6 ms·

An Inside Look at the Backblaze Storage Pod Museum

165 points by sp8 8y ago

berbec 8y ago
I'm always amazed by how open they are. Its great to see people like this succeed. My one BB question is how many data centers do they have? I know they have great sharing tech to keep data online if a pod or two goes down, but how many physical locations do they run?
- brianwski 8y ago
  I work at Backblaze. > how many physical locations to they run? Two separate datacenters in the Sacramento (California) region, and one in Phoenix (Arizona). We are trying to open a European (Netherlands) datacenter this month or next month. However, unless you take explicit action to copy your data to two datacenters, any one file (or piece of file) is in exactly one datacenter. We believe the data to be extremely DURABLE (survive), but if your strategy is to "host content" in a highly available fashion where people will die if your content is offline for an hour, we recommend you use two different providers with some sort of fail over. Another alternative is to use a CDN (Content Delivery Network) in conjunction with Backblaze. You can find out more info here: https://www.backblaze.com/b2/solutions/content-delivery.html https://www.backblaze.com/b2/solutions/content-delivery.html For backups, Backblaze advocates for a 3-2-1 backup strategy. https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-3-2-1-backup-strategy/ https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-3-2-1-backup-strategy/ This is where you keep 3 copies of your data, 2 on site, and 1 in the cloud. The exact system for how we achieve high durability is described in this blog past: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/vault-cloud-storage-architecture/ https://www.backblaze.com/blog/vault-cloud-storage-architect... where any one file is striped across 20 separate computers in 20 separate locations in the one datacenter, where we can entirely lose any 3 computers and the data is completely fine and available. We are COMPLETELY transparent on how we calculate the durability, we do the math (including the assumptions) in this blog post: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/cloud-storage-durability/ https://www.backblaze.com/blog/cloud-storage-durability/
  - sp332 8y ago
    To be a little more specific, the "2" in 3-2-1 is for two different media types. Hard drive + tape, for example. [Edit: ok it doesn't have to be "types". But two different media - don't put all your backups on one disk!]
    - atYevP 8y ago
      Yev from Backblaze here -> Or Hard Drive (Internal) + Hard Drive (External) - that's what we typically see!
  - chillaxtian 8y ago
    No disaster recovery? :/
    - toomuchtodo 8y ago
      Same as every other storage provider's default/basic storage offering. If you want georedundancy, you will need to build it. EDIT: Apparently GCS has this feature built in. Did not know, very cool!
      - chrisseaton 8y ago
        I thought basic products like S3 provided cross-region replication, which gives georedundancy? But anyway why should I have to build it on top of the provider's offering - why wouldn't they provide georedundancy for me? It seems like a truly basic thing to expect for a backup solution? But I'm not an expert in this area.
        deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
        siculars 8y ago
        Good Cloud Storage (GCS) has this functionality out of the box. https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/locations https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/locations /I work for Google/
- gist 8y ago
  > I'm always amazed by how open they are. Its great to see people like this succeed. You don't have to be amazed. Watch and learn. They do it because it's good marketing and results in business. The catchy headline got me to click and read. It got the name 'backblaze' into my head one more time. It makes them appear relevant and enhances the brand. Since Yev is probably reading the comments I will offer another topic that would be interesting. Do a post on erasing data from SSD's and then being able to recover that data. There was a well known paper by some academics years ago about this. The result was YMMV depending on the drive, controller etc. That would make an interesting blog post.
  - atYevP 8y ago
    Yev here as prophesied! Interesting subject! I'll have to toss it to the group. My assumption is that it would a bit tough for us to write since we aren't necessarily experts in SSDs (yet) - but might be something to consider for the future!
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - berbec 8y ago
      I'm anxiously awaiting the SSD/HDD $/GB crossover day.
    - berbec 8y ago
      Not too far in the future! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19220210 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19220210
- jpalomaki 8y ago
  Their openness is the reason why I’m a customer. My main concern with this type of services is, are they just reselling S3 and hoping people will never use their quota (something I don’t see as sustainable business model).
wiredfool 8y ago
I hope it has a pile of the dead 3gb seagates. Perhaps in an interactive exhibit where there are some implements of destruction.
- atYevP 8y ago
  Yev from Backblaze -> We do have a drive crusher in the office, but mostly use that for small externals. It's quite satisfying!
  - russh 8y ago
    Do you have to treat the output of the drive crusher as hazardous waste?
  - freedomben 8y ago
    If you happen to grab a video of that, I'd love to see it :-)
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
noir_lord 8y ago
I love this kind of stuff. I like the domain I program in but some of the problems in areas like this are straight up nerd sniping[1]. https://xkcd.com/356/ https://xkcd.com/356/
DFXLuna 8y ago
It's always fun to read stuff from the backblaze guys. The stuff they do is just neat.
skunkworker 8y ago
It's crazy to see how fast storage prices have fallen. Just a couple days ago I saw that you could get a WD White (Shucked easystore, pretty much a relabeled WD Red) 10TB for just $169. 1.69 cents/GB. And you can get 8TBs for $129 (1.61c/GB)
daveguy 8y ago
I always enjoy reading about Backblaze updates. New Pod designs, drive statistics, operations, etc... One thing I am particularly excited about is the future Pod designs with 2.5 inch drives. There may be enough miniaturization with magnetic drives to make this feasible, but I expect that the real transition will come with a Pod full of SSD. Any idea when that might happen? What is the expectation for that timeline? Do you have additional products or price/performance improvements planned in that transition? The SSD endurance experiment from 4 years ago indicates that, reliability wise, they are more than ready. I guess the only limitation now is price and maybe processing? https://techreport.com/review/27909/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-theyre-all-dead https://techreport.com/review/27909/the-ssd-endurance-experi...
chaostheory 8y ago
The only thing missing from the museum are the people behind Storage Pod. Other than that it's always really cool to see the evolution and history of the product

165 points by sp8 8y ago

I'm always amazed by how open they are. Its great to see people like this succeed. My one BB question is how many data centers do they have? I know they have great sharing tech to keep data online if a pod or two goes down, but how many physical locations do they run?

brianwski 8y ago
I work at Backblaze. > how many physical locations to they run? Two separate datacenters in the Sacramento (California) region, and one in Phoenix (Arizona). We are trying to open a European (Netherlands) datacenter this month or next month. However, unless you take explicit action to copy your data to two datacenters, any one file (or piece of file) is in exactly one datacenter. We believe the data to be extremely DURABLE (survive), but if your strategy is to "host content" in a highly available fashion where people will die if your content is offline for an hour, we recommend you use two different providers with some sort of fail over. Another alternative is to use a CDN (Content Delivery Network) in conjunction with Backblaze. You can find out more info here: https://www.backblaze.com/b2/solutions/content-delivery.html https://www.backblaze.com/b2/solutions/content-delivery.html For backups, Backblaze advocates for a 3-2-1 backup strategy. https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-3-2-1-backup-strategy/ https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-3-2-1-backup-strategy/ This is where you keep 3 copies of your data, 2 on site, and 1 in the cloud. The exact system for how we achieve high durability is described in this blog past: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/vault-cloud-storage-architecture/ https://www.backblaze.com/blog/vault-cloud-storage-architect... where any one file is striped across 20 separate computers in 20 separate locations in the one datacenter, where we can entirely lose any 3 computers and the data is completely fine and available. We are COMPLETELY transparent on how we calculate the durability, we do the math (including the assumptions) in this blog post: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/cloud-storage-durability/ https://www.backblaze.com/blog/cloud-storage-durability/
- sp332 8y ago
  To be a little more specific, the "2" in 3-2-1 is for two different media types. Hard drive + tape, for example. [Edit: ok it doesn't have to be "types". But two different media - don't put all your backups on one disk!]
  - atYevP 8y ago
    Yev from Backblaze here -> Or Hard Drive (Internal) + Hard Drive (External) - that's what we typically see!
- chillaxtian 8y ago
  No disaster recovery? :/
  - toomuchtodo 8y ago
    Same as every other storage provider's default/basic storage offering. If you want georedundancy, you will need to build it. EDIT: Apparently GCS has this feature built in. Did not know, very cool!
    - chrisseaton 8y ago
      I thought basic products like S3 provided cross-region replication, which gives georedundancy? But anyway why should I have to build it on top of the provider's offering - why wouldn't they provide georedundancy for me? It seems like a truly basic thing to expect for a backup solution? But I'm not an expert in this area.
      - deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
      - siculars 8y ago
        Good Cloud Storage (GCS) has this functionality out of the box. https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/locations https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/locations /I work for Google/
gist 8y ago
> I'm always amazed by how open they are. Its great to see people like this succeed. You don't have to be amazed. Watch and learn. They do it because it's good marketing and results in business. The catchy headline got me to click and read. It got the name 'backblaze' into my head one more time. It makes them appear relevant and enhances the brand. Since Yev is probably reading the comments I will offer another topic that would be interesting. Do a post on erasing data from SSD's and then being able to recover that data. There was a well known paper by some academics years ago about this. The result was YMMV depending on the drive, controller etc. That would make an interesting blog post.
- atYevP 8y ago
  Yev here as prophesied! Interesting subject! I'll have to toss it to the group. My assumption is that it would a bit tough for us to write since we aren't necessarily experts in SSDs (yet) - but might be something to consider for the future!
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - berbec 8y ago
    I'm anxiously awaiting the SSD/HDD $/GB crossover day.
  - berbec 8y ago
    Not too far in the future! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19220210 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19220210
jpalomaki 8y ago
Their openness is the reason why I’m a customer. My main concern with this type of services is, are they just reselling S3 and hoping people will never use their quota (something I don’t see as sustainable business model).

wiredfool 8y ago

I hope it has a pile of the dead 3gb seagates. Perhaps in an interactive exhibit where there are some implements of destruction.

atYevP 8y ago
Yev from Backblaze -> We do have a drive crusher in the office, but mostly use that for small externals. It's quite satisfying!
- russh 8y ago
  Do you have to treat the output of the drive crusher as hazardous waste?
- freedomben 8y ago
  If you happen to grab a video of that, I'd love to see it :-)

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

noir_lord 8y ago

I love this kind of stuff. I like the domain I program in but some of the problems in areas like this are straight up nerd sniping[1]. https://xkcd.com/356/ https://xkcd.com/356/

DFXLuna 8y ago

It's always fun to read stuff from the backblaze guys. The stuff they do is just neat.

skunkworker 8y ago

It's crazy to see how fast storage prices have fallen. Just a couple days ago I saw that you could get a WD White (Shucked easystore, pretty much a relabeled WD Red) 10TB for just $169. 1.69 cents/GB. And you can get 8TBs for $129 (1.61c/GB)

daveguy 8y ago

I always enjoy reading about Backblaze updates. New Pod designs, drive statistics, operations, etc... One thing I am particularly excited about is the future Pod designs with 2.5 inch drives. There may be enough miniaturization with magnetic drives to make this feasible, but I expect that the real transition will come with a Pod full of SSD. Any idea when that might happen? What is the expectation for that timeline? Do you have additional products or price/performance improvements planned in that transition? The SSD endurance experiment from 4 years ago indicates that, reliability wise, they are more than ready. I guess the only limitation now is price and maybe processing? https://techreport.com/review/27909/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-theyre-all-dead https://techreport.com/review/27909/the-ssd-endurance-experi...

chaostheory 8y ago

The only thing missing from the museum are the people behind Storage Pod. Other than that it's always really cool to see the evolution and history of the product