Another online backup service provider has decided to withdraw from the consumer backup market. Code 42 have announced they are going to concentrate on the business and education markets. With immediate effect, they will no longer be offering CrashPlan for Home, We understand that they will honour all current consumer subscriptions, but once they expire they will not renew any consumer subscriptions.

They have explained that they plan to help their consumer customers transition away from CrashPlan and will wind down support of CrashPlan for Home on Oct. 22, 2018. They plan to honour all existing CrashPlan for Home subscriptions and the data they store for consumers will remain protected. They also plan to offer a choice to transition to either their CrashPlan for Small Business product or to their exclusive referral partner for CrashPlan for Home customers, Carbonite, offering a transition path for those looking for a personal backup solution.

They have announced that this change will not affect their relationships or technology offerings with enterprise companies, organisations or small businesses. They also are stressing that they are not selling or transitioning any of their proprietary technology, software platform, the CrashPlan brand or other intellectual property.

Joe Payne, president and CEO of Code42 explains...

The needs of our business and consumer customers have diverged dramatically in the past few years. With the rise in threats facing organisations today, we are uniquely positioned to deliver the data security and visibility solutions those organizations require. This continues to fuel our high growth and is driving our strategic decision to focus solely on business and education markets. We worked hard to find the best possible alternatives for CrashPlan for Home customers as we transition out of the consumer market.

With regard to Carbonite Steve Buege, SVP and general manager of Code42's consumer & small business division told us...

We believe Carbonite offers a trusted, secure and affordable choice that provides consumers with the peace of mind they have come to know from Code42. We're committed to honouring all current CrashPlan for Home subscriptions until their expiration date, giving extra time to evaluate backup options and offering several choices.

Mohamad Ali, president and CEO of Carbonite added...

We're pleased to partner with Code42 and welcome all CrashPlan for Home customers.  We're confident they will appreciate our exclusive discount, easy path to transition and, most of all, our powerful data protection solutions designed to meet their needs today and into the future.

Code 42's move to exit the consumer backup market follows Barracuda's exit from the consumer backup sector when they closed down Copy.com and CudaDrive as we reported back in February 2016.

One has to ask why these businesses have first offered services and then taken them away leaving customers to find alternatives and migrate their data across to the new providers. How can we be sure that Carbonite will not go the same way as Copy.com and CrashPlan?  Is the consumer market not viable? Maybe what consumers are prepared to pay isn't enough to provide a reliable service? 

At least Code 42 is giving up to one year's warning and an extra 2 months service which will be helpful for anyone whose CrashPlan subscription will expire in the near future, unlike Barracuda who gave all their customers 3 months to find an alternative.

What Do We Recommend?

Our advice remains the same...

• Make sure all of your data is backed up locally on at least two physical drives.
• Don't store any sessions only in the cloud. If for no other reason what happens if you lose internet connectivity, then you can't open your session.
• Don't rely on one cloud service, all of them are trying to get your business so consider using at least two services.
• Use services like Mover to copy entire cloud services between one another - this service enables you to move all your data, for example from Box to Dropbox, in three easy steps. 
• Consider setting up your own off site backup maybe at a friends house or business premises so you aren't dependent on a 3rd party cloud storage provider.
• Personally when Copy.com shut, I moved to Dropbox Professional and that service has been excellent for my needs.

Are You Affected By The Closure Of CrashPlan?

Do share with us what you are planning to do if the closure of CrashPlan will affect you. To help others also please share what you do for off site storage and backup? Which services do you use? Are they working for you, or are you doing it yourself?