What I Would Do If I Ran Tarsnap

This post just converted me to use Tarsnap for five servers worth of backups.

I've encountered Tarsnap half a dozen times over the last ~two years, but I was always thrown off by something ("what is this?", "backblaze is easier to use", "that pricing model is way too high - I'd be paying over a thousand dollars a year", etc.). Patrick's post systematically affirmed that I have a clear and pressing need for this, that it's severely underpriced, and a clear path of implementation.

Over lunch I mentioned tarsnap's hit by bus plan to the honchos of a seven figure/year business that needs secure offsite backups. They had a good laugh and dismissed tarsnap completely.

For my own needs I can't use it because I can't tolerate the casual backup obliteration policy.

The message I got out of patio11's work was that there are show stopping issues that are not fundamental to excellence of the product. Lose them. Help more people.

Bill me monthly. Don't obliterate the backups I'm counting on. You can have my business, my recommendations, and my thanks.

(And by all means he should, get a person or a service to take care of all that billing nuisance. Don't let it bring him down. I contract people to collect the money I don't enjoy collecting. That person needs a job too.)

Perhaps, then, there's much more room for services like this that are more established with a better UX at a higher price point.