{"id":94559,"date":"2020-03-23T20:40:50","date_gmt":"2020-03-24T03:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/?p=94559"},"modified":"2025-07-02T07:24:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T14:24:17","slug":"exabyte-unlocked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/exabyte-unlocked\/","title":{"rendered":"Exabyte Unlocked"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Backblaze<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re interested in Backblaze\u2019s COVID-19 response, Gleb Budman, our CEO, shared a message with our community here<\/a>.<\/div>\n

With the impact of coronavirus on all of our lives, it’s been a struggle to find pieces of good news to share. But we wanted to take a break from the usual programming and share a milestone we’re excited about, one that’s more than 12 years in the making.<\/p>\n

Since the beginning of Backblaze<\/a>\u2014back in 2007, when our five co-founders were working out of Brian Wilson\u2019s apartment in Palo Alto\u2014watching the business grow has always been profoundly exciting.<\/p>\n

Our team<\/em> has grown. From five, way back in the Palo Alto days, to 145 today. Our customer base<\/em> has grown. Today, we have customers in over 160 countries\u2026 it’s not so long ago that we were excited about having our 160th<\/sup> customer<\/em>.<\/p>\n

More than anything else, the data<\/em> we manage for our customers has grown.<\/p>\n

In 2008, not long after our launch, we had 750 customers and thought ten tera<\/strong>bytes was a lot of data. But things progressed quickly, and just two years later we reached 10 peta<\/strong>bytes of customer data stored<\/a> (1,000x more). (Good thing we designed for zettabyte-scale cloud architecture<\/a>!)<\/p>\n

By 2014, we were storing 100 petabytes<\/a>\u2014the equivalent of 11,415 years of HD video.<\/p>\n

Years passed, our team grew, the number of customers grew, and\u2014especially after we launched B2 Cloud Storage<\/a> in 2015\u2014the data grew. At some scale it got harder to contextualize what hundreds and hundreds of petabytes<\/a> really meant. We like to remember that each byte is part of some individual\u2019s beloved family photos or some organization\u2019s critical data that they\u2019ve entrusted us to protect.<\/p>\n

That belief is part of every single Backblaze job description. Here\u2019s how we put it in that context:<\/p>\n

Our customers use our services so they can pursue dreams like curing cancer (genome mapping is data-intensive), archive the work of some of the greatest artists on the planet (learn more about how Austin City Limits uses B2<\/a>), or simply sleep well at night (anyone that\u2019s spilled a cup of coffee on a laptop knows the relief that comes with complete, secure backups).\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s critically important for us that we achieved this growth by staying the same in the most important ways: being open & transparent<\/a>, building a sustainable business<\/a>, and caring about being good to our customers, partners, community, and team. That’s why I\u2019m excited to announce a huge milestone today\u2014our biggest growth number yet.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve reached 1.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Or, by another measurement, we\u2019ve reached 1,000,000,000,000,000,000.<\/p>\n

Yes, today, we\u2019re announcing that we are storing 1 exabyte of customer data.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What does it all mean? Well. If you ask our engineers, not much. They\u2019ve already rocketed past this number mentally and are considering how long it will take to get to a zettabyte (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes).<\/p>\n

But, while it\u2019s great to keep our eyes on the future, it\u2019s also important to celebrate what milestones mean. Yes, crossing an exabyte of data<\/a> is another validation of our technology and our sustainably independent business model. But I think it really means that we\u2019re providing value and earning the trust of our customers.<\/p>\n

Thank you for putting your trust in us by keeping some of your bytes with us. Particularly in times like these, we know that being able to count on your infrastructure is essential. We\u2019re proud to serve you.<\/p>\n

As the world grapples with a pandemic, celebrations seem inappropriate. But we did want to take a moment and share this milestone with you, both for those of you who have been with us over the long haul and in the hopes that it provides a welcome distraction. To that end, we\u2019ve been working on a few things that we\u2019d planned to launch in the coming weeks. We\u2019ve made the decision to push forward with those launches in hopes that the tools may be of some use for you (and, if nothing else, to try to do our part to provide a little entertainment). For today, here\u2019s to our biggest 1 yet. And many more to come.<\/p>\n

Interested in learning more about how we got here?<\/strong> Check out the recent profile of Backblaze in Inc. magazine<\/a>, free to our blog readers.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the impact of coronavirus on all of our lives, it’s been a struggle to find pieces of good news. But we wanted to take a break from the usual programming and share a milestone we’re excited about, one that’s more than 12 years in the making.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":94591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[468],"class_list":["post-94559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cloud-storage","tag-b2cloud","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSharing a Milestone: We\u2019ve Reached One Exabyte of Stored Data!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yes, today, we\u2019re announcing that we are storing 1 exabyte of customer data. Thank you for putting your trust in us by keeping some of your bytes with us.\" \/>\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\/exabyte-unlocked\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sharing a Milestone: We\u2019ve Reached One Exabyte of Stored Data!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yes, today, we\u2019re announcing that we are storing 1 exabyte of customer data. Thank you for putting your trust in us by keeping some of your bytes with us.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/exabyte-unlocked\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/backblaze\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-24T03:40:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-02T14:24:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/bb-bh-1-exabyte.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"820\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ahin Thomas\" \/>\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=\"Ahin Thomas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sharing a Milestone: We\u2019ve Reached One Exabyte of Stored Data!","description":"Yes, today, we\u2019re announcing that we are storing 1 exabyte of customer data. Thank you for putting your trust in us by keeping some of your bytes with us.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/exabyte-unlocked\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sharing a Milestone: We\u2019ve Reached One Exabyte of Stored Data!","og_description":"Yes, today, we\u2019re announcing that we are storing 1 exabyte of customer data. Thank you for putting your trust in us by keeping some of your bytes with us.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/exabyte-unlocked\/","og_site_name":"Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/backblaze","article_published_time":"2020-03-24T03:40:50+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-07-02T14:24:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1440,"height":820,"url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/bb-bh-1-exabyte.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ahin Thomas","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@backblaze","twitter_site":"@backblaze","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ahin Thomas","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/exabyte-unlocked\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/exabyte-unlocked\/"},"author":{"name":"Ahin Thomas","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d96439e8602526b2212669b824c41c49"},"headline":"Exabyte Unlocked","datePublished":"2020-03-24T03:40:50+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-02T14:24:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/exabyte-unlocked\/"},"wordCount":720,"commentCount":13,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/exabyte-unlocked\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/bb-bh-1-exabyte.jpg","keywords":["B2Cloud"],"articleSection":["Cloud Storage"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/exabyte-unlocked\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/exabyte-unlocked\/","url":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/exabyte-unlocked\/","name":"Sharing a Milestone: We\u2019ve Reached One Exabyte of Stored Data!","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/exabyte-unlocked\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/exabyte-unlocked\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/bb-bh-1-exabyte.jpg","datePublished":"2020-03-24T03:40:50+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-02T14:24:17+00:00","description":"Yes, today, we\u2019re announcing that we are storing 1 exabyte of customer data. Thank you for putting your trust in us by keeping some of your bytes with us.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/exabyte-unlocked\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/exabyte-unlocked\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/exabyte-unlocked\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/bb-bh-1-exabyte.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/bb-bh-1-exabyte.jpg","width":1440,"height":820,"caption":"Backblaze Reaches an Exabyte of Customer Data Stored"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/exabyte-unlocked\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Exabyte Unlocked"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/","name":"Backblaze Cloud Solutions Blog","description":"Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Backblaze","url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/backblaze_icon_transparent.png?fit=512%2C512&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/backblaze_icon_transparent.png?fit=512%2C512&ssl=1","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Backblaze"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/backblaze","https:\/\/x.com\/backblaze","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/Backblaze","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Backblaze"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d96439e8602526b2212669b824c41c49","name":"Ahin Thomas","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fd29930968c75c628d357b38fd5439de48f41a51a2ce641021e242cafbb946d?s=96&d=blank&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fd29930968c75c628d357b38fd5439de48f41a51a2ce641021e242cafbb946d?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fd29930968c75c628d357b38fd5439de48f41a51a2ce641021e242cafbb946d?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Ahin Thomas"},"description":"Ahin enjoys writing in the third person, cookies (digital or baked), and is listening to the Matt Nathanson \"Live in Paradise\" album.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.backblaze.com","Ahin"],"url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/author\/ahin\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/bb-bh-1-exabyte.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94559","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\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}