Today’s podcast features a sleep-deprived, rage-fueled Henry Newman assailing Glacier, Amazon’s cloud archive and backup offering.

Amazon is pitching Glacier as a solution for customers who don’t need frequent access to their data and can handle retrieval times of several hours. The big enticements are low, low cost – as little as a penny per gigabyte per month – and durability.

Dan and Henry weed through each facet of Amazon’s marketing claims and – well – rip each one to shreds. Henry thinks this is aimed at the unsuspecting/unfortunate home or small business consumer, as anyone with technology expertise will run far, far away from Glacier. Dan compares it to the “Roach Motel” of storage: once you’re in, you can never get out. And don’t even get them started on the definition of “durable.”

Viewer tip: keep an eye on the “consecutive hours awake” timer at the bottom of the screen.

You can also read Henry’s blog on the topic here.

Check the Radio Free HPC website for new episodes and more great content from Rich Brueckner of insideHPC, Henry Newman of Instrumental, Inc., and GCG's Dan Olds.