If there is one thing that I harp on about, it’s backing up data. Backups should be automated and it should be an offisite backup. Most people do backups locally to things like external drives. That’s not a bad step, but it’s not enough. What if your home or office is destroyed by fire or flood? Yep, that data is probably toast as well. Crashplan makes backing up off site easy.
Now Crashplan can be done a few different ways. You can utilize their online space and pay for it (.10 per gigabyte per month, with $5 month minimum). One of the great things about CrashPlan is that it is cross platform. It works with Mac, Windows, Solaris, linux, and VMWare. There are home and business versions. In the home version, it is a stand alone product that allows you to hook up with a friend to swap backup space. In my mind, this is an ideal solution because, well for starters, it’s free. Also, most people have unused space laying around. Next, it is really easy to backup and fast to restore data in case of data loss. And, it is an offsite backup! All the files are encrypted while moving over the internet and on the friend’s computer. Ie, they can’t see your data and you can’t see theirs. Now, if your friend has a Mac and you have a PC, it still will work. Same goes for the other kinds of OS’s.
The Pro line comes with a centralized backup server. You can use this to backup all computers in an office. Or you can simply offload those to CrashPlan’s data center. Here are the Pro Server features:
- Incremental, differential storage
- Enterprise data de-duplication
- Automatic archive validation
Guaranteed Restore
- Web restore provides even more convenient restoration of files for your users
- Background archive validation
- End user or admin initiated
- Centralized auditing
- High-speed disk to disk
Easy Administration
- Remote client configuration
- Remote web management
- Automatic reports and alerts via email, web and desktop
- Organize: divisions, departments, users, computers
- Audit: usage, restores, activity
- Enforce: policies, alerts, retention
- Monitor: disk, client network status, archive status
- Automatic client upgrades
- Installs in minutes
Simple License Key Management
- Multi-seat keys
- Reassignable license keys for inactive user accounts
Cost Efficient – Lowest TCO
- PRO Server is FREE
- Cross-platform (Windows, Mac and Linux)
- Utilize existing infrastructure
- Virtual appliance option
- Reduced disk and bandwidth consumption
- Maintenance free
- On-demand, unlimited storage allocation via NAS
- No single file or archive size limits
- Unlimited virtual I/O channels
- Fault-tolerant architecture with clustering and replication
- High-performance non-blocking I/O architecture scales to tens of thousands of concurrent clients
- All the benefits of virtualization
- Multi-core ready backup engine leverages up to 64 cores!
- Built-in migration tools allow you to physically move your installation
Enterprise Directory Integration
- LDAP, Open Directory and Active Directory support
- Users can use the same login and password they already have to back up and restore files
- Easily secure who is allowed to back up or not
- Automatically deactivate backups when employees become inactive
Enterprise Networking
- Remote client locator
- Bandwidth throttling
- QoS management
Enterprise Security
- Private key, keychains, key escrowing
- End to end encryption
Developer API
- REST based web services
- Check server status for enterprise monitoring integration
- Retrieve reports for integration into billing systems
- Create and update user accounts for automated user activation and deactivation
System Requirements
Windows Server Software
XP, Server 2003, 2000 – 1GB Memory / 1GHZ+ CPU / 250MB Drive Space
Linux Server Software
2.6 Series Kernel / 1GB Memory / 1GHZ+ CPU / 250MB Drive Space
Mac OS X Server Software
OS X 10.4, 10.5 / 1GB Memory / G5 or Intel CPU / 250MB Drive Space
VMWare Server Software Image
Server or Fusion installed / 2GB Memory
Solaris Server Software
OpenSolaris / Solaris 10 / 1GB Memory / Intel CPU / 250MB Drive Space
The Pro software is not free, unlike the home edition of the software. The server software is. But each client costs money. About $350 for 5 client licenses.
The home edition is super easy to set up. You could get a group of friends to do it. This greatly increases your chances to back all your data up and restore it in time of need. I would highly recommend this product. And no, this is not a paid post. I use it at home.
