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Backblaze IPO

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Re: Backblaze IPO

#241

Post by tallanvor »

vaughan wrote: post #227
SahAssar wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry if I missed something, but you twice paid for long subscriptions for a service that did not work for you? What made you choose the two year plan when trying it the second time? Why did you pick the two year option at all the first time before trying it?

I forgot it didn't work the last time, and I needed an offsite backup solution. I was optimistic that I could configure the right excludes so it would work, but the sys pref change made this impossible. It takes a few weeks to upload everything, and by that time the trial has expired.

Upload time is very dependent on your ISP, not to mention your hardware. On the rare occasions that I generate 100+ GB of data that gets backed up, it takes Backblaze less than a day, but I have a 750/500Mbps connection, which certainly helps.

Re: Backblaze IPO

#242

Post by shoto_io »

femto113 wrote: post #180

This is an interesting moment to reflect on the wacky nature of IPO vs ICO valuations. Backblaze and Filecoin are, roughly speaking, in the same business (providing bulk file storage). Backblaze is looking to raise ~$100 million at a valuation of about $0.7 billion. Filecoin raised $250 million in their ICO, and the coin has a current "market cap" of about $7 billion. Backblaze owns about 1.8 EiB of storage, Filecoin…

I think the key question here is: are the two companies really in the same space?

If I’m a blackblaze customer, how likely am I to switch to filecoin. Is that even an option?

Re: Backblaze IPO

#243

Post by austinpena »

flatiron wrote: post #76
austinpena wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think B2 and R2 target different market segments.

The store stuff on the internet and the… Wait. What’s the other segment?

*opinions are mine and not my employers.

It depends how you're going to access your data/ compliance needs.

B2 per/TB storage is much cheaper than what R2 will be.

R2 will enable cross-region availability which can be necessary for many companies choosing to adopt.

It's my opinion that R2 targets more the likes of S3/ integrated storage providers rather than just being a "low cost" provider like Wasabi/Storj/B2/etc.

Re: Backblaze IPO

#244

Post by austinpena »

encryptluks2 wrote: post #77
austinpena wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think B2 and R2 target different market segments.

How so? Cloudflare R2 targets B2, but technically you're not supposed to use Cloudflare for free B2 egress unless you are on a paid plan.

What about the bandwidth alliance necessitates being on the paid plan?

https://www.cloudflare.com/bandwidth-alliance/backblaze/

Maybe you're referring to the "Limitation on Serving Non-HTML Content"?

https://www.cloudflare.com/terms/#28-limitation-on-serving-n...

Re: Backblaze IPO

#245

Post by matheusmoreira »

jee1shi wrote: post #135
matheusmoreira wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They said "yeah, we lose a ton of money on every user like you." Such an interesting statement. It's like they really think they can get away with offering "unlimited" storage without people taking full advantage of it. Like ISPs with their "unlimited" plans, they market that stuff and then they get mad if you actually saturate their link 24/7. I actually emailed backblaze about this years ago. I asked them if they…

> I gave up because transfering 20 TB over the internet is insane: it would take days to restore a backup. They now have a service that ships your data to you on a hard disk, and the cost is refunded when you return the disk.

It'd probably take even more time for that disk to reach me. I'd probably also get taxed.

Re: Backblaze IPO

#246

Post by deepsun »

KaseKun wrote: post #236
dannyw wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note: the 13 EiB pledged are real storage capacity: miners must provide a cryptographic proof every day, that they are storing this much space; or it doesn't count. I still think crypto valuations are excessively, tulip-y high, but valuation/byte is pretty similar. The cryptographic system that enables people to prove storage is called 'Proof of spacetime'; which sounds cringey, but it's pretty clever (begins at page…

People have said "tulips and crypto" when bitcoin was at $800, $5000, $20000, and now at $50000. I wonder when (if) it will stop? I also wonder if crypto valuations are a reflection of truly "free market" economics. Where there is little-to-no barrier to entry as a creator or an investor, and there is complete impossibility of counterfeiting assets.

Side-thought: User A "invested" $100 dollars into Bitcoin, thereby raising its price a little. Then, they accidentally lost the key (broken hard-drive, stolen laptop, forgot password etc). But Bitcoin price is still raised a little.

Re: Backblaze IPO

#247

Post by koheripbal »

olalonde wrote: post #229
kottaram wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CTO just said the truth. How else would he say that the customer's data will be deleted? Sure it was straight up blunt, but I think he was just speaking casually.

I am very confused by the email, especially the second point. I've never used Backblaze so maybe I'm missing some critical information. To me, it sounds like Backblaze was happily keeping a backup for a paying customer until said customer booted their laptop. They then threaten to delete the backup if customer doesn't update their software. I understand about warning that the software no longer works but why threaten…

My guess is that this one installation was causing a broader production issue.

I agree that a better solution would have been to remove the backup to a secondary system that the client could later access if needed.

Deleting in 7 days is unreasonable.

Re: Backblaze IPO

#248

Post by unixhero »

ehsankia wrote: post #131
robbiemitchell wrote: post #127

Apropos of nothing, I'll share one of the reasons why I've been a loyal customer since 2010. In 2013 I booted up a dormant 2006 Macbook to prep for lending to a friend. Shortly thereafter I received the following email: === Hi Robbie (first name guessed from email address)- This is NOT an automated email, I'm typing this live. You have the very very last computer on earth running an ancient version of Backblaze (vers…

I'm confused here. How does a threat of deleting your data in less than 7 days and not even canceling your billing makes you a loyal customer? That seems quite awful, miss the email and your data is gone, and you end up paying without them even storing any data.

7 days is way too short notice period, 30 or 60 days would be a better grace. However I think the overall message was really cool.

Re: Backblaze IPO

#249

Post by michaelt »

KaseKun wrote: post #236
dannyw wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note: the 13 EiB pledged are real storage capacity: miners must provide a cryptographic proof every day, that they are storing this much space; or it doesn't count. I still think crypto valuations are excessively, tulip-y high, but valuation/byte is pretty similar. The cryptographic system that enables people to prove storage is called 'Proof of spacetime'; which sounds cringey, but it's pretty clever (begins at page…

People have said "tulips and crypto" when bitcoin was at $800, $5000, $20000, and now at $50000. I wonder when (if) it will stop? I also wonder if crypto valuations are a reflection of truly "free market" economics. Where there is little-to-no barrier to entry as a creator or an investor, and there is complete impossibility of counterfeiting assets.

If someone thought bitcoins were overpriced tulips at $500, why would they change their mind when they reach $50,000?

Re: Backblaze IPO

#250

Post by chalupa-man »

kjaftaedi wrote: post #234
olalonde wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am very confused by the email, especially the second point. I've never used Backblaze so maybe I'm missing some critical information. To me, it sounds like Backblaze was happily keeping a backup for a paying customer until said customer booted their laptop. They then threaten to delete the backup if customer doesn't update their software. I understand about warning that the software no longer works but why threaten…

Likely some sort of encryption/privacy issues. Since the software version no longer works, they wouldn't be able to do a restore anyway. Keeping their old data on the live servers longer could be a liability. (just a guess, but i imagine it's something along these lines)

> they wouldn't be able to do a restore anyway.

The Backblaze software doesn't handle restores, it just backs things up. To restore, you download zip files of selected folders from the website.

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