Many of our colleagues already use Dropbox for their personal cloud so no training is required when using it at work other than going over our own company guidelines and best practices.
Dropbox is really useful, you can access any file from anywhere and you can upload and even edit files online, but, sometimes it can be slow. Downloading, uploading, and syncing is a bit slow, it can take several minutes. Furthermore, the search engine for large amounts of data can be slow too and it is not powerful.
Friendly and knowledgeable support team available to assist with this product. Code 42 (formerly CrashPlan) offers unlimited storage options for reasonable costs, so you really can't go wrong with this product. They have been a reliable resource for our company, and I would recommend to others looking for an easy setup with unlimited storage.
It has not been necessary to go to customer support lately, since everything works perfectly. However, I must add that at the beginning when I started using Dropbox, and I had any doubts about how it worked, customer support was always attentive and found the best solutions effectively.
I needed to stay current in improving my daily operations. Dropbox was suggested to me by a former colleague two-years ago and I've been using it just fine ever since.
Unitrends is our primary backup solution here at my place of employment, and I have no complaints. It does on-prem backups to a storage pool and with that, we chose not to also use Unitrends could storage as the cost was pretty high. Code42 Crashplan has a low cost and we were familiar with it. We found a great fit for Crashplan at a remote office with a web server, file share server, and a Domain Controller in addition to the Unitrends solution there. I also set up Code42 CrashPlan for a nonprofit org, as well as a Health foods store. I felt like I could stand behind the Code42 CrashPlan solution with my experience with it, in places like these where every dollar mattered.
Compared to Google Cloud Storage, the Dropbox app has proven to be more stable and dependable. In the meantime, Google has improved and is a great alternative. But now that we've decided to stick with Dropbox, we'll keep using it. In terms of ease of use, Dropbox appears to be the better option. It has all of the features that we require and more. It's easier to use for simple tasks, making it more convenient.
Tremendous cost savings as the amount of data you backup doesn't impact cost. One flat rate!
Implementation time was minimal and requires little to no maintenance. Since installation, I've not had to correct or fix any issues. It just works.
We opted to supplement Code42 with another solution that allowed us to backup data to a local repository due to the amount for data that changes in our firm.
