Backblaze Backup



What have I been doing for the last six months?
Backblaze Online Backup

I keep hearing "So how is the new company going? Are you making any money?
You look like you haven't eaten in a while, want my sandwich?"

In September I left my job as a Visual Designer at Sonicwall to start a company with some friends and past co-workers. We tossed a bunch of ideas out for a startup including an iTunes for Bittorrent, an easy way to share photos taken with cell phones and a backup solution for normal people. We decided to do an online backup service because of how many friends and family really needed it. Being someone who "works with computers" means I am the go-to-guy for all support calls.

Backblaze Backup Party

Lots of our friends would call us in a panic every time they lost a file, or their hard drive died. Near tears they would plead "You can get it back right?" to which I would reply "Did you backup your stuff? No? Well I am afraid I have some bad news for you then. They're gone. All gone."

We investigated doing peer-to-peer backup or creating software for people to backup to DVD, external drive, work computers. The problem with P2P backup is that many users turn off their computers when they aren't using them. And what if you need to do an important restore, but your friend who you have been backing up to went on vacation? There were just too many issues around providing a high level of service, while depending on a network that was fickle as your crazy friends. However, hard drives are getting cheaper and people's connections are getting faster so we saw an opportunity to provide the storage ourselves.

Backing up online just makes sense. The backups occur automatically so a user doesn't have to remember to start it. The backups are offsite and encrypted so if there is a fire or flood or ninjas the files can be restored from anywhere. With Backblaze, we also wanted the backup's to be unlimited. We don't want people worried about going over their GB limit and either being charged more or not getting their recent vacation photos backed up.

Looking around the internet a lot of backup solutions are terrible. After creating an account on their site, going through a 14 step instillation and 10 step wizard, just to have the software crash. And those were the "easy" solutions.

Does this other backup company walkthrough look fast and easy?

Mozy Backup Walkthrough


So how is Backblaze Online Backup different?

  1. We start by creating our own installer to shorten the number of clicks.
  2. We simplify which files are selected for backup. In fact, we don't even ask the user which files, we just backup everything!
  3. We make sure your data is secure with military grade, end-to-end encryption.
  4. We make restore super easy; have a DVD or USB drive of all you files sent to you by FedEx.
  5. Made with TLC and brilliant coding.

 

So please check out my site: Backblaze Online Backup.


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