Data Backup Digest

While Backblaze's own cloud platform, known as B2 Cloud Storage, has already seen an extensive private beta test, the developers have recently transitioned their storage solution into the public beta testing phase. Designed as a direct competitor to the mainstream cloud services provided by Google, Amazon and Microsoft, the private beta test alone drew approximately 15,000 users. Although the numbers regarding public signups have yet to be released, the latest figures are expected to be even higher.

According to its current pricing model, Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage is available at a cost of half-a-cent per gigabyte, which is exponentially lower than similar cloud providers such as Microsoft's Azure and Amazon's S3. Prices for these services start at 2.4 cents per gigabyte and 3 cents per GB respectively, which is why B2 Cloud Storage is currently touted as "The World's Lowest Cost Cloud Storage" option. Moreover, B2 even offers the first 10 GB of storage to their customers at no cost.

In fact, Backblaze's own CEO, Gleb Budman, touted the low cost of B2 Cloud Storage. He was quoted as saying: "[The price point] opens up a lot of use cases for cloud storage people wouldn't have considered before. "For example, video production companies could keep footage they didn't use that used to be too expensive to store, or research facilities could keep raw data from experiments that they would previously throw out."

Many companies have already taken advantage of Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage. The team at IceCream, a relatively new app developer, has already committed to the new platform following their own testing that took place during the three-month private beta phase.

George Berkowski, CEO of IceCream, was quoted as saying: "We're increasingly using B2 to complement S3. The guys have done a great job of making [B2] very easy to integrate."

Per the IceCream app, users are able to reclaim space on their smartphones by uploading photos and videos to the IceCream Cloud. Such a service simply wouldn't be possible without a solution such as Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage, and the team hopes to completely replace S3 in due time. The IceCream app and premium service is currently available at a modest cost of $19.99 per year. However, given the affordable pricing of B2 Cloud Storage, the developers with IceCream might be able to drop the cost even further.

The team with Backblaze is also looking toward the future. Apart from implementing numerous improvements and tweaks based on feedback from the private beta test, the development team is already on eliminating the 5-gigabyte limit regarding uploads.

Formed in 2007, Backblaze is faced with the task of trying to eke out an existence amongst the industry veterans of the 21st century. Nonetheless, their services and products, which include solutions for personal data backup, business-centric data archival and their B2 Cloud Storage platform, are already making headlines around the world. To find out more information about the team with Backblaze, including information on any of their solutions, access to their company blog or to receive technical support, please visit their official website at www.backblaze.com.