CrashPlan kept us from crashing and burning
Overall Satisfaction with CrashPlan
We are currently using CrashPlan to back up all of our remote users. The reason behind bringing on CrashPlan was that we needed a method to accurately back up and have access to data from our remote associates in the event of litigation. We soon found out that we could use CrashPlan to help us refresh the hardware for all 150 of our sales associates. We built the hardware in house, installed their most recent backup and then shipped out the new hardware. When they powered on their new system, it was identical to their previous solution. Complete with documents, email archives, desktop icons and IE favorites. We have not yet encountered any real problems. The closest thing to a problem is accessing the cold storage files. It is a bit clunky.
Pros
- The ease of installation and deployment could not have been easier. The hardest part was getting our sales associates to actually click a link!
- The back up is complete and transparent to the end user. Very hands off!
- The admin portal is very user friendly. I can quickly determine who has recently backed up and those who have gone some time without an active backup.
Cons
- As I mentioned previously, the file access in cold storage is a bit clunky. I would think that if I had admin rights I should be able to recover files from there relatively easily. But that is not the case.
- I would like to see them have a different license tier for accounts in cold storage. The data there is not being manipulated, it is sitting stagnant and we are paying the same licensing as if it were an active backup.
- We are still relatively new to using CrashPlan but it has already helped us with our file retention. We used to remove hard drives from displaced associates and keep them under lock and key for a year, then destroy them. We now just move their files to cold storage and we can then repurpose the hardware.
- We no longer have to pay Iron Mountain to house our displaced associates' hard drives.
We use Windows Server to backup our in-house associates as they are connecting to the domain and it is easy to keep track of. Our remote associates do not connect to the domain as often so we had to find a solution to enable us to get a secure, accurate backup of their data. CrashPlan fit that bill perfectly.
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