CrashPlan is a cloud backup solution from Code42 in Minneapolis, MN.
$6
per user/per month
Microsoft 365
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) is a Microsoft Cloud subscription service that includes Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access). The software can be installed across multiple devices and ensures that users always have the most up-to-date version of the included Office applications.
Code42 CrashPlan (in my specific case the CrashPlan Pro or CrashPlan for Small Business (there seems to be somewhat of an ongoing identity crisis with the products) is significantly lower overhead, in terms of cost and complexity, when compared to the other two products I have …
Mostly the price is what drew me to Code42 -others I have used are expensive per GB storage and difficult to manage. CArbonite was costing $1000.00 a year for 1 server with 2 TB of data. Code42 helps keep down the cost and the client spends much less time paying me to monitor …
Both AppAssure and Acronis Disaster Recovery Service was used in the IT business management firm in which I worked. AppAssure required off sight storage. It was challenging in that the size of offsite storage was an additional cost and rolling up could take hours. Restoring …
I have used SOS online backup. SOS might have had some advantages and was fairly easy to use, especially when searching for files. This is not to say that Code42 is difficult. But I did not feel that using SOS was justified given the exorbitant pricing scheme used by SOS.
We compared CrashPlan with other choices and they were either too expensive or didn't have the backup capacity we required at the time. For lack of a better solution, we were very close to signing with Mozy, and this was years ago when CrashPlan was still a new player in the …
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.
When working with CSV data files, if you don't have a local software, it is a hassle to upload it to an online service. It takes too much time to upload it and to display it. If the file is too large, it cannot even be processed online. When you Excel on your local computer, everything becomes simple. The file is opened instantly. You can search and process the file as you want. The modifications are done instantly.
When you prepare a long document, it is much faster to work locally and the formatting is kept very well.
As the downside, it is not very well suited for collaboration. Some online competitors are much faster to use. Sharing, commenting and collaborative editing needs improvement.
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.
keeps me extremely organized. It is so easy to link calendars, emails, and documents.
keeps me well connected. It is so easy to send a quick message on teams or send an email to a group (for example, my particular team within the company).
easy to use. Everything is straightforward, making it easy to find an answer to a question. There is even a search option to figure out how to do something within Microsoft.
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.
I wish it was a little simpler to integrate things from one Microsoft Feature into another one. Perhaps I just don't know the tricks for that yet...after all these years of using it.
I didn't like how it defaulted to saving the document automatically with changes, like Google Docs, but it seems that has now changed, and is better now.
Generally, I really like how the suite works as is.
The interface of the different tools (this suite has MANY different tools) is usually simple to use and intuitive, and you can always re-arrange and add or remove the task you use most frequently from the menus and task bars.
Each tool / product includes a lot of features that may require a more intensive learning, but usually Office 365 tools are simple to learn from scratch, adding more knowledge as you required more advanced features
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.
Over the past 8 years of using Microsoft 365, I have noticed that they change vendors often. This always leads to a poor experience in the beginning, then levels out after some time for the company to get things worked out. As a customer, it is really frustrating because I don't have time when something isn't working to have them "look into my issue" and get back with me. They have even closed a ticket I specifically told them to keep open. Your applications are only as good as the support.
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 Docs & Sheets, Microsoft Word, Excel, and Sheets offer more functionality. Notepad is almost always pre-installed on Microsoft Word-enabled computers. This alternative to Microsoft Word isn't as robust, but it's free. Microsoft Publisher is incompatible with Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, or any other version of the Adobe Creative Suite. Microsoft 365 is a mashup of numerous well-known programs. We haven't tried any other products because they have the same features or compatibility as our office products.
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.
I don't have any ROI info because I am a technical staff who does not see those numbers. I will say that we are constantly using Teams/Outlook especially with the pandemic and digital collaboration has been made possible with Microsoft 365. As the work culture changes, our firm really leaned into this suite to adapt and change with it.
