Data Backup Digest

CrashPlan is a popular program that lets users back up their data to the cloud automatically and continuously. The idea is that you set it up and then forget about it, letting it run in the background and being safe in the knowledge that your data is being looked after.

However, Code42, the company who run CrashPlan, announced in August that they will be transitioning out of the consumer market to focus on enterprise. All things considered, that doesn’t come as much as of a surprise – while cloud services launched with consumers in mind, many of them offering free storage to entice, it soon became apparent that the business market was far more lucrative.

CrashPlan said as much in their statement announcing the change. For them, the small business, education and enterprise markets have proven significant growth for the company. However, unlike some competitors, like Dropbox, who kept their consumer offering available, CrashPlan are disregarding it all together.

All users on the CrashPlan for Home subscription plan will have until 22 October 2018 to find an alternative, which generously amounts to over a year. The company say that they will be offering these customers extended subscriptions and discounts for and after the transition period, with a dedicated support team available to help them find a new solution.

On that front, Code42 have partnered with Carbonite. Those who switch from CrashPlan to Carbonite will receive a 50% discount. And they won’t get billed until their CrashPlan for Home subscription expires. However, as you may have determined by all this subscription talk, Carbonite doesn’t offer any free features like CrashPlan did.

If Carbonite doesn’t take your fancy, other alternatives like Backblaze, IDrive, Acronis True Image and SpiderOakONE are all solid alternatives. While none offer exactly the same features as CrashPlan, and all have differing price points, they make for decent solutions for those looking to back their data up into the cloud with encryption.

The ditching of the consumer market means that CrashPlan will be focussing all of its resources on its business offerings. In a world where huge amounts of data are being produced, and security is a key concern for storage, CrashPlan hopes to be able to cater for it.

Code42 announced in a statement that, over the last three years, they’ve had 50 percent year-over-year business revenue growth. Their Small Business offering has significantly grown in that time, in part due to the frequent malware attacks that are dominating the news headlines.

While perhaps once previously a concern for enterprises of particular sizes, security concerns have driven businesses of all sizes to focus on protecting themselves.

“Being able to remediate and recover quickly is essential as we've all seen that these events can be fatal to any size organization that lacks the systems to ensure business continuity,” said Doug Cahill, senior analyst covering cybersecurity at Enterprise Strategy Group. “Code42's decision to solely focus on business needs comes at a time when both small and large enterprises need to accelerate their investments in data protection and recovery.”