How it Works

What is Vanderplanki not?

To clear up many potential misunderstandings from the start, it makes sense to start with what Vanderplanki isn’t.

Vanderplanki is not the 1,000th cloud service that promises to keep your files “in the cloud” for you, absolutely secure and forever and protected from the access of others.

And then stops its service, or accidentally loses your files, or makes them visible to others through a bug (or because a government requests it), or locks you out of your account because an AI thought it found something suspicious. (Have fun restoring your account with the help of your lawyer).

So, what is Vanderplanki then?

Vanderplanki, actually Polypedilum vanderplanki, is a cute little animal whose larvae can survive in the most adverse conditions such as -270 °C or below 3% humidity.

And thus the namesake of Vanderplanki, a software you can install on your computer that creates a personal archive (or several) on your own (or rented by yourself) storage space, completely under your own control and protected from outside eyes.

Vanderplanki uses:

• Your own external hard drives
• Cloud storage rented by yourself (here the built-in zero-knowledge encryption is especially important)
• Your own NAS or that of your company
• Commercially available CDs, DVDs and BluRays
• M-DISCs - optical data carriers that last up to 1,000 years
• Additionally optionally your own computer, if you have enough space on it

Always at least three copies

None of the aforementioned storage locations are suitable for just relying on it - not even cloud services. Therefore, the general recommendation is to keep at least 3 copies of your data.

Vanderplanki makes this especially easy by ensuring that at least 3 - or even more for especially important data - copies of your files exist at all times.

In doing so, Vanderplanki even evaluates the copies made and includes only well-rated ones in the calculation, for example:

• If a cloud storage was last checked for errors more than a year ago, it is no longer rated as good.

• If a hard disk or optical data medium is older than 3 years, it is no longer rated as good.

• If a hard disk has not been plugged in and checked for errors for more than a year, it is no longer rated as good.