5 ms·

I don't see how "truly unlimited" and "data hoarders" can ever be the basis of a sustainable business. Each additional terabyte costs them real money to store.

by eli 9y ago

AdmiralAsshat 9y ago
I think you underestimate how many people are in the "lite data hoarders" category. I don't consider myself a huge data hoarder. I have about 4 Terabytes. That's the totality of two decades of collecting music, video, pictures, ROMS, game ISOs, etc. It's enough that I can still fit it all on today's portable external hard-drives. And I don't think it's really much more than other people who might do amateur photography or videos and like to store their RAWs. However, it's more than is feasible for your standard iCloud/Google Drive/Dropbox plan can provide without significant burden. At this point there's nothing really comparable out there to what Crashplan offers. Even the services like Amazon Glacier or Backblaze's B2 start becoming way more expensive once you pass the terabyte mark or so.
- freehunter 9y ago
  >I have about 4 Terabytes. That's the totality of two decades of collecting music, video, pictures, ROMS, game ISOs, etc. Good lord. And you need to back this all up in the cloud?
  - AdmiralAsshat 9y ago
    If you had a lossless rip of a rare album that is not on iTunes, not on Amazon, not on Google Play Music, and cannot be found via torrents, wouldn't you want a backup of it in the cloud as well?
    - eli 9y ago
      Of course, but it might be better for everyone involved if I paid for it per GB.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- eli 9y ago
  > Even the services like Amazon Glacier or Backblaze's B2 start becoming way more expensive once you pass the terabyte mark or so. Yes, this is my point! It's expensive to store a terabyte in the cloud. There is currently no way around that. Crashplan was probably losing money on customers who had multiple TBs in the cloud.
tomc1985 9y ago
Pennies. And they have lots of them what with all that enterprise corporate schlong in their mouths. Hope that money shot tasted good, effing traitors! Businesses over these things are stewards, they have a responsibility beyond profits and shareholders and "Put Your Biggest Customer First"
- res0nat0r 9y ago
  I'm guessing they're leaving the business directly because individual customers just don't cost pennies. As mentioned above, "unlimited" backup plans at a flat rate just aren't sustainable, unless you're going to cut corners. Cutting corners when it comes to backups just leads to disaster down the line eventually anyway.
- cortesoft 9y ago
  If you really believe it is pennies per terabyte, than go ahead and start your own online backup company. It isn't that cheap, especially since you also have to pay for bandwidth, customer support, etc.
- freehunter 9y ago
  >all that enterprise corporate schlong in their mouths. Hope that money shot tasted good, effing traitors! Holy fuck. Let's settle down a bit buddy.
  - tomc1985 9y ago
    No. Sick of cloud assholes offering things then taking them away. Dipshit management types apologizing for their masters' craven pursuit of money. Wealth was the worst thing that ever happened to this field. Technology shouldn't feel like indian-giving. It should be empowering, egalitarian, and eternal. Backup services promise to solve the eternality question, until one day they don't -- because PROFIT$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
    - dang 9y ago
      Would you please not rant on HN, regardless of how annoying you find something?
hendersoon 9y ago
With deduplication, that is feasible. With E2E encryption, not so much.
- Ajedi32 9y ago
  You could compromise and use something like MaidSafe does, where the data is encrypted using a key based on the contents of the file itself (self-encryption), so you need to know the key for the file in order to decrypt it but deduplication is still possible.

I don't see how "truly unlimited" and "data hoarders" can ever be the basis of a sustainable business. Each additional terabyte costs them real money to store.

by eli 9y ago

I don't see how "truly unlimited" and "data hoarders" can ever be the basis of a sustainable business. Each additional terabyte costs them real money to store.

AdmiralAsshat 9y ago

I think you underestimate how many people are in the "lite data hoarders" category. I don't consider myself a huge data hoarder. I have about 4 Terabytes. That's the totality of two decades of collecting music, video, pictures, ROMS, game ISOs, etc. It's enough that I can still fit it all on today's portable external hard-drives. And I don't think it's really much more than other people who might do amateur photography or videos and like to store their RAWs. However, it's more than is feasible for your standard iCloud/Google Drive/Dropbox plan can provide without significant burden. At this point there's nothing really comparable out there to what Crashplan offers. Even the services like Amazon Glacier or Backblaze's B2 start becoming way more expensive once you pass the terabyte mark or so.

freehunter 9y ago
>I have about 4 Terabytes. That's the totality of two decades of collecting music, video, pictures, ROMS, game ISOs, etc. Good lord. And you need to back this all up in the cloud?
- AdmiralAsshat 9y ago
  If you had a lossless rip of a rare album that is not on iTunes, not on Amazon, not on Google Play Music, and cannot be found via torrents, wouldn't you want a backup of it in the cloud as well?
  - eli 9y ago
    Of course, but it might be better for everyone involved if I paid for it per GB.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
eli 9y ago
> Even the services like Amazon Glacier or Backblaze's B2 start becoming way more expensive once you pass the terabyte mark or so. Yes, this is my point! It's expensive to store a terabyte in the cloud. There is currently no way around that. Crashplan was probably losing money on customers who had multiple TBs in the cloud.

tomc1985 9y ago

Pennies. And they have lots of them what with all that enterprise corporate schlong in their mouths. Hope that money shot tasted good, effing traitors! Businesses over these things are stewards, they have a responsibility beyond profits and shareholders and "Put Your Biggest Customer First"

res0nat0r 9y ago
I'm guessing they're leaving the business directly because individual customers just don't cost pennies. As mentioned above, "unlimited" backup plans at a flat rate just aren't sustainable, unless you're going to cut corners. Cutting corners when it comes to backups just leads to disaster down the line eventually anyway.
cortesoft 9y ago
If you really believe it is pennies per terabyte, than go ahead and start your own online backup company. It isn't that cheap, especially since you also have to pay for bandwidth, customer support, etc.
freehunter 9y ago
>all that enterprise corporate schlong in their mouths. Hope that money shot tasted good, effing traitors! Holy fuck. Let's settle down a bit buddy.
- tomc1985 9y ago
  No. Sick of cloud assholes offering things then taking them away. Dipshit management types apologizing for their masters' craven pursuit of money. Wealth was the worst thing that ever happened to this field. Technology shouldn't feel like indian-giving. It should be empowering, egalitarian, and eternal. Backup services promise to solve the eternality question, until one day they don't -- because PROFIT$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
  - dang 9y ago
    Would you please not rant on HN, regardless of how annoying you find something?

hendersoon 9y ago

With deduplication, that is feasible. With E2E encryption, not so much.

Ajedi32 9y ago
You could compromise and use something like MaidSafe does, where the data is encrypted using a key based on the contents of the file itself (self-encryption), so you need to know the key for the file in order to decrypt it but deduplication is still possible.