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Really well done interview, some real interesting bits in there. One part concerned me though, in the interview, it mentions "we own (and have built) all of ou

Really well done interview, some real interesting bits in there. One part concerned me though, in the interview, it mentions "we own (and have built) all of our own platform." and it fails to mention a few critically important key parts of a storage platform, first being encryption. How are personal files being handled? Is encryption being used? Are you able to access this data using a shared key? As well as contingency, what happens if critically important data is stored on your platform. On your website you mention: "We have a world class, IPV6-capable network with locations in three US cities as well as Zurich and Hong Kong" however fails to mention if replication is done across these locations. If technology (drives) is stolen from your datacenter, or mechanical failures beyond your control happen, how will you be able to recover from physical failure if you only appear to be serving from a single location? Excuse me if I'm wrong but I couldn't find anything concrete in either the interview or your website. The premise of the platform seems quite well aligned with keeping alive the the UNIX philosophy, and reminds me of Tarsnap. Either way, well made interview and interesting approach to a storage platform. As a sidenote, what keyboard are you using? It seems really interesting and you failed to mention it in the interview :) EDIT: It appears that you offer Geo-Redundant Filesystem as as separate product, maybe you would want to make this a bit more visible on your website except for only the FAQ and order pages. Either way, it seems like a sufficient move, that does still leave the topic of encryption though. As mentioned traffic is encrypted using SSH ofcourse, but is the data itself encrypted on your platform?

dharmab 6y ago
I've used rsync.net in the past- it's essentially "filesystem as a service." You, the customer, use it to back your own software that handles the encryption and replication. Their website has some how-to guides for some common software, or you can roll your own with the rsync protocol. Notably, their website only claims transfer encryption, not encryption at rest. You can of course encrypt your files yourself with your own keys.
- frammie 6y ago
  Not having data encrypted by default is concerning, however I do admire the simplistic approach of handling your own dataflow and tools for sure.
  - dividuum 6y ago
    > Not having data encrypted by default is concerning[..] While I agree in general, I think rsync's case is special: Unless the file encryption on their side is somehow derived from the SSH connection (so the files are only readable by your connection and while you're connected - is such a thing possible?), it would mean that they have to store the encryption keys somewhere. The far better approach is to treat them as completely untrusted and only store content you locally encrypt before sending it over. That way you don't have to care about them encrypting your data, it's completely in your control. I use restic for that. Works great.
    - noir_lord 6y ago
      Agreed - They can't be compelled to give up what they never had and it means as a user you can control exactly how your content is encrypted.
  - rhizome 6y ago
    If it's such a concern, why wouldn't you be sending them encrypted in the first place?
rsync 6y ago
"How are personal files being handled? Is encryption being used? Are you able to access this data using a shared key?" We give you an empty UNIX filesystem. So, if you push up files over rsync or sftp, they will sit here unencrypted. However, there are now excellent "tools like rsync that encrypt the remote result with a key rsync.net never sees" - chief among them being 'borg'[1]. Other options include duplicity and restic - all of which transport over SFTP. So it's up to you and you have total control. If you want ease of use and you want to browse into your account (or one of your immutable daily snapshots[2]) and grab a file over SFTP you probably don't want to encrypt everything on this end. On the other hand, if you want a totally secure remote filesystem that is nothing but encrypted gibberish from our standpoint, you should use 'borg'. "Are you able to access this data using a shared key?" We are running stock, standard OpenSSH and you can, indeed, use an SSH keypair to authenticate with. In fact, you have a .ssh/authorized_keys file in your account so you can specify IP restrictions and command restrictions as well ... " ... how will you be able to recover from physical failure if you only appear to be serving from a single location?" A standard rsync.net account has no replication. We are the backup and your account lives in, and only in, the specific location you choose when you sign up. However, for 1.75x the price (ie., not quite double) we will replicate your account, nightly, to our Fremont, CA location.[3] "As a sidenote, what keyboard are you using?" It is a Keytronic E03600U2. [1] https://www.borgbackup.org/ https://www.borgbackup.org/ [2] We create and rotate/maintain snapshots of your entire account that are immutable/readonly - so you have protection against ransomware/mallory. [3] ... which happens to be the core he.net datacenter - one of the nicest and most operationally secure datacenters I have ever been in.
- frammie 6y ago
  Thank you for clarifying your points, as I've said in my previous reply I do appreciate the simplistic approach. As well I mean no offense, the entire platform seems very sturdy though it leaves some questions which aren't apparent immediately (which may just be me) If I wasn't contempt with my current backup solution I would seriously consider yours, and I wish you guys the best of luck. You're one of the few keeping simplicity as a key value.
- vinay_ys 6y ago
yellowapple 6y ago
> How are personal files being handled? Is encryption being used? Are you able to access this data using a shared key? Personally, I feel like if you're going to encrypt your data, you should be encrypting it on your end, before sending it to some backup provider who may or may not be keeping your data secure.
- bombcar 6y ago
  You can do zfs send to rsync.net and I believe that allows you to zfs send an encrypted dataset without sending any keys. But I’ve not checked.

dharmab 6y ago

I've used rsync.net in the past- it's essentially "filesystem as a service." You, the customer, use it to back your own software that handles the encryption and replication. Their website has some how-to guides for some common software, or you can roll your own with the rsync protocol. Notably, their website only claims transfer encryption, not encryption at rest. You can of course encrypt your files yourself with your own keys.

frammie 6y ago
Not having data encrypted by default is concerning, however I do admire the simplistic approach of handling your own dataflow and tools for sure.
- dividuum 6y ago
  > Not having data encrypted by default is concerning[..] While I agree in general, I think rsync's case is special: Unless the file encryption on their side is somehow derived from the SSH connection (so the files are only readable by your connection and while you're connected - is such a thing possible?), it would mean that they have to store the encryption keys somewhere. The far better approach is to treat them as completely untrusted and only store content you locally encrypt before sending it over. That way you don't have to care about them encrypting your data, it's completely in your control. I use restic for that. Works great.
  - noir_lord 6y ago
    Agreed - They can't be compelled to give up what they never had and it means as a user you can control exactly how your content is encrypted.
- rhizome 6y ago
  If it's such a concern, why wouldn't you be sending them encrypted in the first place?

rsync 6y ago

"How are personal files being handled? Is encryption being used? Are you able to access this data using a shared key?" We give you an empty UNIX filesystem. So, if you push up files over rsync or sftp, they will sit here unencrypted. However, there are now excellent "tools like rsync that encrypt the remote result with a key rsync.net never sees" - chief among them being 'borg'[1]. Other options include duplicity and restic - all of which transport over SFTP. So it's up to you and you have total control. If you want ease of use and you want to browse into your account (or one of your immutable daily snapshots[2]) and grab a file over SFTP you probably don't want to encrypt everything on this end. On the other hand, if you want a totally secure remote filesystem that is nothing but encrypted gibberish from our standpoint, you should use 'borg'. "Are you able to access this data using a shared key?" We are running stock, standard OpenSSH and you can, indeed, use an SSH keypair to authenticate with. In fact, you have a .ssh/authorized_keys file in your account so you can specify IP restrictions and command restrictions as well ... " ... how will you be able to recover from physical failure if you only appear to be serving from a single location?" A standard rsync.net account has no replication. We are the backup and your account lives in, and only in, the specific location you choose when you sign up. However, for 1.75x the price (ie., not quite double) we will replicate your account, nightly, to our Fremont, CA location.[3] "As a sidenote, what keyboard are you using?" It is a Keytronic E03600U2. [1] https://www.borgbackup.org/ https://www.borgbackup.org/ [2] We create and rotate/maintain snapshots of your entire account that are immutable/readonly - so you have protection against ransomware/mallory. [3] ... which happens to be the core he.net datacenter - one of the nicest and most operationally secure datacenters I have ever been in.

frammie 6y ago
Thank you for clarifying your points, as I've said in my previous reply I do appreciate the simplistic approach. As well I mean no offense, the entire platform seems very sturdy though it leaves some questions which aren't apparent immediately (which may just be me) If I wasn't contempt with my current backup solution I would seriously consider yours, and I wish you guys the best of luck. You're one of the few keeping simplicity as a key value.
vinay_ys 6y ago

yellowapple 6y ago

> How are personal files being handled? Is encryption being used? Are you able to access this data using a shared key? Personally, I feel like if you're going to encrypt your data, you should be encrypting it on your end, before sending it to some backup provider who may or may not be keeping your data secure.

bombcar 6y ago
You can do zfs send to rsync.net and I believe that allows you to zfs send an encrypted dataset without sending any keys. But I’ve not checked.