If you’ve ever told an IT professional that you’re using Dropbox to back up files and were greeted with a side eye and a stifled “well, actually…” it’s because Dropbox isn’t actually a backup. It’s for syncing data. The distinction is subtle, but critical.
If you’re reading this post, you probably already know that data is always at risk of loss to accidental deletion, system updates, or even if you forget your password and get locked out of your account. The difference between backing up and syncing is that syncing your data will not protect it from these risks.
It’s easy to accidentally lose access to a sync service where you might be keeping files or images that no longer live on your computer. Many colleges and universities now even offer file hosting service subscriptions to students for free—until they graduate. After students earn their diplomas and leave the dorms, these services graduate, too, and students either get locked out of their accounts or have to choose between switching to a free tier and compromising on storage space or paying the fees to keep their existing subscription tier.
To make sure your data stays safe and secure, you’ll want to make sure you have a copy of it on your local device as well as a copy backed up to the cloud. A 3-2-1 backup strategy is always your best bet for securely storing your data. In this post, we’ll walk you through downloading your data from Dropbox and some strategies for backing up your downloaded files.
To help you save your synced computer data, we’re developing a series of guides to downloading and backing up your data across different sync services, like OneDrive. Comment below to let us know what other sync services you’d like to see us cover.
How to Download Files From Dropbox
Note: If you are using the Dropbox client to sync the files that are on your computer, the option to download your files may be replaced by an option to open them, instead. Clicking on “Open” will open up the files directly from the file on your computer where they are saved.
To download a file or folder from Dropbox, follow these steps:
Sign in to your Dropbox account. (We know, this is pretty self-evident. We’re just trying to be thorough here).
Find the file or folder you’d like to download and hover your cursor over it.
Click on the three dots.
Select Download. Your files will appear in the Downloads folder on your computer, and folders will be downloaded as .zip files.
It’s also important to note that Dropbox only supports downloads of folders that are less than 20GB and contain fewer than 10,000 total files.
How to Back Up Your Dropbox Data
Now that you have all of your Dropbox files downloaded to your computer, you’ll want to follow through with the next steps of the 3-2-1 backup strategy. By saving a copy of your data on an external or secondary device (like a hard drive), and a third copy in an off-site location (like the cloud) your data will be protected from any number of possible risks. Backblaze Personal Backup automatically and continuously backs up a copy of all of the data on your computer to the cloud, making it that much easier to fulfill the 3-2-1 backup strategy.
Bonus: How to Export a File From Dropbox to an App on Your Phone or Mobile Device
If you want to send a portion of your files elsewhere for safekeeping, or to share with another app, you can follow the set of instructions below. Just remember that downloading your files to your phone or emailing them to yourself isn’t the same as keeping a full copy of your data on an external device—your data is still susceptible to damage or loss.
First, you’ll need to download the Dropbox mobile app to access your synced files on your mobile device.
Open the app and select the three dots next to the file or folder you’d like to export. On an iPhone or iPad, the dots will appear horizontal, and on an Android device they’ll be vertical.
Select Share.
Select Export file, which will show a list of apps that can open the file. Choose the app you’d like to open the file. Note: once you export the file, if you make any changes to that file in the other app, those changes may not be saved back to your Dropbox account unless the app integrates with Dropbox.
Back Up Your Dropbox Before It’s Too Late
Have a lot of Dropbox data you don’t want to take up space on your computer? Upload and store your data in Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage as a part of your 3-2-1 approach. Also, let us know in the comments if you’d like to see more guides to downloading and backing up the data saved to other sync services.
On the Backblaze blog, we’ve been sharing tips for backing up and doing more with your data, especially when it comes to data digitally scattered across social media platforms. We asked what you, our readers, wanted to know about protecting your data online and you responded with this question: How do you download and back up data on Microsoft OneDrive?
OneDrive is an online file hosting service that many users take advantage of to sync the data on their computer. Although it offers 5GB of storage space for free, users pay a fee to store data that exceeds tiers of 100GB, 1TB, and 6TB. OneDrive even notes on their website that to free up space on your OneDrive account, you should download that file or folder to a location outside of your OneDrive folders, and then delete the OneDrive copy of the file or folder to reduce your storage amount. Of course, this means that the document is no longer syncing. And by doing so, you’re forced to constantly juggle the amount of data saved in OneDrive to stay under the free limit. Worse yet, the data you remove from OneDrive is no longer protected using the 3-2-1 backup method.
This guide walks you through ensuring your data on OneDrive is safely backed up and how to keep your data safe using the 3-2-1 backup strategy. So, read on to learn how to save your OneDrive data, including:
A step-by-step guide to accessing and downloading your data.
What to do with your downloaded OneDrive data to ensure it stays protected.
Back Up Everything But the Kitchen Sync
If you’re reading this blog post, you probably already know that saving your data to a sync service is not the same as backing it up. Sync and backup services are complimentary, but only a backup will save a copy of your data and keep it safe against accidental deletion, updates, a ransomware attack, and more.
To help you save your synced computer data, we’re developing a series of guides to downloading and backing up your data across different sync services. Below is a list of our other guides, and comment below to let us know what other sync services you’d like to see us cover.
Open your OneDrive account and select the files or folders you want to download. You can select individual items by clicking the circle check box next to each item. You can also select several files at once by clicking on one file, scrolling down the list, then left-clicking while holding down the Shift key on the last item in the list you want to select. To select all of the files in a folder, click the circle to the left of the top row, or simply press CTRL + A (or COMMAND + A on a Mac).
In the top menu, select Download. You can also right-click an individual file and select Download. If you choose multiple files or folders and then select Download, your browser will download a ZIP file containing all the data you selected. If you’re in a folder and you select Download without selecting any files or folders, your browser will download everything saved in that folder.
Save your OneDrive data on your computer. Your browser will download your files to the Downloads folder of your computer. Select the files and save them to a permanent location. For some users, your browser may prompt you to choose the location where you want to save the download.
Now that you’ve downloaded your OneDrive data, keep reading to find out how to ensure that data is safely backed up.
The 3-2-1 Method in a Nutshell
Back up your data based on these principles:
Redundancy. Have several copies of your data.
Geographic Distance. Have those copies in different locations.
Access. Have different types of access to your backup data. A good example here: you don’t want all of your data to be connected to the internet to reduce the risk of cyberattacks. You also don’t want all copies of your data stored in your home in case of disaster or theft.
How to Back Up OneDrive Data
Once you have all of your OneDrive data downloaded on your computer, you’ve fulfilled the first step of the 3-2-1 backup strategy by storing your data on your local device. Next, you should make sure to follow the next steps and save your data on a secondary, external device and in a third, off-site location. Cloud storage is the one of the best options for easily securing your data off-site.
If you’re using Backblaze Personal Backup to protect all of the data on your computer and external drives, you’re all set! Backblaze automatically and continuously backs up a copy of all of your data to the cloud.
Another option to consider when you want to securely store your data and offload some of it from your local device is to upload your data to Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage directly. As long as you are still keeping a copy of that data on other local drives or devices, you’re still fulfilling the 3-2-1 backup method. You can learn more about the difference between using Personal Backup and B2 Cloud Storage and how to save and organize your data in cloud storage by reading this blog post.
Read On to Get the Most Out of Backblaze and OneDrive
Our help section is filled with useful guides on maximizing the integration of Backblaze and OneDrive. Check out our guides for Windows or Mac to learn more.
Don’t Rely on Sync Services to Secure Your Data
Chances are, the data you have saved in your OneDrive folders is data you want to keep. Don’t wait until you accidentally get locked out of your account or a software update wreaks havoc on your synced data. Back up your data today, and comment below to let us know what else you’d like to know about to help you keep your data safe.
March was Women’s History Month, and throughout the month, Backblaze’s employee-led, internal Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) committee educated our team on the contributions of women throughout history. In a company-wide Slack channel, DEI committee leaders shared facts and resources about women who were pioneers in a range of fields.
Many of our team members found these facts useful to inform and expand their own worldviews. Team members shared articles they found themselves, and some even used the content as part of their homeschooling curriculum. (As a bonus, the DEI Committee also surveyed employees to generate a word cloud that describes the women of Backblaze, which you can see in the image above.)
The initiative was so popular with our team, we thought we would share some of the content with you even though we are well on our way into April, because any day is a good day to recognize the diverse range of women who have made contributions to our everyday lives, whether it’s still Women’s History Month or not.
Keep reading to learn about important figures and events in the history of technology, Hollywood, politics, and more!
Women in History
In 1756, long before the women’s suffrage movement gained any traction, Lydia Chapin Taft was legally allowed to vote.
Lydia Chapin Taft’s husband, Josiah Taft, was a prominent member of their community in Uxbridge, Massachusetts; he served several terms as a legislator and presided over town hall meetings. When he died, the townspeople agreed to permit Lydia Chapin Taft to vote in her husband’s place. The decision was made in keeping with the slogan of “no taxation without representation,” since Josiah Taft was the town’s largest taxpayer. Lydia Chapin Taft went on to cast several more votes, contributing to the town’s stance on important matters like financial contribution to the French and Indian War.
Read more about Lydia Chapin Taft here.
The 1900s brought significant milestones for women and money in the United States.
In 1938, the federal minimum wage was established as a result of the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act, eliminating many pay differences between men and women for hourly jobs. In the 1960s, women gained the right to open a bank account. Shortly after, in 1974, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act passed, which aimed to prohibit credit discrimination on the basis of gender. Before it passed, many banks granted credit cards to women only with their husbands’ signatures and outright refused to issue them to unmarried women.
Read more about economic rights for women in the U.S. here.
Wyoming refused to join the United States without a guarantee that women would be allowed to vote.
In 1869, the territory of Wyoming made history when it passed a law granting women aged 21 and older the right to vote. That law was threatened two decades later when Wyoming applied for statehood. Congress stated that it wouldn’t allow the territory to join the Union unless women were disenfranchised. Wyoming called Congress out on its bluff, replying via telegram, “We will remain out of the Union one hundred years rather than come in without the women.” Congress relented and Wyoming became a state in 1890, with women’s right to vote intact. True to its past, Wyoming’s state motto today is simply, “Equal Rights.”
Read more about Wyoming and women’s right to vote here.
Source: Jet City Comics/Joao Vieira.
The British suffragettes learned jiujitsu to defend themselves and evade arrest.
Campaigning for women’s enfranchisement was a dangerous act back in the early 20th century. Many suffragettes in the UK were incarcerated, and some were even force fed in jail as punishment for their self-imposed hunger strikes. To protect women from going to jail and facing this abuse, which could have disastrous health consequences, one suffragette had the bright idea to teach her fellow protesters jiujitsu. Edith Margaret Garrud used her martial arts background to secretly train a unit of 30 members of the Women’s Social and Political Union in self defense. The group was alternately known as “The Bodyguard” and “The Amazons,” and was highly effective at resisting arrest.
Read more about how suffragettes in the UK used martial arts to defend themselves here.
Arabella Mansfield became the first female lawyer in the United States in 1869.
Admitted to the Iowa bar, Mansfield made her career as a college educator and administrator. Despite an Iowa state law restricting the bar exam to males, Mansfield had taken it and earned high scores. Shortly after her court challenge, Iowa amended its licensing statute and became the first state to accept women and minorities into its bar.
Read more about Arabella Mansfield here.
In 1964, Patsy Mink became the first woman of color elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Mink’s Congressional career spanned decades (1964–1977; 1990–2002). She was a key author for Title IX, a law that advanced gender equity within federal funding policies for education. This law was later renamed the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act in her honor.
Read more about Patsy Mink here.
No list of formidable Irish women would be complete without tomboy icon Gráinne Ní Mháille, aka Grace O’Malley, the notorious “Pirate Queen” of western Ireland.
Born on Clare Island in 1530, O’Malley famously cut off her hair after her father refused to take her on a voyage in case her locks got caught in the ropes. In her prime, O’Malley commanded three galleys, 20 ships, and over 200 men against her perpetual nemesis—the English—and even met with Elizabeth I before living to the ripe old age of 73.
Find out more about Grace O’Malley here.
Cork, Ireland native Annie Moore became the first immigrant to be processed through the newly-opened Ellis Island in New York on January 1, 1892.
Just 17 years old at the time, Moore looked after her two brothers on the ship voyage from Ireland to America, before going on to have 11 children of her own with German Catholic salesman Joseph Augustus Schayer. Moore died in 1924. Her previously unmarked grave was identified over eight decades later in 2006, and a Celtic Cross made from Irish Blue Limestone was later unveiled at her final resting place.
You can read more about Annie Moore here.
Tammy Duckworth, the Illinois senator and retired National Guard lieutenant colonel, is responsible for an impressive list of firsts.
Duckworth is the first Congress member to be born in Thailand, the first to give birth while in office, the first Asian-American woman to represent Illinois in Congress, and the first woman with a disability to be elected to Congress. She lost both of her legs following a helicopter attack in the Iraq War. “People always want me to hide it in pictures,” she told Vogue in 2018. “I say no! I earned this wheelchair. It’s no different from a medal I wear on my chest. Why would I hide it?”
Find out more about her here.
In 1985, Wilma Mankiller became the first woman to be Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, leading the largest tribe in the United States.
During Mankiller’s decade-long chiefdom from 1985 to 1995, “tribal enrollment grew, infant mortality dropped, and employment rates doubled,” according to Time. In 1998, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bill Clinton.
Learn more about Wilma Mankiller here.
Women in Art
Toshiko Takaezu was a trailblazer in ceramic art making during the 1970s.
Takaezu is best known for creating large, closed-vessel sculptures. At the time, fellow artists expressed shock that a woman could make such large pieces, some taller than the artist herself. Takaezu merged aspects of Japanese tea ceremony, calligraphy, and American Abstract Expressionism to create a new style from these diverse art traditions. She had a long career as an artist and teacher at the Cleveland Institute of Art and Princeton University.
Learn more about Toshiko Takaezu here.
Emily Kauʻiomakaweliokauaionalaniokamanookalanipo Kukahiwa Zuttermeister, also known as Aunty Kauʻi, is a revered Kumu Hula (master hula teacher) from Hawaiʻi.
Zuttermeister trained in the hula pahu tradition of Samuel Pua Haʻaheo before becoming a teacher in 1935. Zuttermeister helped revitalize ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (the Hawaiian language) and culture by teaching hula. She was part of a community of leaders who raised awareness about hula as a storytelling art form created by the Hawaiian people to recall and share their knowledge.
Learn more about her here.
No one did sultry better than Anna May Wong.
The Los Angeles-born screen siren landed her breakthrough role at age 17 in 1922’s “The Toll of the Sea.” Wong was also quite the trend setter—in 1934, the Mayfair Mannequin Society of New York voted her the “world’s best-dressed woman,” a massive fashion world honor at the time. Success in Hollywood came, but certainly not equal to her talent. As her Turner Classic Movie biography sums it up, stateside audiences considered Wong either “too Chinese” or “too American.” In Europe, the actress received a wider range of roles and due critical acclaim.
Learn more about Anna May Wong here.
Best known as the frontwoman of 4 Non Blondes, Linda Perry’s prolific behind-the-scenes work—as both a songwriter and producer—helped define modern pop music.
Perry worked on hit songs with P!nk, Christina Aguilera, and Alicia Keys. While a woman has never won a Grammy for Producer of the Year (Non-classical), in 2019, Perry received a nomination for the award from the Recording Academy. The singer-songwriter is one of a handful of women to achieve success in production and with her own music.
Learn more about Linda Perry here.
Delia Derbyshire was an innovator in electronic music who pushed the boundaries of technology and composition.
Derbyshire is most well-known for her electronic arrangement of the theme for “Doctor Who,” an important example of Musique Concrète. Each note was individually crafted by cutting, splicing, and stretching, or compressing, segments of analogue tape which contained recordings of a plucked string, oscillators, and white noise.
Learn more about Delia Derbyshire here.
During a two-decade career that began in the mid-1960s, Sonia Pottinger held the distinction of being Jamaica’s first female record producer.
Cutting tracks with the likes of Joe White & Chuck and Culture, her production spanned a variety of Jamaican genres, from rock-steady to ska to reggae.
Read more about Sonia Pottinger here.
Geena Davis starred in two movies about female empowerment: “Thelma & Louise” and “A League of Their Own.”
As Davis got older, she realized how unempowered women were in Hollywood. In 2004, she founded the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media to collect data comparing the number and types of male and female roles and to use that data to convince the industry of the need for change.
Listen to her speak about her career here.
Rita Moreno has influenced the entertainment industry for over 70 years as an actress, singer, and dancer.
Moreno became the first Latine woman to earn the vaunted EGOT: an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. In 2004, she was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her many contributions to the arts.
Learn more about Rita Moreno here.
Women in Technology
Hedy Lamarr was much more than “the most beautiful woman in the world” during Hollywood’s Golden Age.
The Austrian-American actress was also a mathematically-minded inventor who learned about military technology from dinner party conversations between her arms-manufacturer husband and Nazi German generals, before escaping to America where she eventually invented a new torpedo guidance system for the U.S. Navy.
Read more about Hedy Lamarr’s inventions here.
Rear Admiral Grace Brewster Murray Hopper was a STEM pioneer.
Grace Brewster Murray Hopper brought the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. The history of computer hardware invention is mostly a male-oriented affair. This isn’t unexpected given that early computers had more to do with heavy engineering than logic. However, when it comes to software, the picture is a little different. Hopper was responsible not only for the development of the Cobol language, but also for continuous advocacy within the industry to make computers and computing more accessible.
Find out more about Grace Hopper here.
Ada, Countess of Lovelace was born 200 years ago, but her name lives on.
There is often an unfairness in the reporting of the history of computing. The software people are nearly always passed over in preference for the hardware people. Ada, Countess of Lovelace worked with Charles Babbage on his Analytical Engine and is generally accepted as the first programmer. Later, in the 1970s, the Ada language was named in recognition of her status as the first computer programmer. In 2009, Ada Lovelace Day was inaugurated to celebrate the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering, and math.
Read more about her here.
In 1996, after being named a mission specialist on the Space Shuttle Columbia by NASA, Kalpana Chawla became the first woman of Indian descent to fly in space.
The shuttle orbited around earth 252 times in a little over two weeks. Chawla’s second—and last—trip to space came in 2003 when she and six other astronauts completed more than 80 experiments over the course of 16 days. She and the entire crew died when the ship disintegrated upon reentering the Earth’s atmosphere. In 2020, Northrop Grumman named a spacecraft after Chawla in her memory.
Read more about her here.
Share More Information on Women in History
Did you learn something new that you didn’t know before? Or, do you have a fact to share about a woman in history? Comment below and help us expand this list!
We hear it all the time: “I don’t need to back up my data, it’s already synced.” But backing up your data and syncing your data are two different animals—only a backup service actually protects all of your data while also making it accessible to you even when you’re away from your computer.
Are you using a sync service like Dropbox or OneDrive without a backup solution? If so, we’ll make the case for why you should use backup over sync, including the Backblaze features you won’t find from a sync service.
Read on for a refresher on the difference between backup and sync, and find out why choosing Backblaze over a sync service could be more beneficial to you.
Review: What’s the Difference Between Backup and Sync?
With the myriad of cloud services available, many people don’t understand the difference between sync and backup. You can read more about the difference between the two services here, but here’s a brief refresher:
Sync: These services allow you to access your files across different devices. You can also use sync services to share files with other users, where they can make changes from their computer that will be visible to you from your device.
Backup: These services usually work automatically in the background of your computer, backing up a copy of your new or changed data to another location (e.g., the cloud). Most backup services catalog and save the most recent version of your data, and some now offer features like Extended Version History, which you can use to recover files from even farther back in time than the standard 30 days.
Backup Pro Tip: Managing Your Devices
How many devices do you use to store and access your data on a given day? Between phones, tablets, laptops, and external hard drives, it can be a lot. We’ve created a few guides to help you make sure the data on your phone, computer, and hard drive is backed up or secured for whenever you plan to upgrade.
While sync tools are great for collaboration and 24/7 access to your data, they are not a viable backup solution and relying on them to protect your data can lead to trouble. If you or someone you shared a file with deletes that file, you are at risk of losing it forever unless the sync service you’re using has a version history feature. Sync services do not create a copy of your files for backup, and require additional setup to make sure you have some data protection enabled.
Data in sync services is also vulnerable to corruption by bad actors or malware as it does not provide a backup of your uncorrupted files. If your computer is hit with a ransomware attack and automatically synchronizes your data afterwards, all of your synced files will be corrupted.
Lastly, many people choose not to pay for a sync service, instead opting to use the free tier. For the most part, the free tiers of sync services have a cap on the amount of data you’re able to sync, meaning there will still be a portion of your data on your computer left unsynced, neither accessible by the service or protected in any capacity. Paying for more data in a sync service can become costly over time, and still does not offer protection against data loss.
The Backblaze Features You Won’t Get With a Sync Service
Sync and backup shouldn’t be thought of as opposing services—they’re better together. However, if your budget only allows for one, backup is the way to go.
Now, hear us out—as a backup provider, we may seem biased, but in reality, the benefits of using a backup service speak for themselves. Here are the Backblaze features you won’t get with a sync service:
Automatic, comprehensive data protection: Backblaze protects all of the data on your computer, not just the files in your synced folders. Think about all the things you save on your computer, but not in OneDrive or Dropbox. I imagine that might include important confidential documents like taxes, financial information, or legal documents, or just random stuff that doesn’t get saved to your sync service. With Backblaze, in case of potential data loss, you can find a copy of each of your files saved in the cloud. Also considering how much of our data is scattered across devices and platforms, having a backup of all of your data is valuable to keep it safe in case you can’t access a profile or device for any reason. (Check out our Backup Pro Tip below to learn more about how to back up your digital life.)
Fast and easy data restores: In the case that you lose your computer or it crashes and you need to restore all or some of your files, backup services like Backblaze allow you to download the important files you need via your internet connection and opt to have all of your files sent to you via USB hard drive. Meanwhile, downloading your data from a sync service depends on your internet bandwidth and can take days if not weeks. Also, with the Backblaze mobile apps for iOS and Android, all of your backed up data is with you, no matter where you are.
Extended Version History: Most backup providers offer version history for all of the data you are backing up. With this feature, you can restore your entire backup history, or just one file, from a specific point in time. Backblaze offers Extended Version History, so you can choose if you’d like to keep all versions of your data protected longer than the standard 30 days for a small additional fee. You can choose to keep versions for up to one year or forever. Not only does this feature provide better security for your data and the ability to restore files in the event of a potential cybersecurity breach, but it also gives you the ability to see changes to your edited files over time, much like with a sync service. Want to invite someone to collaborate on a file you’ve edited? You can even share files with other people by enabling Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage. Learn more about how to share files here, and more about B2 Cloud Storage here. (Note: Some sync services are catching on and starting to offer Extended Version History for customers on business or professional tiers or as add-ons. But, keep in mind, unless you’re on the highest tiers, chances are your storage is capped and you’re paying for extended versions of only some of your files.)
Ransomware protection: Another benefit of backup versus sync is protection against cybersecurity threats. In the case of a ransomware attack on your device, you will be able to completely restore your system from a backup that was created before the malware affected your files.
The ability to access your data from anywhere: While sync services are promoted as a way to access your files away from your computer, backup providers also allow you to download individual files or entire data backups from another device. Not only does this come in handy when transferring your data or restoring your old settings on an entirely new device, but also in the event that you need to access a file not covered by a sync service. Your data backup will have a copy of every single one of your files that you can access from another computer.
Location services: Additionally, some backup providers (Like us!) offer additional features or functionality—for example, location services like Backblaze’s Locate My Computer tool allow you to find a lost or stolen device. If you’re unable to get the device back, or you just need to access a file or folder when you’re away from your device, you can download or view data from a web browser or from the Backblaze mobile app.
Backup Pro Tip: Backing Up Your Digital Life
These days, our data is scattered across many different platforms—including social media, sync services, and more. We’ve gathered a handful of guides to help you protect your content. Read these guides to learn how to download your data and create a backup of it.
If you’re going to choose one service over the other, a backup service gives you the best of both worlds—you can make sure all of your data stays safe, you can access it from anywhere, and you can restore previous versions of your data whenever you need it. Backblaze Computer Backup let’s you do all of that, for Macs or PCs—learn more about it and download a free 15-day trial.
Do you have a preference for syncing your data vs. backing it up? We’d love to hear what you think in the comments.
Hey there, computer enthusiasts of the world! Let’s talk drives. You know them. You love them. Or maybe you don’t know them, and that’s why you’re here. With so many options out there, it can be hard to pick the perfect one. Especially if you’re on the hunt for a solid state drive (SSD) that’ll amp up your gaming experience or just supercharge your laptop without emptying your wallet. Don’t worry, we’ve got your back! We love nothing more than comparing and contrasting different types of drives all day. So, we’ve put together this “What’s the Diff” post to lay it all out for you.
SSDs have become a popular option because they are fast. They read and write data way faster than your pokey old hard drive. Yes, they are more expensive, but you’ve been saving up and it’s time to jump in. But which type of SSD do you need? In this post we’ll cover:
What is an SSD?
What is a SATA SSD?
What is an M.2 SSD?
What is an NVMe SSD?
Which SSD is right for you?
A Brief Introduction to SSDs
SSDs are storage devices that use NAND-based flash memory to store data. They are now standard issue for most computers, as is the case across Apple’s line of Macs. Unlike traditional hard disk drives (HDDs), which store data on spinning disks, SSDs have no moving parts, which makes them faster, more reliable, and less prone to mechanical failures.
SSDs have become so common mainly because they are faster in terms of read/write speeds versus hard drives. This means that they can access and transfer data much more quickly. This makes them an ideal choice for use in high-performance computers, servers, and other devices that require fast data access and transfer speeds. They also use less power. You can read more about the difference between SSDs and HDDs in this post.
One downside of SSDs is that they tend to be more expensive than HDDs, especially when it comes to larger storage capacities. However, as the cost of flash memory continues to decrease, SSDs are becoming more affordable and accessible for everyday consumers. SSDs are also available at different form factors, such as 2.5” and M.2, so they can be used in a range of devices.
What is a SATA SSD?
A Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) is the standard storage interface used in many PCs. A SATA SSD is an SSD equipped with a SATA interface to connect the storage device to a computer’s motherboard. The SATA SSD comes in the standard 2.5 inch form factor and has both power and data (SATA) connectors. If you buy an SSD external drive to connect to your PC, there will most likely be a SATA SSD inside. Generally, the SATA SSD is the least expensive type of SSD all other factors being equal. This makes a great choice to speed up your old hard drive-based computer or add an external drive that can read and write data more quickly.
One thing to know about external SSD drives is that they should not be disconnected from your computer and stored away for long periods of time. Anything over a year is too long, and as the drive gets older it needs to be plugged in even more often. But you didn’t spend all that money to store your new super fast external SSD drive in the closet, did you?
What Are M.2 Drives?
M.2 drives, also known as Next Generation Form Factor (NGFF) drives, are a type of SSD that uses the M.2 interface to connect directly into a computer’s motherboard without the need for cables. M.2 SSDs are significantly smaller and faster than traditional, 2.5 inch SSDs, so they have become popular in gaming setups because they take up less space. They’re also more power-efficient than other types of SSDs, which improves battery life in portable devices.
Even at this smaller size, M.2 SSDs are able to hold as much data as other SSDs, ranging up to 8TB in storage size. But, while they can hold just as much data and are generally faster than other SSDs, they also come at a higher cost. As the old adage goes, you can only have two of the following things: cheap, fast, or good.
M.2 drives are easy to install, and they can be added to most modern motherboards that have an M.2 slot. People who are looking to improve their gaming setup with an M.2 SSD will need to make sure their motherboard has an M.2 slot. If your motherboard does not have an M.2 slot, you may be able to use an M.2 drive by using an adapter card that fits into a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) slot. So, before you run out and buy an M.2 SSD, you’ll need to know which interface your computer will accept, M.2 SATA or M.2 PCIe.
What Is an NVMe?
Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) is a storage protocol that offers high-speed and efficient communication between a computer’s CPU and SSDs. Drives that use NVMe were introduced in 2013 to attach to the PCIe slot directly on a motherboard instead of using the traditional SATA interface typically used by HDDs and older SSDs. Unlike SATA, which was originally designed for slower HDDs, NVMe takes advantage of the low-latency and high-speed capabilities of SSDs. NVMe drives can usually deliver a sustained read-write speed of 2.6 GB/s in contrast with SATA SSDs that limit at 600 MB/s. Since NVMe SSDs can reach higher speeds than SATA SSDs, it makes them ideal for gaming, high-resolution video editing, and applications that require high-performance storage, such as enterprise databases, virtualization, and data analytics.
Their high speeds come at a high cost, however: NVMe drives are some of the more expensive drives on the market.
Which SSD Is Best to Use?
There are a few factors to consider in choosing which drive is best for you. As you compare the different components of your build, consider your technical constraints, budget, capacity needs, and speed priority.
Technical Constraints
Check the capability of your system before choosing a drive, as some older devices don’t have the components needed for NVMe connections. Also, check that you have enough PCIe connections to support multiple PCIe devices. Not enough lanes, or only specific lanes, means you may have to choose a different drive or that only one of your lanes will be able to connect to the NVMe drive at full speed.
Budget
If you plan to be making a lot of large file transfers or want to have the highest speeds for gaming, then an NVMe SSD is what you want. Until recently SATA SSDs were much more affordable options compared with NVMe drives, but that is changing rapidly. For example, at the time of publication, a Samsung 1TB SATA SSD (860 EVO) retails for $118 on Amazon, while a Samsung 1TB NVMe drive (970 EVO) is listed for only $121 on sale on Amazon.
Drive Capacity
SATA drives usually range from 500GB to 16TB in storage capacity. Most M.2 drives top out at 2TB, although some may be available at 4TB and 8TB models at much higher prices.
Drive Speed
When choosing the right drive for your setup, remember that SATA M.2 drives and 2.5 inch SSDs provide the same level of speed, so to gain a performance increase, you will have to opt for the NVMe-connected drives. While NVMe SSDs are going to be much faster than SATA drives, you may also need to upgrade your processor to keep up or you may experience worse performance. Finally, remember to check read and write speeds on a drive as some earlier generations of NVMe drives can have different speeds.
Choose the Right SSD for Your Setup
Before choosing a new drive, remember to back up all of your data. Backing up is essential as every drive will eventually fail and need to be replaced. The basis of a solid backup plan requires three copies of your data: one on your device, one backup saved locally, and one stored off-site. Storing a copy of your data in the cloud ensures that you’re able to retrieve it if any data loss occurs on your device.
Interested in learning more about other drive types or best ways to optimize your setup? Let us know in the comments below.
FAQ
What is the difference between NVMe and M.2 drives?
NVMe and M.2 are often used interchangeably, but they refer to different aspects of storage technology. Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) drives attach to the PCI Express (PCIe) slot directly on a motherboard instead of using the traditional SATA interface, resulting in higher data transfer speeds. M.2, on the other hand, is a physical form factor or connector used for SSDs. M.2 drives can support various storage interfaces, including NVMe, SATA, and others, providing flexibility in terms of compatibility and speed.
Which is faster, NVMe or M.2 drives?
NVMe and M.2 drives are not directly comparable in terms of speed because they refer to different aspects of storage technology. NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) is a storage protocol that provides high-speed communication between the computer’s CPU and SSDs. It is designed to take full advantage of the capabilities of SSDs and can offer significantly faster data transfer speeds compared to traditional interfaces like SATA.
M.2, on the other hand, refers to a physical form factor or connector used for storage devices, including SSDs. M.2 drives can support various interfaces, including NVMe, SATA, and others. The speed of an M.2 drive depends on the specific interface it uses. NVMe M.2 drives, which utilize the NVMe protocol, can provide faster speeds compared to M.2 drives that use the SATA interface.
In summary, NVMe is a storage protocol that can be implemented in various form factors, including M.2, and NVMe drives tend to offer faster speeds compared to M.2 drives that utilize the SATA interface.
Can NVMe be used in any M.2 slot?
NVMe drives can generally be used in M.2 slots, but it is important to ensure compatibility with the specific M.2 slot on your motherboard. M.2 slots can support different types of interfaces, including SATA and NVMe.
What are the advantages of NVMe drives over M.2 drives?
NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) is a storage protocol that can be implemented through various form factors, one of which is M.2.
The main advantage of NVMe technology is its high-speed data transfer capabilities. Compared to traditional storage interfaces like SATA, NVMe provides significantly faster performance. It leverages the PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) interface, allowing for direct communication between the CPU and the SSD. This results in reduced latency and improved overall system responsiveness.
M.2, on the other hand, is a physical form factor or connector that can support various interfaces, including SATA and NVMe. M.2 drives can accommodate NVMe SSDs, allowing them to take advantage of the faster speeds provided by the NVMe protocol.
Are NVMe drives more expensive than M.2 drives?
Until recently SATA SSDs were much more affordable options compared with NVMe drives, but that is changing rapidly. For example, as of June 2023, a Samsung 1TB SATA SSD (860 EVO) retails for $118 on Amazon, while a Samsung 1TB NVMe drive (970 EVO) is listed for only $121 on sale on Amazon. Prices are now comparable.
This post has been updated to reflect new information for Android users. After posting about the Photos+ answer to iCloud, our first comment was a request to help our Android users—seek no further, there’s now a Photos+ app for that. You can try it for free, or sign up today for a 50% discount on your Photos+ subscription. Get started here.
“Storage Full” has to rank up there as one of the least favorite notifications on Apple and Android products, maybe of all products? For photographers, this message can be all the more frustrating, and eventually very expensive if you opt into a higher storage payment plan. That’s why we’re profiling Photos+ today. Photos+ is an application that leverages Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage to offer an easy and reasonable way to manage your data and put “Storage Full” notifications behind you.
Here’s the short story: If you’re storing 200GB or more of photos on iCloud or Google Photos, Photos+ can save you upwards of $100 per year.
With high resolution iPhone cameras, six hours of 4K videos and a few thousand photos is all it takes to exceed 200GB of storage, meaning your photos will no longer be backed up unless you upgrade to the 2TB plan at a cost of $120 per year. This is a steep jump from the 200GB plan at $36 per year. And for Android users, all photos uploaded to Google Photos now count towards the 15GB Google Drive limit, so that for photographers uploading high quality photos, upgrading to the 2TB Google One storage plan will also cost about $120/year. This leads many to ponder what their options are.
Alternatives to Storage Upgrades
Well, for those of you looking, here are your options:
Turn off cloud backups and don’t back up your phone? Not best practice—remember your 3-2-1 backup strategy!
Turn off cloud backups but remember to frequently back up your phone to your computer? This often ends in tears.
Transfer photos to your computer when you run out of space? It works, but it’s time intensive and means you lose access to photos on the go.
Use another service, like Dropbox, to offload photos? Unfortunately, they also feature a leap to 2TB of storage, so you might as well stick with upgrading iCloud or your Google One storage plan.
Or:
Use a service that charges you for exactly the storage you use at $0.005/GB. In this scenario, storing 200GB would cost $1 per month.
How to Avoid Storage Upgrade Bills
The Photos+ Cloud Library app is an iOS, Android, and web app that allows you to manage photos from your iPhone, Android device, or browser without incurring the costs typically associated with keeping photos on your phone. You can use Photos+ and pay for only what you store with no minimum fees and no upper limits on storage.
Test It for Free
The Photos+ Cloud Library app costs $6/year, and offers a free 14-day trial if you’d like to see how it works. Backblaze B2 costs $0.005/GB/month with the first 10GB free. So if you’d like to give this pairing a try, you’ve got some room to play around before you need to commit to the setup.
Storing 200GB using these two platforms will cost about $18/year instead of $120/year with iCloud or Google Photos.
To try both these platforms for free, download the Photos+ Cloud Library app for iOS or Android and sign up for the Backblaze B2 service (no credit card required). For detailed instructions on setting this up, we’ve developed one here.
Once your photos and videos are safely stored in your own Backblaze B2 account (where you can always verify they have been stored and download them directly from Backblaze or the Photos+ app), you can delete some or all of your photos and videos from your iPhone to open up space, and allow iCloud to back up the rest of your items without exceeding your 50GB or 200GB iCloud storage plan.
For a limited time, Android users can get started with the Photos+ Cloud Library app today and get 50% off your subscription. Sign up here for iPhone, or here for Android.
No More Upgrade Notices
With the lack of upgrade notifications, you’ll have more time to spend paying attention to “Scam Likely” calls and discerning the meaning of the badge numbers accumulating on apps you haven’t opened in years. We wish we could help you with those annoyances too, but for now, here’s hoping Photos+ can ease your cloud backup bill and give you some peace of mind.
Every industry uses its own terminology. Originally, most jargon emerges out of the culture the industry was founded in, but then evolves over time as culture and technology change and grow. This is certainly true in the software industry. From its inception, tech has adopted terms—like hash, cloud, bug, ether, etc.—regardless of their original meanings and used them to describe processes, hardware issues, and even relationships between data architectures. Oftentimes, the cultural associations these terms carry with them are quickly forgotten, but sometimes they remain problematically attached.
In the software industry, the terms “master” and “slave” have been commonly used as a pair to identify a primary database (the “master”) where changes are written, and a replica (the “slave”) that serves as a duplicate to which the changes are propagated. The industry also commonly uses other terms, such as “blacklist” and whitelist,” whose definitions reflect or at least suggest identity-based categorizations, like the social concept of race.
Recently, the Backblaze Engineering team discussed some examples of language in the Backblaze code that carried negative cultural biases that the team, and the broader company, definitely didn’t endorse. Their conversation centered around the idea of changing the terms used to describe branches in our repositories, and we thought it would be interesting for the developers in our audience to hear about that discussion, and the work that came out of it.
Getting Started: An Open Conversation About Software Industry Standard Terms
The Backblaze Engineering team strives to cultivate a collaborative environment, an effort which is reflected in the structure of their weekly team meetings. After announcements, any member of the team is welcome to bring up any topics they want to discuss. As a result, these meetings work as a kind of forum where team members encourage each other to share their thoughts, especially about anything they might want to change related to internal processes or more generally about current events that may be affecting their thinking about their work.
Earlier this year, the team discussed the events that lead to protests in many U.S. cities as well as to new prominence for the Black Lives Matter movement. The conversation brought up a topic that had been discussed briefly before these events, but now had renewed relevance: mindfulness around terms used as a software industry standard that could reflect biases against certain people’s identities.
These conversations among the team did not start with the intention to create specific procedures, but focused on emphasizing awareness of words used within the greater software industry and what they might mean to different members of the community. Eventually, however, the team’s thinking progressed to include different words and concepts the Backblaze Engineering team resolved to adopt moving forward.
Why Change the Branch Names?
The words “master” and “slave” have long held harmful connotations, and have been used to distance people from each other and to exclude groups of people from access to different areas of society and community. Their accepted use today as synonyms for database dependencies could be seen as an example of systemic racism: racist concepts, words, or practices embedded as “normal” uses within a society or an organization.
The engineers discussed whether the use of “master” and “slave” terminologies reflected an unconscious practice on the team’s part that could be seen as supporting systemic racism. In this case, the question alone forced them to acknowledge that their usage of these terms could be perceived as an endorsement of their historic meanings. Whether intentionally or not, this is something the engineers did not want to do.
The team decided that, beyond being the right thing to do, revising the use of these terms would allow them to reinforce Backblaze’s reputation as an inclusive place to work. Just as they didn’t want to reiterate any historically harmful ideas, they also didn’t want to keep using terms that someone on the team might feel uncomfortable using, or accidentally make potential new hires feel unwelcome on the team. Everything seemed to point them back to a core part of Backblaze’s values: the idea that we “refuse to take history or habit to mean something is ‘right.’” Oftentimes this means challenging stale approaches to engineering issues, but here it meant accepting terminology that is potentially harmful just because it’s “what everyone does.”
Overall, it was one of those choices that made more sense the longer they looked at it. Not only were the uses of “master” and “slave” problematic, they were also harder and less logical to use. The very effort to replace the words revealed that the dependency they described in the context of data architectures could be more accurately characterized using more neutral terms and shorter terms.
The Engineering team discussed a proposal to update the terms at a team meeting. In unanimous agreement, the term “main” was selected to replace “master” because it is a more descriptive title, it requires fewer keystrokes to type, and since it starts with the same letter as “master,” it would be easier to remember after the change. The terms “whitelist” and “blacklist” are also commonly used terms in tech, but the team decided to opt for “allowlist” and “denylist” because they’re more accurate and don’t associate color with value.
Rolling Out the Changes and Challenges in the Process
The practical procedure of changing the names of branches was fairly straightforward: Engineers wrote scripts that automated the process of replacing the terms. The main challenge that the Engineering team experienced was in coordinating the work alongside team members’ other responsibilities. Short of stopping all other projects to focus on renaming the branches, the engineers had to look for a way to work within the constraints of Gitea, the constraints of the technical process of renaming, and also avoid causing any interruptions or inconveniences for the developers.
First, the engineers prepared each repository for renaming by verifying that each one didn’t contain any files that referenced “master” or by updating files that referenced the “master” branch. For example, one script was going to be used for a repository that would update multiple branches at the same time. These changes were merged to a special branch called “master-to-main” instead of the “master” branch itself. That way, when that repository’s “master” branch was renamed, the “master-to-main” branch was merged into “main” as a final step. Since Backblaze has a lot of repositories, and some take longer than others to complete the change, people divided the jobs to help spread out the work.
While the actual procedure did not come with many challenges, writing the scripts required thoughtfulness about each database. For example, in the process of merging changes to the updated “main” branch in Git, it was important to be sure that any open pull requests, where the engineers review and approve changes to the code, were saved. Otherwise, developers would have to recreate them, and could lose history of their work, changes, and other important comments from projects unrelated to the renaming effort. While writing the script to automate the name change, engineers were careful to preserve any existing or new pull requests that might have been created at the same time.
Once they finished prepping the repositories, the team agreed on a period of downtime—evenings after work—to go through each repository and rename its “master” branch using the script they had previously written. Afterwards, each person had to run another short script to pick up the change and remove dangling references to the “master” branch.
Managers also encouraged members of the Engineering team to set aside some time throughout the week to prep the repositories and finish the naming changes. Team members also divided and shared the work, and helped each other by pointing out any areas of additional consideration.
Moving Forward: Open Communication and Collaboration
In September, the Engineering team completed renaming the source control branch from “master” to “main.” It was truly a team effort that required unanimous support and time outside of regular work responsibilities to complete the change. Members of the Engineering team reflected that the project highlighted the value of having a diverse team where each person brings a different perspective to solving problems and new ideas.
Earlier this year, some of the people on the Engineering team also became members of the employee-led Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. Along with Engineering, other teams are having open discussions about diversity and how to keep cultivating inclusionary practices throughout the organization. The full team at Backblaze understands that these changes might be small in the grand scheme of things, but we’re hopeful our intentional approach to those issues we can address will encourage other business and individuals to look into what’s possible for them.
How do you grow your production process without missing a beat as you evolve over 20 years from a single magazine to a multichannel media powerhouse? Since there are some cool learnings for many of you, here’s a summary of our recent case study deep dive into Verizon’s Complex Networks.
Founders Marc Eckō of Eckō Unlimited and Rich Antoniello started Complex in 2002 as a bi-monthly print magazine. Over almost 20 years, they’ve grown to produce nearly 50 episodic series in addition to monetizing more than 100 websites. They have a huge audience reaching 21 billion lifetime views and 52.2 million YouTube subscribers with premium distributors including Netflix, Hulu, Corus, Facebook, Snap, MSG, Fuse, Pluto TV, Roku, and more. Their team of creatives produce new content constantly—covering everything from music to movies, sports to video games, and fashion to food—which means that production workflows are the pulse of what they do.
Looking for Data Storage During Constant Production
In 2016, the Complex production team was expanding rapidly, with recent acquisitions bringing on multiple new groups that all had their own workflows. They used a Terrablock by Facilis and a few “homebrewed solutions,” but there was no unified, central storage location, and they were starting to run out of space. As many organizations with tons of data and no space do, they turned to Amazon Glacier.
There were problems:
Visibility: They started out with Glacier Vault, but with countless hours of good content, they constantly needed to access their archive—which required accessing the whole thing just to see what was in there.
Accessibility: An upgrade to S3 Glacier made their assets more visible, but retrieving those assets still involved multiple steps, various tools, and long retrieval times—sometimes ranging to 12 hours.
Complexity: S3 has multiple storage classes, each with its own associated costs, fees, and wait times.
Expense: The worst of the issue was that this glacial process didn’t just slow down production, it also incurred huge expenses through egress charges.
The worst thing was, staff would wade through this process only to sometimes realize that the content sent back to them wasn’t what they were looking for. The main issue for the team was that they struggled to see all of their storage systems clearly.
Organizing Storage With Transparent Asset Management
They resolved to fix the problem once and for all by investing in three areas:
Empower their team to collaborate and share at the speed of their work.
Identify tools that would scale with their team instantaneously.
Incorporate off-site storage that mimicked their on-site solutions’ scaling and simplicity.
To remedy their first issue, they set up a centralized SAN—a Quantum StorNext—that allowed the entire team to work on projects simultaneously.
Second, they found iconik, which moved them away from the inflexible on-prem integration philosophies of legacy MAM systems. Even better, they could test-run iconik before committing.
Finally, because iconik is integrated with Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage, the team at Complex decided to experiment with a B2 Bucket. Backblaze B2’s pay-as-you-go service with no upload fees, no deletion fees, and no minimum data size requirements fit the philosophy of their approach.
There was one problem: It was easy enough to point new projects toward Backblaze B2, but they still had petabytes of data they’d need to move to fully enable this new workflow.
Setting Up Active Archive Storage
The post and studio operations and media infrastructure and technology teams estimated that they would have to copy at least 550TB of 1.5PB of data from cold storage for future distribution purposes in 2020. Backblaze partners were able to help solve the problem.
Flexify.IO uses cloud internet connections to achieve significantly faster migrations for large data transfers. Pairing Flexify with a bare-metal cloud services platform to set up metadata ingest servers in the cloud, Complex was able to migrate to B2 Cloud Storage directly with their files and file structure intact. This allowed them to avoid the need to pull 550TB of assets into local storage just to ingest assets and make proxy files.
More Creative Possibilities With a Flexible Workflow
Now, Complex Networks is free to focus on creating new content with lightning-fast distribution. Their creative team can quickly access 550TB of archived content via proxies that are organized and scannable in iconik. They can retrieve entire projects and begin fresh production without any delays. “Hot Ones,” “Sneaker Shopping,” and “The Burger Show”—the content their customers like to consume, literally and figuratively, is flowing.
Check out our Cloud to Cloud Migration offer and other transfer partners—we’ll pay for your data transfer if you need to move more than 50TB out of Amazon.
We live in a time when building a location-independent business—once considered a luxury—has become a near necessity. It allows more flexibility for modern teams, but most vitally it provides for future scenarios that might require remote work.
Our team recently had the opportunity to sit down with one founder who knew that a remote workforce was essential to his success. Here’s how his early challenges with cloud storage were solved thanks to one surprising conversation.
The Right Conversation at the Right Time
Thanks to his experience developing countless proposals and sales decks for companies like PricewaterhouseCoopers and IBM, Tristan Pelligrino, co-founder of Motion—a B2B agency—knows just how difficult it can be to articulate the value of technology. This understanding is what drove Pellegrino and Justin Brown to found Motion. They knew they could help companies solve the challenge of communicating their value through the development of thought-leadership programs that establish authority and speak directly to their ideal customers.
As proof-of-concept for Motion’s consulting approach of initiating the right conversations at the right time, Pelligrino hosts a podcast called “Tech Qualified,” where the Motion team interviews real-world experts to provide tech marketers with best practices and solutions for B2B marketing challenges. These interviews were almost entirely informational or educational for the audience, until one guest turned the tables and introduced Pelligrino to a solution that solved his cloud storage headaches.
Small Frustrations Add Up to a Big Waste
Early on in building the consultancy, Pelligrino implemented Amazon S3 as Motion’s storage and backup provider. The service helped him grow his business to where it is today, with a workforce distributed across the globe and more than 300 clients. But the flexibility it offered came at a high price to his budget and his schedule.
Pelligrino sometimes spent up to an hour in S3 just to set up a new user. It wasn’t clear how to create read-only users, change security settings, or even share files with clients. “It felt like I was recreating the wheel every time I set up a new user experience,” Pelligrino said. He eventually figured it out, but only after combing through the knowledge base to find answers to what he felt were simple questions.
Meanwhile, he was also paying high fees to store his data in S3. He knew that S3 had different tiers of storage that could lower his monthly costs, but figuring out how to move files to another tier seemed more time-consuming than it was worth in cost savings.
These were the headaches Pelligrino was juggling when he reached out to Backblaze’s VP of Marketing, Ahin Thomas, to feature him on the “Tech Qualified” podcast. The plan was to have a discussion about how Backblaze has taken an unconventional approach to standing up to its competitors. But as Pelligrino heard Thomas describe Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage’s ideal customer profile, he realized that Motion was a perfect fit. Since Backblaze B2 is a pay-as-you-go service with no upload fees, no deletion fees, no minimum data size requirements, and a one-hour minimum retention period, it offered an easier, more cost-efficient solution than what he had experienced with S3.
Cloud to Cloud Transfers Are Easier Than You Think
And yet, while Backblaze B2 seemed perfect, the prospect of moving files to a different provider also seemed impossible. Pelligrino was concerned that files could fail to transfer, that he could experience pipeline failures, or that the files could get corrupted during the process. How would this impact his team, or his customers? Beyond logistical concerns, there was the question of the amount of time it would take and the punitive fees he would be charged for egress from Amazon.
But when he engaged with the solutions engineers at Backblaze, Pellegrino was assured that work and expense wouldn’t fall on his team—Flexify.IO, a Backblaze partner, would make the process easy. Flexify.IO uses cloud internet connections rather than clients’ local internet bandwidth to achieve amazingly fast migrations. Motion’s many terabytes of data quickly moved over to their new B2 Cloud Storage account.
All Pelligrino had to do was to double check that all the files transferred, then he closed his S3 account.
Time Savings Unlock Efficiencies
By switching to Backblaze B2, Pelligrino gained time and cost savings that allowed him to think about other ways to use partner integrations to create efficiencies and streamline his processes.
For example, Motion is going to start backing up individual workstations using a two-way sync. Before, when they were using S3, they never considered this possibility because of the complexity of setting it up. But with file synchronization partner GoodSync, B2 Cloud Storage can mirror separate workstations on the cloud.
In addition, Motion is making use of Backblaze B2’s Snapshot service—a convenient way to download many files at once from B2 Cloud Storage to a zip file—which makes sharing files with clients infinitely easier. This is a game changer for Motion, which is able to pay for the service with their cost savings and create a better experience for their clients.
Cloud Storage Gains
With Backblaze B2, Motion is able to reduce expenses, implement new functionalities that improve services, and achieve the location-independence that Pelligrino dreamed of when he first started the business. All it took was one conversation at the right time.
Try it for yourself and get started with Backblaze B2 today.
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