What is most valuable?
Continuous backup, cross-platform deployment, ease of recovery, flexible storage destinations, low CPU footprint.
How has it helped my organization?
I no longer need to worry that a user has manually postponed backup operations or that backups will cause a slowdown or other interference with my users' workflow.
What needs improvement?
25-license minimum needlessly shuts out small business users, support for desktop and mobile Safari browsers needs work.
For how long have I used the solution?
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
None whatsoever. It took less than half an hour to install the server, and about 20 minutes installation per endpoint.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
None. I've never had a stability issue with CrashPlan. (IT Central Station requires a longer answer here, bafflingly, but there's nothing more to say here. I haven't experienced any stability issues. Period.)
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Again, IT Central Station requires a longer answer here, but really the answer is once again a simple "no". I've used PROe in a larger environment as well as the current small office, with zero issues.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
Great. I've barely needed any, but when I have, they've been very responsive. (Once again, I need a longer answer, but there isn't one. This field should probably just be a numeric scale...?)
Technical Support:
Also perfect, the few times I've needed to contact them.
(Really, IT Central Station, if you ask us to rate the level of technical support, and it's good, why do you need a wordy answer?)
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Client was previously relying on each user to back up their own system on an ad hoc basis, using Windows Backup, Time Machine, or drag and drop. This was not sustainable.
How was the initial setup?
Extremely straightforward. I've installed on Linux (~30 minutes) and on OS X Server (~20 minutes), both are
What about the implementation team?
One person in-house. I cannot imagine CrashPlan requiring much of an implementation team even in larger environments, it's bone simple.
What was our ROI?
This isn't a metric we calculate or track for our small business.
Hey look, I have to pad this answer to 120 characters too! Is it 1997? Perhaps it is.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This is my only major issue with Code42 at this point. They have an excellent codebase, and a product which has been enormously useful for my small business clients, but they have changed their licensing plans to sell their private cloud product only in quantities of 25 or more licenses. This essentially shuts out small businesses entirely, relegating them to Code42's home-oriented cloud service—the use of which would violate data protection agreements for small businesses which store theft-relevant information, and which requires mass cloud uploading via broadband services which are often glacially slow for uploads.
CrashPlan PROe was formerly a sales driver for me in recommending my small business clients purchase their own servers for PROe backup, but I can no longer make that recommendation for smaller clients given these licensing limitations.
It's especially difficult to understand why this decision was made considering clients using private cloud backup present a *lower* overhead for Code42. It's very strange, and not confidence-inspiring.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Yes, probably too many to list. The free options were overly labor-intensive or unreliable, and the other commercial options seemed topheavy or overly dependent on a certain server architecture.
What other advice do I have?
I'd encourage even smaller businesses to contact Code42 and express interest in purchasing CrashPlan PROe licenses. It's simply the best option out there for multiplatform continuous backup, and I would like to think that the developers would prefer market penetration even in the small business sector to the marginally higher projection stability of higher-volume licensing.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Thanks, Rex, interesting to learn about your decision-making process.
Can you elaborate on what the criteria was that you were looking for? Were the dashboard's usability and the ease of installation part of that criteria, or were they added bonuses?