Backblaze introduces “cloud replication” to help businesses store and sync data across regions

Backblaze, a data backup and cloud storage provider for businesses and consumers, has launched a new “cloud replication service” that makes it easier for businesses to store and sync datasets across regions.

The launch follows a brief beta period that began in early April.

While Backblaze has been providing cloud storage and backup services for well over a decade, back in 2015 the company launched B2, an object storage service that cost a fraction of Amazon’s S3 – which was used to power backups across NAS (Network Attached Storage). Server, Virtual Machine (VM) and more.

Traditionally, many of its customers store large portions of their data on-premises and use Backblaze’s cloud to securely store their backups in an alternative “offsite” location. Over the years, the use cases surrounding B2 have evolved. Many companies are now going cloud first, using B2 for use cases beyond simple backups, such as: B. providing content for their own users. However, they still need to back up all their data to a location that is geographically separate from the primary copy. And that’s exactly what Backblaze’s new cloud replication service is all about – it automatically backs up data already stored in B2.

And there are many reasons why a company would want to do this.

come back up

Recent data center disasters underscore the importance of the 3-2-1 backup ethos, which dictates that at least it should be three Copies of a piece of data stored on two different media types, one of which should be in a completely different location. But even some highly regulated sectors require multiple backups in different regions for security or data storage needs. The ability to automatically create replication with minimal manual configuration can help organizations comply with regulations or the terms of a commercial contract.

“Enterprises want to replicate data primarily to protect their mission-critical data, but evolving compliance and data residency requirements are also key drivers,” Gleb Budman, co-founder and CEO of Backblaze, told VentureBeat. “Because existing replication services are complex, expensive, and only exist within closed platforms, they are either unaffordable, unattractive, or both for most organizations. Cloud replication solves this problem without straining IT teams or budgets.”

Additionally, the ability to maintain a fully synchronized dataset across multiple regions also opens the door to lower latency data access, with organizations storing their data closer to where it’s needed — especially important at a time like this , in which companies are increasingly remote and globally distributed. In addition, cloud replication solves a major pain point – it saves developers and companies from writing their own scripts as part of a manual data replication process or using costly and complex offerings from the major cloud platforms.

“The Backblaze offering allows them to easily replicate data themselves with minimal replication fees,” Budman said. “In fact, they can now keep two full copies of their data in the US and Europe for less than half the price of a single copy with traditional cloud providers.”