Year: 2017

APFS: What You Need to Know About Apple’s New File System

Editor’s note: We posted this article originally in August 2016. We’ve since updated it with new information. APFS, or Apple File System, is one of the biggest changes coming to every new Apple device. It makes its public debut with the release of iOS 10.3, but it’s also coming to the Mac. (In fact, it’s… Continue reading APFS: What You Need to Know About Apple’s New File System

Back Up and Restore Time Machine Using Synology and the Backblaze B2 Cloud

Have you ever wished that you could have Time Machine, your Synology NAS, and B2 Cloud Storage work together to automatically backup your Mac locally and to the cloud? That would be cool. Of course, you’d also want to be able to restore your Time Machine backup from your Synology NAS or the B2 cloud. And while you’re wishing, it would be great if you could have an encrypted USB Hard Drive show up at your doorstep with your Time Machine backup. Stop wishing! You can do all that today. Here’s how.

The Cloud’s Software: A Look Inside Backblaze

When most of us think about “the cloud,” we have an abstract idea that it’s computers in a data center somewhere—racks of blinking lights and lots of loud fans. There’s truth to that. Have a look inside our data center to get an idea. But besides the impressive hardware—and the skilled techs needed to keep… Continue reading The Cloud’s Software: A Look Inside Backblaze

The Economics of Hybrid Cloud Storage

“Hybrid cloud” has jumped into the IT vernacular over the last few years. Hybrid cloud solutions intelligently divide processing and data storage between on-premises and off-premises resources to maximize efficiency. Businesses seamlessly extend their data processing and data storage capabilities to the cloud enabling them to manage unusual or fluctuating demands for services. More recently,… Continue reading The Economics of Hybrid Cloud Storage

All About Backblaze’s USB Hard Drive Restore

Editor’s note: On March 3, 2022, Backblaze ended the USB flash drive restore option. While we parted ways with USB flash drives, we continue to offer many options for restoring your files—explore ways to recover your data here. When you use Backblaze Computer Backup to back up your data to Backblaze it is first encrypted… Continue reading All About Backblaze’s USB Hard Drive Restore

Four Tips to Help Photographers and Videographers Get the Most From Backblaze B2

Photographers and videographers regularly push the limit of data storage and archiving solutions, especially as camera makers constantly increase megapixel sensor density. Network attached storage (NAS) systems are indispensable to help store these large amounts of data, whether it’s 20-50 megapixel stills or 1080p, 4K, or 8K video footage. Data creep is inevitable. What can… Continue reading Four Tips to Help Photographers and Videographers Get the Most From Backblaze B2

Four Ways Groups Makes Business Backups Easy

We recently introduced the new Backblaze Business Backup featuring Groups. If backup management for your business is part of your job description, Groups can make your work a lot easier. What is a Group? Groups centrally manage billing by an administrator. Admins can also (optionally) keep track of the Group members’ backup statuses, Backblaze B2… Continue reading Four Ways Groups Makes Business Backups Easy

Backblaze B2 for Beginners: Inside the B2 Cloud Storage Web interface

Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage enables you to store data in the cloud at a fraction of what you’ll pay other services. For instance, we’re one-fourth of the price of Amazon’s S3. We’ve made it easy to access thanks to a web interface, API, and command line interface. Let’s get to know the web interface a… Continue reading Backblaze B2 for Beginners: Inside the B2 Cloud Storage Web interface

Backblaze Hard Drive Stats for 2016

Backblaze has recorded and saved daily hard drive statistics from the drives in our data centers since April 2013. At the end of 2016 we had 73,653 spinning hard drives. Of that number, there were 1,553 boot drives and 72,100 data drives. This post looks at the hard drive statistics of the data drives we monitor. We’ll first look at the stats for Q4 2016, then present the data for all of 2016, and finish with the lifetime statistics for all of the drives Backblaze has used in our cloud storage data centers since we started keeping track. Along the way we’ll share observations and insights on the data presented.

Introducing the New Backblaze Business Backup

Today, we’re pleased to announce the new Backblaze Business Backup. We’ve spent the better part of the year building new functionality for our business and group users and are excited to release that functionality, Backblaze Groups, to the world today. What is a Group? Groups are a collection of computers paid for by administrators, whether… Continue reading Introducing the New Backblaze Business Backup

Backblaze Begins: Celebrating a Very Special Anniversary

2017 is a milestone year for us at Backblaze: This year is our 10th anniversary. Our official birthday—based on our papers of incorporation—places that date in April. But January 15th was another important date: It’s when the work on what would become Backblaze first started in earnest. Brian Wilson, our intrepid CTO and CFO, began… Continue reading Backblaze Begins: Celebrating a Very Special Anniversary

Introducing Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage Lifecycle Rules

Lifecycle Rules enable the Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage service to automatically hide and/or delete older versions of files stored in Backblaze B2. This capability is available for the Web GUI, CLI, and API. Lifecycle Rules are applied to some or all of the files in a Backblaze B2 Bucket with each bucket having its own… Continue reading Introducing Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage Lifecycle Rules