Welcome to CrashPlan

CrashPlan is a backup service that Hamilton College has adopted and provides to all college faculty and employees in order to be able to easily and securely back up your desktop or notebook office computer. Unlike some backup solutions that were recommended in the past, CrashPlan is very easy to install and configure. It continuously keeps your files backed up without you needing to remember to do anything special. A few things to note about CrashPlan:

• Not an alternative to ESS - CrashPlan should not be viewed as an alternative to other storage platforms such as ESS or the Academic server. These network locations are spaces where files can be stored and worked on, and the data on those servers is backed up behind the scenes. CrashPlan doesn't provide storage space where you can keep files that you want to store or work on. CrashPlan backs up files, folders, email, etc. stored locally on your computer to protect against loss from a hard drive failure, accidental deletion, etc.
• Not a File Synchronization Service (i.e. Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) - It is important to note that CrashPlan is a computer backup solution and not a file synchronization utility.  File synchronization utilities such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Apple iCloud Microsoft OneDrive, etc. are not backup utilities. They make copies of your files and store them in the cloud so that they can be copied to other devices.  If you delete a file on one of these services, it will be deleted from all of your devices.  There is no backup of it provided by the application. File sync just provides a 1-to-1 copy across multiple clients and in the cloud.
• CrashPlan backups are private and secure - Your backed up files are kept secure and private through strong encryption and security that meets and exceeds the stringent security standards for medical and government usage. Your files are compressed in order to minimize the network traffic that they consume and the amount of data that is stored, and they are kept in an encrypted archive in a non-public cloud storage space