Sometimes when you first hear an idea you think, “OK, that’s crazy.” That’s what happened when our PR folks came to us in marketing with the idea of having Backblaze be on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. It was a crazy idea.

For those of you who know Backblaze, we have grown from a gleam in our founders’ eye to a profitable, reasonably well known company in the Online Backup business. We didn’t spend our money on TV commercials, radio ads and the like, we relied on making a great product, and having our customers tell their family and friends about us. So when someone said, “you can be on Ellen,” you can understand why we thought they might be a bit of a loon.

It was just before Christmas when we were first approached with the idea of having Backblaze be on Ellen. We weren’t ready. We were approached again just before Valentine’s Day, then again before Mother’s Day. Each time we’d talk through it and each time we’d get closer to saying yes. But we still said no. This was a really big deal. Was it the right thing for Backblaze to do? Could we handle the new demand without compromising service to our existing customers? What would happen if nothing happened?

We talked around this for months. Our PR folks continued to nudge and slowly the rest of us in marketing got comfortable with the idea. It could work, we could do it, and it would be amazing.

So we said yes.

Contracts were signed, emails were sent, and we were on our way. A couple of Backblaze folks went down to Burbank to watch the filming (more on that in another post).

So here we are, Backblaze is on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Watch the video, enjoy the show, and remember to tell your friends and relatives about Backblaze, after all, that’s what we’re all about.

A few weeks ago we told you we had been selected as a finalist for the 2013 SIIA Software CODiE Awards in the Best Cloud Storage and Back Up Solution category. We were very proud of being selected as a finalist, that was really cool.

Well guess what, WE WON! So, we are no longer a finalist, instead we are the winner! You can read all about the CODiE Awards on the SIIA website. Winning the award was awesome enough, but then they gave us the trophy you see above – is that cool or what? We’ve been admiring it for days and taking turns taking it home to show off. OK, so maybe only I took it home, but it is still an awesome trophy.

So we’d like to say Thank You to the SIIA and its members for naming us as the 2013 Best Cloud Storage and Back Up Solution winner. We will do our best to live up to the high standards they have set for being selected as a CODiE Awards winner.

Mother’s Day is right around the corner, and we want to wish all the mothers out there a fantastic Sunday! We also wanted to post this adorable picture of Yev and his mother.

We’re sure that you have the greatest gifts already picked out for the mothers in your lives, but if not, we’d like to suggest Backblaze online backup! You can give your mother the gift of peace of mind by buying her a Backblaze gift subscription! Is it a dozen roses? No. Is it a shiny pair of earrings? Nope. Does it taste like dark chocolate? Sorry. But it does help her protect all those photos, videos, and memories she’s accumulated of you throughout the years. Online backup as a mother’s day gift? Of course! Peace of mind is a great gift to give!

Last year Backblaze announced a partnership with Sourcenext to help spread online backup throughout Japan.  After all, backing up your computer is a good idea, no matter where you live!  This year Sourcenext is releasing a retail box for us!  Let’s take a look inside shall we?

We announced Backblaze Mobile a few months ago, and while it took a little longer than expected (we couldn’t help but add in features) Backblaze Mobile for iPhone is now ready for you! That’s right! If you have a Backblaze account, you’ll now be able to access your online backup on the go, from your iOS device! What about Android? That’s coming up next, stay tuned!

What Does Backblaze Mobile Do?
Backblaze Mobile is a free app, available in the App Store, that allows you to access, download, experience, and share all of the data that’s been uploaded from your desktop or laptop and to your active Backblaze account.

Access	Download	Experience	Share
(click on any picture above to see it in full size)

How it Works:

Access: After signing in to your Backblaze account, you’ll see a list of all the computers (Windows and/or Macs) you are backing up with Backblaze online backup. Select one of these computers. Next you’ll see all the drives for that system that Backblaze currently has backed up. This can include multiple internal as well as connected external USB, Firewire and Thunderbolt drives.

Download: The folders and files are organized just like those on your computer, so the files you want are easy to find. Once you’ve located your file it can be downloaded to the iPhone. Remember, the current the file size limit for a single file is 30 MB. You can download as many files as you want and you can see a list of your recently downloaded files by selecting the “downloads” button.

Experience: Once the file is downloaded you can see and/or hear the file. Viewing a PDF, listening to a MP3, or previewing a Microsoft Word doc are all possible. You’ll be able to see and/or hear all the file types your iPhone knows how to present.

Share: Once you’re sure you have the right file you can share it. The options you get depend on the type of file, for example, if the file is an MP3, you may not see the “print” option, but it will be present for a JPG or GIF file.

Take Control!

The Backblaze Mobile app will give you greater access to all the data you’ve backed up with Backblaze throughout the years. Forgot a presentation? No problem, just download it to your phone. Have a picture on your computer that you want to show to a friend? No problem, just download it to your phone. Hanging out with friends and remember a fun picture you took, and then have an urge to post it to Facebook and tag them in it? No problem, just download it to your phone and share it! With Backblaze Mobile you can finally take control of your data.

Have questions? Check out the Backblaze Mobile FAQ!

We are very proud to announce that Backblaze was selected as a finalist for the 2013 SIIA Software CODiE Awards in the Best Cloud Storage and Back Up Solution category. The SIIA CODiE Awards are the premier award for the software and information industries, and have been recognizing product excellence for 27 years.

To become a finalist, Backblaze had to be evaluated by a panel of industry judges and be compared to the other category entrants. There were a myriad of questions to answer and the judges ran Backblaze through it’s paces to make sure it did everything we said. We also had to address how Backblaze delivered in the areas of agility, flexibility, redundancy, reliability, scalability and most importantly security. The thoroughness of the evaluation not only included the Backblaze client like the one on your PC or Mac, but the entire Backblaze infrastructure. This makes sense, given the breadth of the category “Best Cloud Storage and Back up Solution”.

While many people find our service to be the easiest online backup solution around, the real magic is masking the complexity that is inherent in backing up, storing and restoring our customer’s data. Over the past 5 plus years Backblaze has safely backed up and now stores nearly 50 Petabytes of user data and so far we’ve restored over 3 Billion files for our customers.

We’d like to thank the SIIA for naming us as an SIIA CODiE Awards finalist in the Best Cloud Storage and Back Up Solution category. And we’d like to thank you our customers for believing in us as well.

We try to be really honest and up-front here at Backblaze online backup, but we have a few things that we keep close to the chest. Even though we told the story behind our drive farming a few months ago, there were some things we didn’t tell you. We’re sorry. So, we created this video to come clean, and while we did write about a few of our drive farming methods, you can finally see the full scope of our nefarious drive farming deeds. We hope you don’t think less of us, and we appreciate everyone that helped us in our endeavors!

Backblaze is giving away one million dollars worth of the Backblaze online backup service. “Whoa”, you say, “Backblaze is like the thriftiest company ever, now they’re giving away a million dollars worth of their service, what gives?”

That’s a fair question. Here’s the deal…

Starting immediately and running through the end of World Backup Day (March 31, 2013 11:59 PM PDT), Mac and PC users new to Backblaze can sign up to receive 3 months of the Backblaze online backup service for free (a $15 value). To sign up, all you need to do is go to www.backblaze.com/worldbackupday and enter a valid email address during the promotional period. The first 66,667 unique and valid email accounts to sign up will receive an email containing their personal code, providing them with 3 months of unlimited online backup from Backblaze. That’s it. A new Backblaze customer can sign-up, get a code via email, and run Backblaze for free for 3 months.

“OK, that’s cool, but what about us existing customers, are we being left out?”

Of course not. We have entered all of our existing customers into a contest. We will randomly select 5 lucky winners and each winner will receive an iPad Mini. We’ll select the winners on April 2nd and contact them via email at that time.

“Nice, but three free months of Backblaze is nearly as good as an iPad Mini. Any chance I can get the free Backblaze?”

To use the free 3-month code, you will need to create a new Backblaze account. You cannot add the 3-month code to an existing Backblaze license. So if you have a second computer laying around that you’ve been meaning to back up with Backblaze, now’s your chance. Or maybe you’ve been thinking of getting Backblaze for your Aunt Polly or Grandpa Roger, now’s your chance. One thing to know, if you cancel your existing Backblaze license so you can use this new free 3-month code, you’ll have to resend us all of your data again – is it really worth it?

So that’s it, one million dollars worth of the Backblaze service for free for new customers. Now there’s no excuse not to back-it-up with Backblaze.

*Update* – Thanks everyone for signing up! Codes are going out soon, and the iPad Mini winners will be notified on April 2nd, 2013 (so they don’t think it’s an April Fool’s joke)!

Backblaze has a great support team and one of the most frequent requests they receive is, “could you please provide an invoice?” From the beginning, we’ve been handcrafting every invoice that’s been sent out, and while we love making our customers happy, as Backblaze has grown it’s become increasingly difficult to keep up with all the requests. Over the last few years, we’ve been hard at work making the best online backup solution possible and that meant that our engineers were working on iterating and expanding the functionality of our backup client. Unfortunately this meant that some of the non-mission critical improvements we’ve wanted to make had to take a backseat. Well, the day of automated invoicing is finally upon us! Thanks to Monika, the latest addition to our engineering team. After joining Backblaze she was tasked with something of the utmost importance, creating an invoicing system so that you can get your own invoices!

That’s right! Starting today you will be able to go to the “Transactions” section of your Backblaze account and select a year or billing period for which you would like to receive an invoice. Once created, you will be able to print or download the invoice which will have all of your Backblaze transactions including your dates of purchase, the number of licenses purchased, and the total cost. Even though this may sound like a minor improvement it is something we are very excited about!

What’s New?
For Storage Pod 3.0 we redesigned the chassis and upgraded many of the components. Most of the changes are aimed at improving the reliability and flexibility of the Storage Pod. The full parts list is in Appendix A at the end of this post.

Here are the highlights:

• 180 terabytes of storage. With the availability of 4 TB hard drives a Storage Pod can now be configured to store 180 TB (45 x 4 TB). As a bonus the same chassis and components can be used with any capacity of 3.5” hard drives.
• Anti-vibration drive bay assemblies. There are now 3 assemblies, one for each row of 15 drives. Each assembly is designed to lock down a row of drives in place. These assemblies replace the “drive bands” around each drive. This saves nearly an hour during Pod assembly and makes drive replacement easier as well.

  The key advantage of the drive bay assemblies is to reduce vibration. These assemblies not only keep the drives still, they also keep them firmly seated in the backplanes. Over the past several months we have tested different models of drives in the new drive bay assemblies and we have seen a dramatic improvement in overall system performance along with lower drive failure rates.

• Upgraded motherboard. We now use the Supermicro MBD-X9SCL-F motherboard which replaces the previous model. The new motherboard adds a host of advanced processing features from Intel, as well as upgrades the PCIe slots to double throughput. Note that while our currently specified SATA cards do not take advantage of this increased throughput, it’s nice to know we can use it in the future.
• More motherboard choices. We added standoffs to the chassis to provide better support for Micro ATX motherboards while still supporting the Standard ATX form factor. Specifically the new standoffs support the outer edge of the Micro ATX boards.
• CPU. We upgraded the CPU to a 2nd generation Intel Core i3-2100 processor to replace the end of lifed (EOL) i3-540 model. This also gets us a little bump in clock speed (3.06 to 3.1 GHz), lower power usage (65 versus 73 watts), and more supported RAM (32GB up from 16GB).
• Memory. We changed memory suppliers, so now the memory is certified by Supermicro.
• Boot drive options. With Storage Pod 3.0, boot drives can now be 2.5” or 3.5” and we allow a second 2.5” drive to be attached for use in a redundant RAID1 boot volume. Boot-up drives can also be traditional HD or SSD drives. Backblaze switched to 2.5” boot drives because they are less expensive and are more reliable, but we didn’t want to eliminate support for 3.5” drives in case anyone needs a higher capacity 3.5” drive.
• Backplanes. While we continue to use the same backplanes (Sil3726 chipset) as with Pod 2.0, there is another backplane based on the newer Silicon Image Sil3826 chipset that can be used. If you do use the Sil3826 based backplanes, you’ll notice that boot up can take a long time due to a large number of time-out/retry errors during the boot process. Eventually the boot up process will succeed. To fix this, you can use these instructions to update the backplane driver in your Linux kernel so you can use the Sil3826 based backplanes.
• SATA cables. We replaced our SATA cable vendor with Nippon Labs. If you decide to use another vendor, look for cables that are SATA II or SATA III compliant and test them extensively. While any SATA II or SATA III cable should work we have found quality control problems with a number of vendors. In all cases it was the connectors, not the cables, which were defective.
• Metal standoffs in the chassis. We replaced the plastic standoffs with metal components that can be manufactured as part of the chassis to reduce the cost and assembly time.
• Improved airflow. The vent design was improved to increase airflow through the pod. We’ve never really had a problem with heat in the pods, and we’d like to keep it that way.
• Chassis rivets. We replaced many of the screws with rivets. This simplifies the manufacturing process and saves times during the assembly process. Note, if you end up buying a case from Protocase (more on them later), they continue to use screws versus rivets. The two manufacturing processes produce the same basic chassis regardless.
• Costs Less. For Storage Pod 2.0, the price for the components without drives was $1,984.00. For Pod 3.0 the price is $1,942.59, or $37.41 less – or about a 1.9% decrease in the cost (see Appendix A for a parts breakdown). The main component in the total cost will be the hard drives. The lingering effects from the Thailand drive crisis and consolidation in the drive industry have meant that even today hard drive prices are higher than they were when Pod 2.0 was introduced back in July of 2011 but here’s one way you can save a little on the price of hard drives.

Lessons Learned
Backblaze currently has over 450 Storage Pods deployed and manages nearly 50 petabytes of data. There are also many Storage Pods being used by organizations around the globe. Along the way we’ve learned a few things:

• Firmware revisions matter. Watch out, manufacturers update hardware and upgrade firmware without changing their model number. These updates are intended to fix bugs but in the process new bugs can be introduced. Read the release notes carefully and downgrade the firmware to the version you’ve tested whenever possible. When updates are unavoidable, test them thoroughly before deploying them.
• Let your vendors do the testing. Components like memory, PCIe cards and hard drives are modular and should all play well together. Unfortunately, the specs that allow for this interoperability (PCIe, SATA, DDR3, etc) are as complicated as are the components themselves. Because of this, use ‘certified’ components whenever possible. This will minimize problems and avoid finger pointing between vendors if problems do arise.
• Don’t make random changes to our design. It might be tempting to try a build a pod out of the spare parts lying around your office but don’t do it. The components specified in the parts list in Appendix A are known to work well together. We believe in iteration and experimentation but don’t reinvent the wheel unless you have to.
• There is more to power than just Watts. ATX power supplies deliver power at several voltages or ‘rails’ (12V, 5V, 3.3V, etc). Each vendor imposes unique limits on the amount of power you can draw off of each rail and unused power on one rail cannot be used on another. In particular, most high end power supplies are designed to deliver most of their power on the 12V rail because that is what high end gamer PCs use. Unfortunately, hard drives draw a lot of power off the 5V rail and can easily overwhelm a high wattage power supply. You will hit serious problems if power requirements for each component are not met so be careful if you don’t use the power supplies we recommend.
• Keep it simple. For hard drives, SATA cards, SATA cables, backplanes, etc. you should use the same vendor, part number and/or model number as much as possible. By keeping things simple you reduce the number of variables that need to be considered if things go wrong. If you do mix components do it intentionally and for a good reason like comparing the performance of 3 different hard drives. And when you do this, make sure you’ve set things up in a way that allows you to draw clear conclusions. For example: with hard drives, if you want to compare the performance of 3 different models you should arrange them so that each RAID array is homogeneous. You should also take care to make sure each array is spread across all backplanes and SATA cards so that you don’t have IO hotspots which could taint your results.
• Things change. Just when you get comfortable with a part, it will be discontinued or upgraded. We buy in quantity, we buy spares, and we have substitutes ready to go at any time. We also look for parts that have long-term support policies. We realize you may not be able to do these things, so be prepared when you upgrade one component that something may break.

The Uses and Users of a Storage Pod
In general there are three types of storage:

1. Transactional storage that provides real time or near real time access to data.
2. Bulk storage which stores a large amount of data yet provides access to that data within seconds to minutes.
3. Archive storage which keeps all of your data and often requires hours to days to access the data you need.

All are important. Our Backblaze Storage Pods were designed, built and implemented to economically hold large amounts of data yet provide access to that data in seconds to minutes, thus they are purpose-built for bulk storage. The economics of using a Backblaze Storage Pod for storage have driven many organizations and people to build and utilize Storage Pods inspired by Backblaze. This community has also built upon the Backblaze design and specifications to build Storage Pods for all types of storage needs. Here are a few examples:

• GINA, The Geographic Information Network of Alaska stores geospatial information.
• Vanderbilt University Institute of Image Science stores MRI scanner data for their research partners.
• Crispin Porter + Bogusky create ads for companies like Old Navy, Best Buy, Coke Zero and others, they archive their media campaigns on a Storage Pod.
• Netflix created their Open Connect Appliances, inspired by Backblaze Storage Pods, to store videos closer to their customers.
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Heritage Auctions, the University of New Mexico and many more.

Storage Pod Economics
When we announced Storage Pod 2.0 in July of 2011, the price dropped by 15% and we doubled the amount of storage versus Storage Pod 1.0. So with Storage Pod 3.0, this should be the section where we would say something like “as hard drive prices have dropped, the economics have continued to improve.” We would say that, except that the Thailand drive crisis which began in October of 2011 raised hard drive prices dramatically. That event, and perhaps the continuing consolidation of hard drive manufacturers, has meant that hard drives prices have yet to return to their July 2011 levels. For example, the hard drive we specified in the Storage Pod 2.0 blog post was listed at $120 (Hitachi 3TB 5400 HDSS5C3030ALA630). To purchase that same drive today you would pay $199 with very limited availability. To be fair there are other drives available that we use, but even the least expensive drive is $125 and that’s an external USB drive that must be ‘shucked’ before it can be used. With the increase in drive prices and decrease in availability, we have validated a variety of drives that work in Backblaze Storage Pods. Here is a list of the drives we have tested and currently use:

4 TB drives
• Hitachi – HDS5C4040ALE630 (Just starting to use these, but they look good.)

3 TB drives
• Hitachi- HDS5C3030ALA630 (low power)
• Hitachi – HDS723030ALA640 (high power)
• Western Digital – WDC WD30EFRX‑68AX9N0 (RED)
• Seagate – ST3000DM001‑9YN166 (slightly higher failure rate)

Another thing we expected to happen was wide availability of 4 TB drives with the subsequent price drop. Only recently have we been able to get a reliable supply of 4 TB drives and prices are starting to drop. While we have built and deployed 180 TB Storage Pods (forty-five 4 TB drives) and we expect to move to exclusively building 180 TB Storage Pods in the near future, the cost per TB for 3 TB systems versus is 4 TB systems is nearly the same.

Storage Costs
The table below compares the total cost of different Backblaze Storage Pod configurations.

Description	Pod 2.0	Pod 3.0	Pod 3.0
Drive size	3 TB	3 TB	4 TB
Our cost per drive	$120	$125	$195
Number of drives	45	45	45
Chassis cost	$1,984.00	$1,942.59	$1,942.59
Drive cost	$5,400.00	$5,625.00	$8,775.00
Total cost	$7,384.00	$7,567.59	$10,717.59
Total size in TB	135	135	180
Cost per TB	$54.70	$56.06	$59.54
Cost per GB	$0.0547	$0.0561	$0.0595

While it looks like the cost of a 4TB drive system is more expensive, when you factor in rack space, electricity, installation labor, etc. the long term cost for Backblaze leans towards using 4 TB drives. Our monthly cost for a full rack of Storage Pods with 3 TB drives is $0.63 per TB, while a full rack of Storage Pods with 4 TB drives is $0.47 per TB. When you factor all the costs together, it takes about 5 months for us to recover the extra cost encountered when building 4 TB based Storage Pods.

Building Your Own Storage Pod
Since Backblaze has given away the design, you can build your own Storage Pod. You’ll want to start with the parts list in Appendix A. From there feel free to change out some of the components, redesign the case, or completely change out the design. It’s up to you, but pay attention to the “lessons learned” noted earlier. To help you out, here’s a nice screen shot assembly walk-through from Protocase you can review and here’s a Storage Pod assembly overview (PDF-1.5MB) that you can download. You may also find some fellow Pod Builders by visiting the openstoragepod.org web site for information on their efforts to develop “affordable & energy-efficient high-capacity storage servers, built from commodity components”.

One thing to know is since we don’t sell the Storage Pods and don’t make money off any ancillary services, we don’t provide support or a warranty for people who build their own. To all of those builders who take up the challenge, we’d love to hear from you and welcome any insights you provide about the experience.

Buying a Storage Pod
If you are interested in buying a Storage Pod or having one built for you we recommend you talk to the folks at Protocase. They have built hundreds of Storage Pods. They can also help you with design changes for a reasonable fee. Also, their 45 Drives wiki site contains useful technical information about their Backblaze inspired Storage Pods.

As noted earlier Protocase continues to use screws versus rivets in the assembly process of their Storage Pods. From a functional point-of-view you will notice no difference in the finished product.

Another thing to know about Protocase is that they do not include hard drives with their Storage Pods. Protocase does test each Storage Pod they build with drives before they ship the unit to you, but it’s up to you to buy and install the hard drives. This is pretty easy to do, but be forewarned; sometimes buying 45 hard drives at Costco can be an issue.

Thanks for All the Fish
Thank you to everyone that has helped with ideas for how to improve the Storage Pods and to those who have helped spread the word on the reality of inexpensive big data storage. We welcome your continued feedback and support. Enjoy the design!

Appendix A – Price List:

The prices listed below are what we pay for the parts. To obtain these prices we do purchase then in quantity.