284: Hotel California Keyboard

CrashPlan Issues

The hosts of the Accidental Tech Podcast discuss their experiences with CrashPlan, a backup service. Marco Arment continues to use it for his small business, citing convenience despite some issues. Casey Liss shares his mixed feelings about the service, noting its flakiness but appreciating its affordability and ability to back up his media drive 1. John Siracusa questions the reliability of a backup service that isn't entirely dependable, emphasizing the importance of having a robust backup strategy 1.

Why in God's name would you want your backup program, your last line of defense, to be a little bit flaky and to not be entirely sure it's working?

--- John Siracusa

Despite its quirks, Casey continues to use CrashPlan, valuing its cost-effectiveness and domestic availability.

   

Backup Strategies

Backup strategies are a key focus for the hosts, with Casey Liss detailing his comprehensive approach. He emphasizes having multiple lines of defense, ensuring that his essential data is backed up extensively 2. His media, which he considers less critical, is duplicated to a second Synology device, providing an additional layer of security 3. This approach highlights the importance of redundancy in backup strategies, ensuring that data is protected from potential loss.

I have a lot of backups, like, the chances of... I think I'm good.

--- Casey Liss

By maintaining multiple backups, Casey mitigates the risk of data loss, demonstrating a proactive approach to data management.