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Hello, Yev, Thanks for your reply. I can certainly investigate that route, but the kinds of ISPs that implement these caps aren't exactly known for their magna

Hello, Yev, Thanks for your reply. I can certainly investigate that route, but the kinds of ISPs that implement these caps aren't exactly known for their magnanimity to begin with, so I'm not optimistic. Assuming they don't, I would get charged about $10 / 50GB overage, which would work out to 3000 / 50 = $60, which is the yearly cost of your service. So my dilemma is that I'm either paying for about half a year before I get a complete backup set with BB, or I'm effectively paying double the service price just to make sure the data all gets to you guys in a timely manner. For that price, I could just as well just shell out the extra dough to stay with an upgraded Crashplan Small Business account. I hope you guys will reconsider or re-examine your position on seeded backups. I don't think I am being unreasonable in wanting that to be an option, nor do I think I'm alone in having somewhere north of a terabyte of media--any amateur photographer or video editor probably has a similarly-sized dataset. If unlimited bandwidth were available, this wouldn't be a concern, but, I don't have the luxury of being able to choose a different ISP. And with Chairman Verizon heading the FCC, I don't see that changing any time soon.

atYevP 9y ago
Definitely understand that mind-set. We review most of our decisions every year, but it's a tricky problem. Since Backblaze Online Backup is a flat-fee service, by definition most folks who have that much data would not be break-even customers for us, and adding in services that encourage those large customers wouldn't be a great long-term plan. That said, one thing you might be able to do is see how much more expensive an "unlimited" plan with your ISP would be for 1 month (hopefully less than the $60 extra). CrashPlan Small Business is a good service as well, so if you're happy with them and don't mind paying the extra few dollars a month, staying with them, from a bandwidth perspective isn't the worst. And yea, I'm personally hoping that the ISP situation gets a bit more friendly towards consumers!
biggc 9y ago
> $10 / 50GB overage, which would work out to 3000 / 50 = $60 You forgot to multiply by $10, so you're actually looking at $600 for 3 TB of overage
- AdmiralAsshat 9y ago
  Thought it seemed on the low end, thanks for that!
timdorr 9y ago
Not sure of your ISP, but some offer an unlimited option for an additional fee. For instance, Comcast offers this for an extra $50 per month: https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/exp-unlimited-data https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/exp-unlimited-data While it sucks to have to pay extra, there is at least a cap (ironically!) on the price.
martin-adams 9y ago
I'm quite curious. What is more important to you, is it not paying for 6 months while the initial backup is made, or having the initial backup made within 1 month? Solving the first is definitely within Backblaze's capability if they are prepared to make an exception.

atYevP 9y ago

Definitely understand that mind-set. We review most of our decisions every year, but it's a tricky problem. Since Backblaze Online Backup is a flat-fee service, by definition most folks who have that much data would not be break-even customers for us, and adding in services that encourage those large customers wouldn't be a great long-term plan. That said, one thing you might be able to do is see how much more expensive an "unlimited" plan with your ISP would be for 1 month (hopefully less than the $60 extra). CrashPlan Small Business is a good service as well, so if you're happy with them and don't mind paying the extra few dollars a month, staying with them, from a bandwidth perspective isn't the worst. And yea, I'm personally hoping that the ISP situation gets a bit more friendly towards consumers!

biggc 9y ago

> $10 / 50GB overage, which would work out to 3000 / 50 = $60 You forgot to multiply by $10, so you're actually looking at $600 for 3 TB of overage

AdmiralAsshat 9y ago
Thought it seemed on the low end, thanks for that!

timdorr 9y ago

Not sure of your ISP, but some offer an unlimited option for an additional fee. For instance, Comcast offers this for an extra $50 per month: https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/exp-unlimited-data https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/exp-unlimited-data While it sucks to have to pay extra, there is at least a cap (ironically!) on the price.

martin-adams 9y ago

I'm quite curious. What is more important to you, is it not paying for 6 months while the initial backup is made, or having the initial backup made within 1 month? Solving the first is definitely within Backblaze's capability if they are prepared to make an exception.