Backup assistance

StephenB wrote:
My local backups actually cost more (amortizing the costs of the disks).

That's a good point! But it may be a good idea to also factor in the "service delivery" and "service time" in your amortized costs. Local hardware will beat internet speeds any day and it's not dependent on an delivery infrastructure. My greatest limitation is internet speed, due to location. From a personal preference I would also rather have physical access to the hardware that maintains my data; hence a bank box (this too requires a monthly service fee of course.) It's never a good idea to keep everything under 1 roof.

Cloud offerings greatest positive can also be it's greatest negative so I haven't pursued too heavily an integration yet.
Positive: WIth cloud you have a large company maintaining hardware 24/7,supporting the fastest internet speeds, feature riddled, scalable, and rides on a vast network to support future IOTs integrations and "low" cost (this is true of Crash plan!).
Negative: You are tied and limited that company's ability and infrastructure's ability to provide all of that. There are an astronomic number of variables, individuals and systems at play that can help or hurt.

With that said I was not aware of Crash plan and I think I'll have to add it for it's Features/Cost. I also read on this forum a guide to "install" crash plan onto the ReadyNas. This would be great if NetGear would add more/better cloud based backup companies to auto integrate with their GUI.

Thanks again for the ideas!