A couple of months ago, we highlighted Nathan, who had just joined our Support team. Nathan mentioned he knew Anthony, who was quiet, smart, technically savvy, and looking for work. We added Anthony to the list of candidates vying for an open technical support position. Interviews ensued and after multiple rounds, Anthony had elevated himself… Continue reading Anthony: Technical Support Technician
Backblaze Mobile Update 1.8
Backblaze Mobile 1.8 is here! We’ve added search, making it easier to find and retrieve files on the go! What’s New: Search: search for any backed up file by name Speed optimization Bug fixes Why Is Search Important? Search will help you find and view your files and folders while you’re away from your computer.… Continue reading Backblaze Mobile Update 1.8
Welcome Aaron: Systems Administrator
Maybe we should say “Welcome back, Aaron.” You see, Aaron is a native Californian from Sacramento, who moved to Austin, Texas a few years ago. As much as Aaron liked living in “The Live Music Capital of the World” or “Silicon Hills,” he is really excited to be back home where he’ll be working in… Continue reading Welcome Aaron: Systems Administrator
Looking for an Excellent Java Engineer
Want to work at a company that helps customers in over 150 countries around the world protect the memories they hold dear? A company that stores over 100 petabytes (a quarter as much as Facebook) of customers’ photos, music, documents and work files in a purpose-built cloud storage system? Well, here’s your chance. Backblaze is… Continue reading Looking for an Excellent Java Engineer
Storage Pod 4.0: Direct Wire Drives
To get the latest updates and information on ALL of the Storage Pod versions. Click Here. For the first time since the original Storage Pod, Backblaze is announcing a completely redesigned approach with the introduction of the first “direct wire” Storage Pod. This new Storage Pod performs four times faster, is simpler to assemble, and… Continue reading Storage Pod 4.0: Direct Wire Drives
What is a Terabyte? Understanding 100 Petabytes of Cloud Data
Wow. Backblaze is now storing 100 petabytes of customer data in our cloud storage. 100 petabytes is a hard number to wrap our heads around, so… How much data is 100 petabytes? 100 petabytes 100,000 terabytes 100,000,000 gigabytes 100,000,000,000 megabytes Here are a few comparisons to help contextualize 100 petabytes: One quarter as much data… Continue reading What is a Terabyte? Understanding 100 Petabytes of Cloud Data
Walt Mossberg Recommends Backblaze
Last week, venerable reviewer Walt Mossberg did an in-depth Backblaze review and said: “I like and can recommend Backblaze.” Mossberg had been the head technology reviewer for The Wall Street Journal for approximately 25 years before leaving to start a dedicated technology site, Re/code, in January 2014. According to Wikipedia: Mossberg is widely regarded as… Continue reading Walt Mossberg Recommends Backblaze
Work for Backblaze at Macworld
You love Backblaze. You’ve woken up in the middle of the night asking yourself, “Self, why is it that I’m not working at Backblaze, I love those guys!” Well, here’s your chance! Backblaze has a big presence at Macworld (March 27-29th) this year and we want someone to come spend a day with us at… Continue reading Work for Backblaze at Macworld
Backblaze + Pebble
Backblaze and Pebble? Talk about worlds colliding. I (Yev) love the Pebble, and I’ve been wearing one ever since my Kickstarter edition watch shipped last year. More recently I’ve upgraded to the shiny and new Pebble Steel. Anyway, I’m also the social media guy at Backblaze, so I’m constantly monitoring the ‘social sphere’ for any… Continue reading Backblaze + Pebble
Welcome Matt: Sacramento Here I Come…
We’d like to welcome Matt to our Operations team as a Data Center Technician. He’s our first employee to work day-in/day-out in our “new” Sacramento data center. Of course, other Backblaze folks will visit and help him out on a regular basis so he won’t get too lonely. After all, we don’t want him roaming… Continue reading Welcome Matt: Sacramento Here I Come…
The Oscar SHOULD Go To…
One of the hottest topics of the Backblaze office is what movies are out, and whether we should go see them. Well, it’s almost time for the Oscars and we’re excited to see who is going to win in each of the categories. In our hearts though, we believe there should be one more Oscar… Continue reading The Oscar SHOULD Go To…
Dragging a Desktop Through the Snow
Wow. People dragged their computers through the snow to get Backblaze. Backblaze was at RootsTech a few weeks ago in sunny Salt Lake City and one of the things we did at the show was offer to install Backblaze on any computer that conference goers wanted to bring in. Even though Backblaze is easy to… Continue reading Dragging a Desktop Through the Snow
Meet Nathan: Technical Support Tech
While many of the folks at Backblaze came from somewhere else, Nathan was born and raised in Silicon Valley. We’re glad he stayed as he fits very nicely into our Customer Support group. Welcome, Nathan. Where are you originally from? I grew up in the South Bay and went to high school in Mountain View,… Continue reading Meet Nathan: Technical Support Tech
Wanted: Builders for Our Operations Team
Thank you for your interest, but this position has been filled. Please check out our jobs page for additional great opportunities at Backblaze. Backblaze continues to build an awesome Operations team. If you want to be one of the builders on our team, we currently have three positions open. If either of the positions below… Continue reading Wanted: Builders for Our Operations Team
Data Center Outage
Update 2/12/2014: The post mortem on the data center outage is complete. The outage started when the Emergency Power Off (EPO) system was activated. The outage began on 02/05/2014 at 9:08 a.m. PST and lasted for one hour and 43 minutes until 10:51 a.m. PST. At this point, the Backblaze servers started recovering and were… Continue reading Data Center Outage
Backblaze 2.5: The Tranquility Release
You shouldn’t have to worry about data backup. It should just work. No data limits, no throttling, no worries. That’s Backblaze. Here’s a look at what’s new in Backblaze Computer Backup release 2.5. Account Page From any web browser, you can log in to your Backblaze account to see how things are going. Most of… Continue reading Backblaze 2.5: The Tranquility Release
Inside Backblaze: A Look at Our Secret Data Center
We have a secret. A 500 petabyte secret. Back in August 2012, Backblaze posted our need for a new data center. At the time we had about 40 petabytes of storage and our current caged facility in Oakland was bursting at the seams. After our post, proposals rolled in from around the US—Utah, Texas, California,… Continue reading Inside Backblaze: A Look at Our Secret Data Center
What Hard Drive Should I Buy?
My last two blog posts were about expected drive lifetimes and drive reliability. These posts were an outgrowth of the careful work that we’ve done at Backblaze to find the most cost-effective disk drives. Running a truly unlimited online backup service for only $5 per month means our cloud storage needs to be very efficient and we need to quickly figure out which drives work.