Data Backup Digest

Backblaze is a data storage provider that first launched in 2007 and has evolved since then. The company recently released the seventh version of their Cloud Backup product, boasting new version history features and operating system support.

Backblaze now allows customers to pay to upgrade how long their version history is kept for. The default length of time remains at 30 days, after which any previous updates, changes or deletions are removed from the backup permanently. If that’s fine with you, nothing changes.

Version history can now be extended to one year or “forever”. While Backblaze provides for both consumers and businesses, it’s this latter group who are most likely to take advantage of the new feature. This is because they have legal requirements around how long they must keep records for.

Data rarely remains static. It’s constantly changing, updating, creating different versions. By protecting this entire history, you can see the data as it was at any point in time. That takes up more space and thus increases all associated costs, which is why many forgo the option, but it’s certainly worth it for those who need it.

According to Yev Pusin, Backblaze’s director of strategy, customers had been asking for extended version history. While thirty days is still the default for Backblaze Cloud Backup customers, users can pay an additional $2 per month to extend version history to a year. For that to be “forever” (or as long as Backblaze remains in business”), it’ll be an additional $4 per month plus a half-cent per gigabyte per month for versions modified on a computer over a year ago.

Opting for “forever” means that nothing will ever be removed from the backup. That includes previously updated, altered, or deleted backups. It all remains.

The one year version history backup will be good for customers who want a peace of mind. The company have found that most customers are opting for this solution, though those going “forever” wasn’t far behind.

In the new version of Backblaze, performance has also been improved. Maximum packet size has increased from 30MB to 100MB, offering improved upload speeds that are less affected by latency. It should make the system better at handling large data sets. The new version also supports MacOS Catalina.

Backblaze finds themselves in a competitive market, so it’s likely that we’ll continue to see them pushing out features to keep customers and entice new ones in. While many vendors have switched their entire focus to corporate, Backblaze still continues to focus on consumers and small businesses. They also have integration partnerships with storage and management vendors.

Competition from vendors like Acronis and Carbonite are on the consumer side, but it’s heavier in the business sphere. There are lots of vendors in the mid-market and high-end data protection space that will seek to eat part of Backblaze’s pie.

Backblaze seems to be doing just fine, though. They claim to have almost 900PB of data across all their products, with the expectation to reach an exabyte the year after.