Your data is valuable. Whether you’re sequencing genomes, managing a media powerhouse, or running your own business, you need fast, affordable, ready access to it in order to achieve your goals. But, you can’t get the most out of your data if it’s locked-in to a provider where it’s hard to manage or time-consuming to retrieve. Unfortunately, due to egress fees and closed, “all-in-one” platforms, vendor lock-in is currently trapping too many companies.
Backblaze can help: Universal Data Migration, a new service launched today, makes moving large datasets from any legacy on-premises or cloud source into B2 Cloud Storage almost always fast and free. That’s right—with very few exceptions, data transfer and legacy vendor egress fees are on us with >50TB committed contracts and all B2 Reserve bundles.
Many of the businesses we’ve spoken to about this didn’t believe that the service was free at first. But seriously—you will never see an invoice for your transfer fees, any egress fees levied by your legacy vendor when you pull data out, or for the assistance in moving data.
If you’re still in doubt, read on to learn more about how Universal Data Migration can help you say goodbye to vendor lock-in, cold delays, and escalating storage costs, and hello to B2 Cloud Storage gains, all without fears of cost, complexity, downtime, or data loss.
How Does Universal Data Migration Work?
Backblaze has curated a set of integrated services to handle migrations from pretty much every source, including:
- Public cloud storage
- Servers
- Network attached storage (NAS)
- Storage area networks (SAN)
- Tape/LTO solutions (LTO-6 or greater)
- Cloud drives
We cover data transfer and egress costs and facilitate the migration to Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage. The turnkey service expands on our earlier Cloud to Cloud Migration services as well as transfers via internet and the Backblaze Fireball rapid ingest devices. These offerings are now rolled up into one universal service.
“I thought moving my files would be the hardest part of the process, and it’s why I never really thought about switching providers before, but it was easy.”
—Tristan Pelligrino, Co-founder, Motion
We do ask that companies who use the service commit to a contract maintaining at least 50TB in Backblaze B2 for a minimum of one year or purchase any B2 Reserve bundle, but we expect that our cloud storage pricing—about one-fifth the cost of comparable services—and our interoperability with other cloud services, will keep new customers happy for that first year and beyond.
Outside of specifics that will vary by your unique infrastructure and workflows, migration types include:
- Cloud to cloud: Reads from public cloud storage or a cloud drive (e.g., Amazon S3 or Google Drive) and writes to Backblaze B2 via inter-cloud bandwidth.
- On-premises to cloud: Reads from a server, NAS, or SAN and writes to Backblaze B2 over optimized cloud pipes or via Backblaze’s 96TB Fireball rapid ingest device.
- LTO/tape to cloud: Reads tape media LTO-6 and greater, from reel cassettes to cartridges and more, and writes to Backblaze B2 via a high-speed, direct connection.
Backblaze also supports simple internet transfers for moving files over your existing bandwidth—with multi-threading to maximize speed.
Here’s How You Qualify for Free Universal Data Migration
- Universal Data Migration is free to people in the U.S., Canada, and the E.U.
- Backblaze covers data transfer and legacy provider egress fees for migrations greater than 50TB of data.
- Commitment to storing at least 50TB of data for more than a year is required.
That’s all! If you meet those three conditions, you will never see a bill for transfer or egress fees—including those from legacy providers.
How Much Does Universal Data Migration Cost?
Not to sound like a broken record, but this is the best part—the service is almost always free to you. You’ll never receive a bill. Backblaze incurs all data transfer and legacy vendor egress or download fees for inbound migrations >50TB with a one-year commitment and on all B2 Reserve bundles. It’s pretty cool that we can help save you money; it’s even cooler that we can help more businesses build the tech stacks they want using unconflicted providers to truly get the most out of their data.
Fortune Media Reduces Storage Costs by Two-thirds With Universal Data Migration
After divesting from its parent company, Fortune Media rebuilt its technology infrastructure and moved many services, including data storage, to the cloud. However, the initial tech stack was expensive, difficult to use, and not 100% reliable.
Backblaze B2 offered a more reliable and cost-effective solution for both hot cloud storage and archiving. In addition, the platform’s ease of use would give Fortune’s geographically-dispersed video editors a modern, self-service experience, and it was easier for the IT team to manage.
Using Backblaze’s Cloud to Cloud Migration, now part of Universal Data Migration, the team transferred over 300TB of data from their legacy provider in less than a week with zero downtime, business disruption, or egress costs, and was able to cut overall storage costs by two-thirds.
“In the cloud space, the biggest complaint that we hear from clients is the cost of egress and storage. With Backblaze, we saved money on the migration, but also overall on the storage and the potential future egress of this data.”
—Tom Kehn, Senior Solutions Architect at CHESA, Fortune Media’s technology systems integrator
Even More Benefits
What else do you get with Universal Data Migration? Additional benefits include:
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- Truly universal migrations: Secure data mobility from practically any source.
- Support along the way: Simple, turnkey services with solution engineer support to help ensure easy success.
- Safe and speedy transfers: Proven to securely transfer millions of objects and petabytes of data, often in just days.
Ready to Get Started?
The Universal Data Migration service is generally available now. To qualify, organizations must migrate and have a committed contract in place for >50TB or purchase any B2 Reserve bundle. For more information or to set up a free proof of concept, contact the Backblaze Sales team.
