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    Backblaze

    Backblaze chose Sungard AS to provide colocation services, delivering the high levels of redundancy needed for always-on, scalable business at an affordable cost.

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    Overview

    logo-backblaze-200x100

    Nearly a decade ago, when a leading provider of easy-to-use, affordable cloud storage solutions needed to protect 50 petabytes of customer data (growing at a fast clip), they chose Sungard Availability Services (Sungard AS) to provide colocation services, delivering the high levels of redundancy needed for always-on, scalable business at an affordable cost.

    SOLUTIONS
    • Colocation Services — Space & Power
    • Managed Services & Network Services — Managed Internet services
    RESULTS
    • Predictable cost structure
    • Non-stop availability for unlimited, scalable data storage capacity
    • Increased data center security and resiliency

    About Backblaze

    Backblaze, Inc. provides astonishingly easy and affordable cloud storage. An industry leader, Backblaze is one of the largest such providers on the planet and is known for being an innovator in the cloud storage space.

    Backblaze, Inc. was founded in 2007 in San Mateo, CA, bootstrapped as a completely sustainable and scalable business leader. With over 130 employees globally and hundreds of thousands of customers, Backblaze is growing at rapid clip with data centers in western U.S. and Europe. Over 45 billion files are backed up in numerous data centers, including the Sungard AS data center in Rancho Cordova, CA.

    We’re very proud of the fact that with Backblaze, our  customers have peace of mind knowing their files are always backed up securely in the cloud. Sungard AS understands our business and provides us with the durability and availability we expect.

    Vice President of Marketing, Backblaze

     

    Challenge

    Growth and expectations begin to soar

    A world leader in computer backup and cloud storage, Backblaze, Inc. has customers in over 160 countries. With more than an exabyte of data under management, Backblaze products are used by a wide variety of customers including consumers, small & medium-sized businesses and enterprises to protect and store their valuable data.

    Backblaze provides two fundamental products: The first, Computer Backup, offers unlimited data backup of laptops and desktops for just $60/year; the second, B2 Cloud Storage, is a public cloud solution similar to Amazon’s S3 but offered at ¼ of the price.

    With hundreds of thousands of customers around the globe using their products, the biggest challenge facing Backblaze, Inc. today is the same challenge facing the overall cloud storage industry: hyper-growth, coupled with heightened customer expectations, according to Ahin Thomas, Vice President of Marketing for Backblaze, Inc.

    There’s no dispute that data is expanding at a phenomenal rate; the average American produces the equivalent of a small novel’s worth of data every 24 hours. With an incredible 2.5 quintillion bytes of data being created daily1, the digital universe is expected to reach 44 zettabytes in 2020. In other words, there are 40 times more bytes of data floating in the digital sphere than there are stars in the visible universe2.

    “There are plenty of data storage solutions that are readily available and fast, but too often they are expensive and hard to maintain,” says Thomas. “Then in comes the cloud with its ease of maintenance, infinite scalability and cost advantages. Customers now have more recovery options than ever before. But that flexibility does not change the fundamental need for safety, dependability and durability.” Backblaze wanted a partner that could bolster their physical security so they could focus on offering highly secure data storage at a fair price.

    They turned to Sungard AS in 2012 while searching for a colocation partner that could meet their expanding needs during a storage growth stretch. Aware of Sungard AS’ decades worth of experience keeping mission-critical operations highly available for customers around the world, Backblaze knew that Sungard AS was up to the task.

    1Northeastern University Graduate Programs, May 13, 2016: How Much Data is Produced Every Day?

    2World Economic Forum, April 17, 2019: How Much Data is Generated Each Day? by Jeff Desjardins, Founder and editor, Visual Capitalist

    Solution

    Colocation brings scalability, security

    With nearly 70,000 square feet of hardened, secure operations space with biometric security and redundant power, Sungard AS’ Rancho Cordova site offers competitive pricing and 100% SLA-backed availability to help customers streamline and manage complexity, minimize risk and adapt to change.

    With Sungard AS Colocation Services, Backblaze can rely on their 24x7 onsite service management team for comprehensive technical, administrative and engineering colocation support.

    Some of the benefits of colocation include:

    • More effective use of capital
    • Higher availability for mission-critical applications through power redundancy
    • Industrial grade cooling
    • Scalability and growth

    When choosing a colocation provider, IT Operations teams should look for reliable facilities that offer uptime, power environments, physical security, carrier diversity, and high-quality networks.

    “Choosing Sungard AS was the right decision,” Thomas says. “Customers don’t want to skimp on accessibility. Finding partners like Sungard AS who will work with us on economies of scale as we offer seamless, robust customer solutions is a win-win.”

    Benefit

    Room to keep growing

    Since deploying colocation with Sungard AS in 2012, data under Backblaze management has grown from roughly 50 petabytes to well over an exabyte, with no sign of slowing down. For comparison’s sake, 50 petabytes are the equivalent of every written work ever composed; five exabytes would be equal to all the words ever spoken by humankind. “From gaming companies to genomics researchers to media and entertainment distributors, all shapes and sizes of enterprises use our storage capabilities in radically different ways,” according to Thomas.

    Backblaze’s Fireball product — a data ingest device for securely migrating data to the B2 cloud — transfers massive data sets into B2: up to 70 terabytes per Backblaze Fireball. Customers often use multiple Backblaze Fireballs to meet their needs. Case in point: Austin City Limits (ACL) uses B2 Cloud Storage to store copies of all their media files and archive footage, from the pilot episode in 1974 featuring Willie Nelson to more than 550 hour-long episodes covering well-known and obscure musical artists and groups over the past 42 years.

    But with all this growth, Backblaze still dedicates valuable time and resources to continuously improving durability while driving down costs. “For example, we’re relentless in maintaining the lowest storage costs in the industry,” Thomas said. “As a customer, I want a lot of value and I want to pay as little as possible for it; but at the end of the day, I expect it to work. Sungard AS allows us to scale up so that our customers can be sure we’re providing them the same great level of service.”

    For more than 13 years, with over an exabyte of data stored from customers across the globe, Backblaze systems have scaled successfully and reliably with no downtime — in part due to its colocation partnership with Sungard AS.

    Peace of mind for the future

    Sungard AS brings a multi-dimensional partnership to the table, as well as core values that closely mirror those of Backblaze: accountability, initiative, respect, integrity and teamwork.

    “Our storage business is increasing at incredibly high rates; customers generate more data every minute, every hour, every day,” Thomas continued. “We are experiencing hyper-growth and expanding the geographies we serve. In Sungard AS, we have a partner that we know will level up with our existing efforts, but with an eye on the future.”

    In 2019, Backblaze opened their first data center outside of North America. With Sungard AS’ resilient, hardened colocation data centers and disaster recovery centers in 45 locations worldwide, Backblaze can count on a highly available, cloud-connected infrastructure.

    logo-backblaze-200x100

    Nearly a decade ago, when a leading provider of easy-to-use, affordable cloud storage solutions needed to protect 50 petabytes of customer data (growing at a fast clip), they chose Sungard Availability Services (Sungard AS) to provide colocation services, delivering the high levels of redundancy needed for always-on, scalable business at an affordable cost.

    SOLUTIONS
    • Colocation Services — Space & Power
    • Managed Services & Network Services — Managed Internet services
    RESULTS
    • Predictable cost structure
    • Non-stop availability for unlimited, scalable data storage capacity
    • Increased data center security and resiliency

    About Backblaze

    Backblaze, Inc. provides astonishingly easy and affordable cloud storage. An industry leader, Backblaze is one of the largest such providers on the planet and is known for being an innovator in the cloud storage space.

    Backblaze, Inc. was founded in 2007 in San Mateo, CA, bootstrapped as a completely sustainable and scalable business leader. With over 130 employees globally and hundreds of thousands of customers, Backblaze is growing at rapid clip with data centers in western U.S. and Europe. Over 45 billion files are backed up in numerous data centers, including the Sungard AS data center in Rancho Cordova, CA.

    We’re very proud of the fact that with Backblaze, our  customers have peace of mind knowing their files are always backed up securely in the cloud. Sungard AS understands our business and provides us with the durability and availability we expect.

    Vice President of Marketing, Backblaze

     

    Growth and expectations begin to soar

    A world leader in computer backup and cloud storage, Backblaze, Inc. has customers in over 160 countries. With more than an exabyte of data under management, Backblaze products are used by a wide variety of customers including consumers, small & medium-sized businesses and enterprises to protect and store their valuable data.

    Backblaze provides two fundamental products: The first, Computer Backup, offers unlimited data backup of laptops and desktops for just $60/year; the second, B2 Cloud Storage, is a public cloud solution similar to Amazon’s S3 but offered at ¼ of the price.

    With hundreds of thousands of customers around the globe using their products, the biggest challenge facing Backblaze, Inc. today is the same challenge facing the overall cloud storage industry: hyper-growth, coupled with heightened customer expectations, according to Ahin Thomas, Vice President of Marketing for Backblaze, Inc.

    There’s no dispute that data is expanding at a phenomenal rate; the average American produces the equivalent of a small novel’s worth of data every 24 hours. With an incredible 2.5 quintillion bytes of data being created daily1, the digital universe is expected to reach 44 zettabytes in 2020. In other words, there are 40 times more bytes of data floating in the digital sphere than there are stars in the visible universe2.

    “There are plenty of data storage solutions that are readily available and fast, but too often they are expensive and hard to maintain,” says Thomas. “Then in comes the cloud with its ease of maintenance, infinite scalability and cost advantages. Customers now have more recovery options than ever before. But that flexibility does not change the fundamental need for safety, dependability and durability.” Backblaze wanted a partner that could bolster their physical security so they could focus on offering highly secure data storage at a fair price.

    They turned to Sungard AS in 2012 while searching for a colocation partner that could meet their expanding needs during a storage growth stretch. Aware of Sungard AS’ decades worth of experience keeping mission-critical operations highly available for customers around the world, Backblaze knew that Sungard AS was up to the task.

    1Northeastern University Graduate Programs, May 13, 2016: How Much Data is Produced Every Day?

    2World Economic Forum, April 17, 2019: How Much Data is Generated Each Day? by Jeff Desjardins, Founder and editor, Visual Capitalist

    Colocation brings scalability, security

    With nearly 70,000 square feet of hardened, secure operations space with biometric security and redundant power, Sungard AS’ Rancho Cordova site offers competitive pricing and 100% SLA-backed availability to help customers streamline and manage complexity, minimize risk and adapt to change.

    With Sungard AS Colocation Services, Backblaze can rely on their 24x7 onsite service management team for comprehensive technical, administrative and engineering colocation support.

    Some of the benefits of colocation include:

    • More effective use of capital
    • Higher availability for mission-critical applications through power redundancy
    • Industrial grade cooling
    • Scalability and growth

    When choosing a colocation provider, IT Operations teams should look for reliable facilities that offer uptime, power environments, physical security, carrier diversity, and high-quality networks.

    “Choosing Sungard AS was the right decision,” Thomas says. “Customers don’t want to skimp on accessibility. Finding partners like Sungard AS who will work with us on economies of scale as we offer seamless, robust customer solutions is a win-win.”

    Room to keep growing

    Since deploying colocation with Sungard AS in 2012, data under Backblaze management has grown from roughly 50 petabytes to well over an exabyte, with no sign of slowing down. For comparison’s sake, 50 petabytes are the equivalent of every written work ever composed; five exabytes would be equal to all the words ever spoken by humankind. “From gaming companies to genomics researchers to media and entertainment distributors, all shapes and sizes of enterprises use our storage capabilities in radically different ways,” according to Thomas.

    Backblaze’s Fireball product — a data ingest device for securely migrating data to the B2 cloud — transfers massive data sets into B2: up to 70 terabytes per Backblaze Fireball. Customers often use multiple Backblaze Fireballs to meet their needs. Case in point: Austin City Limits (ACL) uses B2 Cloud Storage to store copies of all their media files and archive footage, from the pilot episode in 1974 featuring Willie Nelson to more than 550 hour-long episodes covering well-known and obscure musical artists and groups over the past 42 years.

    But with all this growth, Backblaze still dedicates valuable time and resources to continuously improving durability while driving down costs. “For example, we’re relentless in maintaining the lowest storage costs in the industry,” Thomas said. “As a customer, I want a lot of value and I want to pay as little as possible for it; but at the end of the day, I expect it to work. Sungard AS allows us to scale up so that our customers can be sure we’re providing them the same great level of service.”

    For more than 13 years, with over an exabyte of data stored from customers across the globe, Backblaze systems have scaled successfully and reliably with no downtime — in part due to its colocation partnership with Sungard AS.

    Peace of mind for the future

    Sungard AS brings a multi-dimensional partnership to the table, as well as core values that closely mirror those of Backblaze: accountability, initiative, respect, integrity and teamwork.

    “Our storage business is increasing at incredibly high rates; customers generate more data every minute, every hour, every day,” Thomas continued. “We are experiencing hyper-growth and expanding the geographies we serve. In Sungard AS, we have a partner that we know will level up with our existing efforts, but with an eye on the future.”

    In 2019, Backblaze opened their first data center outside of North America. With Sungard AS’ resilient, hardened colocation data centers and disaster recovery centers in 45 locations worldwide, Backblaze can count on a highly available, cloud-connected infrastructure.