{"id":651,"date":"2012-01-09T15:12:17","date_gmt":"2012-01-09T23:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/?p=651"},"modified":"2025-12-12T14:56:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T22:56:26","slug":"2011-a-few-of-my-favorite-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/2011-a-few-of-my-favorite-things\/","title":{"rendered":"2011: A Few of My Favorite Things&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/blog-2011-roundup.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-Ir0OwLV3\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-662\" title=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/blog-2011-roundup.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"260\" srcset=\"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/blog-2011-roundup.jpg 560w, https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/blog-2011-roundup-300x139.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"bzdropcap\">I can&#8217;t believe we&#8217;re already over a week into 2012. In the interest of listening to the quote &#8220;perfect is the enemy of good,&#8221; I&#8217;m publishing these thoughts on Backblaze in 2011 now rather than waiting until my hindsight is perfect, which may take another year or more. So, without further hesitation, here are a a few of my favorite things from 2011:<\/p>\n<ol>1. Growing sales about 100%.<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>We&#8217;re in a market growing about 30% per year. Growing three times faster than the market is a bit of nice external validation that the passion we put into helping people backup data is working.<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ol>2. Adding some awesome people to our team.<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;m looking at you Brian, Ken, <a href=\"\/blog\/author\/yev\/\">Yev<\/a>, and Tasha. We continue to run lean, but have added some amazing people to help us as we scale.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ol>3. Restoring 600,000,000 files.<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Okay, if you want to be technical, we restored 598,652,186 files. That is an astounding number of photos, documents, and other critical files that customers lost and then restored in a single year. I remember how upset I was four years ago when I lost a single calendar file; and how thrilled I was to realize that I had been running the beta version of Backblaze and was able to recover it. It is hard to imagine the total emotion resulting from the recovery of those 600 million files.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ol>4. Launching &#8220;Locate My Computer.&#8221;<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>After Mark Bao caught the thief who stole his laptop by<a href=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/b2\/docs\/downloading.html\"> downloading<\/a> the thief&#8217;s video from Backblaze and Mat Miller recovered his laptop by <a href=\"\/blog\/digital-007-outwitting-the-thief\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">restoring the thief&#8217;s college paper<\/a>, we launched a free addition to the service: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/cloud-backup\/features\/find-my-computer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Locate My Computer<\/a>. Just one month later, that feature helped crack an Argentinian counterfeiting ring and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/epicenter\/2011\/07\/online-backup-bust\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recover $1 million in counterfeit cash<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ol>5. Launching &#8220;Backblaze V2.0: Unlimiting Unlimited.&#8221;<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Listening to your requests, we added the ability to backup unlimited file types and unlimited file sizes. <a href=\"\/blog\/backblaze-2-0-unlimiting-unlimited\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Backblaze V2.0<\/a> added a host of other enhancements that increased how quickly your data gets backed up. Video editors and virtual machine users cheered.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ol>6. Open-sourcing the Backblaze Storage Pod V2.0.<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When we initially open-sourced the Backblaze Storage Pod, we figured five or six people might care. Instead, over one million people read the blog post and hundreds of companies and organizations started building these Pods. In 2011, we published the designs for Backblaze <a href=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/cloud-storage\/resources\/storage-pod\">Storage Pod<\/a> V2.0 (which had twice the space and performance for the same cost) and a number of lessons learned.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ol>7. Crowdsourcing our first billboard.<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Historically, we have grown almost entirely organically, but wanted to experiment with a billboard on Highway 101. We decided to <a href=\"\/blog\/vote-for-your-favorite-backblaze-online-backup-billboard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">crowdsource the billboard<\/a>. You came up with hundreds of ideas and voted on your favorite. On December 19<sup>th<\/sup>, our first billboard went live: &#8220;<a href=\"\/blog\/and-the-winner-is-kiss-your-lost-files-hello\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kiss your lost files <em>hello<\/em><\/a>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ol>8. Adding Restore Downloader apps.<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A small but very welcome addition was a <a href=\"\/blog\/restore-downloader-apps-available\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">downloader app<\/a> for each of Mac and Windows, enabling you to download a huge restore.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ol>9. Recommitting to unlimited.<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In February, one of our competitors said it was impossible to continue offering unlimited online backup because people were storing more data. We strongly disagreed and <a href=\"\/blog\/backblaze-is-committed-to-unlimited-backup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recommitted to unlimited<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ol>10. Moving to our new office.<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Technically, we moved in December of 2010, but it was in 2011 that we settled in to our new <a href=\"\/blog\/hello-san-mateo-our-new-office-home\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">downtown San Mateo space<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What happens in 2012? We&#8217;re going to:<\/strong><br \/>\n&#8230;need more great people.<br \/>\n&#8230;enhance the product while continuing to stay laser-focused on simplicity.<br \/>\n&#8230;further innovate<a href=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/cloud-storage\"> cloud storage costs<\/a> to continue offering unlimited online backup.<br \/>\n&#8230;expand the ways that people can get Backblaze on their computers.<\/p>\n<p>Want to help us? Share your ideas in the comments below, <a href=\"https:\/\/workforcenow.adp.com\/mascsr\/default\/mdf\/recruitment\/recruitment.html?cid=659563af-6f8c-4fa1-9000-586e677338c2&amp;ccId=19000101_000001&amp;type=MP&amp;lang=en_US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">apply for a job<\/a>, and help your friends get backed up!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I can&#8217;t believe we&#8217;re already over a week into 2012. In the interest of listening to the quote &#8220;perfect is the enemy of good,&#8221; I&#8217;m publishing these thoughts on Backblaze in 2011 now rather than waiting until my hindsight is perfect, which may take another year or more. So, without further hesitation, here are a&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/2011-a-few-of-my-favorite-things\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">2011: A Few of My Favorite Things&#8230;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[131,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-backblaze-bits","category-backblaze-fun","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Look Back at Our Favorite Tech and Moments from 2011<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I can&#039;t believe we&#039;re already over a week into 2012. In the interest of listening to the quote &quot;perfect is the enemy of good,&quot; I&#039;m publishing these\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/2011-a-few-of-my-favorite-things\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Look Back at Our Favorite Tech and Moments from 2011\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I can&#039;t believe we&#039;re already over a week into 2012. In the interest of listening to the quote &quot;perfect is the enemy of good,&quot; I&#039;m publishing these\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/2011-a-few-of-my-favorite-things\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage &amp; Cloud Backup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/backblaze\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-01-09T23:12:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-12T22:56:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/blog-2011-roundup.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"260\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gleb Budman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@backblaze\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@backblaze\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gleb Budman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Look Back at Our Favorite Tech and Moments from 2011","description":"I can't believe we're already over a week into 2012. 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Gleb has served as a member of our board of directors since 2009 and as chairperson since January 2021. Prior to Backblaze, Gleb was the senior director of product management at SonicWall and the vice president of products at MailFrontier, which was acquired by SonicWall. Before that, he served in a senior position at Kendara, which was acquired by Excite@Home, and previously founded and successfully exited two other startup companies.","url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/author\/gleb\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/blog-2011-roundup.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}