6 ms·

Yev from Backblaze here -> We're definitely more affordable and our integrations (https://www.backblaze.com/b2/integrations.html https://www.backblaze.com/b2/in

by atYevP 7y ago

Yev from Backblaze here -> We're definitely more affordable and our integrations (https://www.backblaze.com/b2/integrations.html https://www.backblaze.com/b2/integrations.html) make it easy to get your data to us. We even have partnerships with companies who can help transfer data from S3 into Backblaze B2!

mherrmann 7y ago
Thank you Yev. I'm wondering about the bandwidth, especially internationally. Do you have any numbers on that? Say split by Europe/US/Other.
- mherrmann 7y ago
  (I need to quickly ship a 50mb file to 50,000 clients worldwide.)
  - jermaustin1 7y ago
    Hey Michael, I host RAW photos I want to share inside B2 (48mb each), and then put CloudFlare in front of it using their tutorial [1]. It gets edge caching, and achieves 200-500mbps. Its great, and I have absolutely no complaints. 1: https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/articles/217666928-Using-Backblaze-B2-with-the-Cloudflare-CDN https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/articles/217666928-Using...
    - toomuchtodo 7y ago
      Is your outbound data free because of the bandwidth alliance deal Cloudflare has with Backblaze?
    - mherrmann 7y ago
      Thank you; and how much data are you transferring each month?
    - jermaustin1 7y ago
      @mherrmann - Only about 10-20GB, so not the TB levels you are dealing with, but backblaze isn't actually doing the transfer, it is CloudFlare. @toomuchtodo - Yes, and on top of that, both B2 and CloudFlare are completely free since I'm under the 10gb storage limit (for now), and i'm a personal user of CloudFlare(for now).
- atYevP 7y ago
  We do have a datacenter in the EU (Amsterdam) - and if you set up your account there you'll be able to transfer data to it. That's a popular destination for folks living closely to it, but even before that one went "live" we had lots of people using the our West Coast Data Centers without much issue. If you have a ton of data you can take a look at the Fireball (https://www.backblaze.com/b2/solutions/datatransfer/fireball.html https://www.backblaze.com/b2/solutions/datatransfer/fireball...) which allows you to rapidly ingest data to us.
  - Pahr3yah 7y ago
    What are you using as TCP congestion controller? BBR should provide better utilization on long pipes (e.g. transoceanic transfers if stuff isn't geo-replicated). Totally anecdotal, but it helped me FTPing data from the US to europe.
    - atYevP 7y ago
      Yev here -> This question's beyond me, lemme see if I can get a dev on the line :D *Edit - sounds like BBR is used in some of the environment!
syedkarim 7y ago
How is Backblaze able to be so much cheaper than the other, larger competitors? I assume Amazon/Google/Microsoft has squeezed every last cent from suppliers and also has highly cost-optimized staffing costs.
- atYevP 7y ago
  Yev here -> great question! We are a bootstrapped company and we focus on inexpensive storage (https://www.backblaze.com/blog/vault-cloud-storage-architecture/ https://www.backblaze.com/blog/vault-cloud-storage-architect...). Because we've built a robust system that doesn't use a ton of expensive components we can provide hot cloud storage (B2 Cloud Storage) and computer backup at an affordable rate while still making decent margins. To learn more about our business and decision making, we have a pretty cool series of entrepreneurship blog posts that might be interesting to some: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/category/entrepreneurship/ https://www.backblaze.com/blog/category/entrepreneurship/
  - ChrisSD 7y ago
    Reading about b2 pricing it says, you get "10GB of free storage, unlimited free uploads, and 1GB of downloads each day". Doesn't that amount to essentially free backups for (reasonable) personal use? Or am I missing something?
    - jl6 7y ago
      I think even casual users tend to have more than 10GB of data these days.
      - ChrisSD 7y ago
        I don't. Although I can easily fill up a terabyte drive, little of that is my own personal files that I need to keep if the drive blows up. Most of my stuff is source code, documents/notes and some photos (with photos being the only thing that takes up significant space). Almost everything else I can re-download or rebuild from the original source as and when I need it.
Moeancurly 7y ago
Is there any consensus among Backblaze employees (or even just your personal opinion if applicable) for what brand/series of drives to use for home NAS devices? I ask because the online favorite appears to be WD Reds, which you have phased out since 2018.
- atYevP 7y ago
  Yev here - it's interesting, we don't really chat about that often - what I would do is get the least expensive drive that has the most capacity and make sure the NAS is backed up somewhere in case of failure or theft. Personally I think the Toshiba drives are pretty good, but Seagates are affordable and do a good job. Plus there's always HGST which are rock-solid, but tend to run a bit more expensive.

by atYevP 7y ago

mherrmann 7y ago

Thank you Yev. I'm wondering about the bandwidth, especially internationally. Do you have any numbers on that? Say split by Europe/US/Other.

mherrmann 7y ago
(I need to quickly ship a 50mb file to 50,000 clients worldwide.)
- jermaustin1 7y ago
  Hey Michael, I host RAW photos I want to share inside B2 (48mb each), and then put CloudFlare in front of it using their tutorial [1]. It gets edge caching, and achieves 200-500mbps. Its great, and I have absolutely no complaints. 1: https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/articles/217666928-Using-Backblaze-B2-with-the-Cloudflare-CDN https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/articles/217666928-Using...
  - toomuchtodo 7y ago
    Is your outbound data free because of the bandwidth alliance deal Cloudflare has with Backblaze?
  - mherrmann 7y ago
    Thank you; and how much data are you transferring each month?
  - jermaustin1 7y ago
    @mherrmann - Only about 10-20GB, so not the TB levels you are dealing with, but backblaze isn't actually doing the transfer, it is CloudFlare. @toomuchtodo - Yes, and on top of that, both B2 and CloudFlare are completely free since I'm under the 10gb storage limit (for now), and i'm a personal user of CloudFlare(for now).
atYevP 7y ago
We do have a datacenter in the EU (Amsterdam) - and if you set up your account there you'll be able to transfer data to it. That's a popular destination for folks living closely to it, but even before that one went "live" we had lots of people using the our West Coast Data Centers without much issue. If you have a ton of data you can take a look at the Fireball (https://www.backblaze.com/b2/solutions/datatransfer/fireball.html https://www.backblaze.com/b2/solutions/datatransfer/fireball...) which allows you to rapidly ingest data to us.
- Pahr3yah 7y ago
  What are you using as TCP congestion controller? BBR should provide better utilization on long pipes (e.g. transoceanic transfers if stuff isn't geo-replicated). Totally anecdotal, but it helped me FTPing data from the US to europe.
  - atYevP 7y ago
    Yev here -> This question's beyond me, lemme see if I can get a dev on the line :D *Edit - sounds like BBR is used in some of the environment!

syedkarim 7y ago

How is Backblaze able to be so much cheaper than the other, larger competitors? I assume Amazon/Google/Microsoft has squeezed every last cent from suppliers and also has highly cost-optimized staffing costs.

atYevP 7y ago
Yev here -> great question! We are a bootstrapped company and we focus on inexpensive storage (https://www.backblaze.com/blog/vault-cloud-storage-architecture/ https://www.backblaze.com/blog/vault-cloud-storage-architect...). Because we've built a robust system that doesn't use a ton of expensive components we can provide hot cloud storage (B2 Cloud Storage) and computer backup at an affordable rate while still making decent margins. To learn more about our business and decision making, we have a pretty cool series of entrepreneurship blog posts that might be interesting to some: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/category/entrepreneurship/ https://www.backblaze.com/blog/category/entrepreneurship/
- ChrisSD 7y ago
  Reading about b2 pricing it says, you get "10GB of free storage, unlimited free uploads, and 1GB of downloads each day". Doesn't that amount to essentially free backups for (reasonable) personal use? Or am I missing something?
  - jl6 7y ago
    I think even casual users tend to have more than 10GB of data these days.
    - ChrisSD 7y ago
      I don't. Although I can easily fill up a terabyte drive, little of that is my own personal files that I need to keep if the drive blows up. Most of my stuff is source code, documents/notes and some photos (with photos being the only thing that takes up significant space). Almost everything else I can re-download or rebuild from the original source as and when I need it.

Moeancurly 7y ago

Is there any consensus among Backblaze employees (or even just your personal opinion if applicable) for what brand/series of drives to use for home NAS devices? I ask because the online favorite appears to be WD Reds, which you have phased out since 2018.

atYevP 7y ago
Yev here - it's interesting, we don't really chat about that often - what I would do is get the least expensive drive that has the most capacity and make sure the NAS is backed up somewhere in case of failure or theft. Personally I think the Toshiba drives are pretty good, but Seagates are affordable and do a good job. Plus there's always HGST which are rock-solid, but tend to run a bit more expensive.