Post Syndicated from David Johnson original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/5-ways-event-notifications-strengthens-your-backup-strategy-automatically/

“Our backups are good, right?”

If you’re responsible for backup operations, you’ve probably heard this question more times than you can count. While the answer should be a simple “yes,” staying on top of backup activities often involves checking multiple systems, reviewing logs, and maintaining manual tracking processes.

Today, I’m sharing five ways you can implement Backblaze Event Notifications into your data protection strategy to keep you and your team informed. If you’re interested in Event Notifications for other use cases, check out our posts for media production and application workflows.

Event Notifications for IT backup: Simplified automation

Event Notifications monitors your B2 Cloud Storage buckets for data changes that you designate—like completed backups, file deletions, or policy violations—and delivers real-time alerts where you want them. These alerts can trigger automated actions in any system that accepts webhooks, from PagerDuty to Zendesk to Slack channels and more.

Think of it as your storage system’s notification service: instead of discovering changes during routine recovery verification checks, you get instant awareness when something happens to the data in your buckets.

5 ways to stay in the know with your backup strategy

Here are specific, practical ways you can take advantage of Event Notifications for immediate benefits to your backup and archive workflows.

1. Backup verification and reporting

When your backup software writes files to B2 Cloud Storage, Event Notifications helps verify successful completion of backup jobs. Each time a backup file lands in a bucket, you’ll receive a notification with key details like file size, timestamp, and backup job name. By feeding this data directly into communication tools like Slack, you can maintain comprehensive logs of backup activity without manual checks.

Backup monitoring workflow

Gone are the days of discovering backup issues hours or days later during routine reviews—you’ll know exactly when backups are uploaded. Teams can configure custom alerts for backup size thresholds, receive immediate confirmation of successful backups, and, with the help of Zapier, you can enable an alert when Event Notifications did not trigger, indicating a backup was not uploaded during a specified window.

2. Security and compliance monitoring

Event Notifications can help protect your backup data from unauthorized changes. Security teams can establish automated alerts for suspicious activities like mass deletions or modifications. These alerts integrate with your existing security information and event management (SIEM) systems to provide unified threat monitoring.

Security alert workflow

Beyond threat detection, Event Notifications enables preemptive policy enforcement. Teams can configure automatic notifications that guide employees when their actions might conflict with backup policies—like modifying file names, moving files, or even deletion. For persistent policy conflicts, managers can receive automated escalation alerts to address potential training needs or process gaps. This systematic approach helps maintain backup integrity through education and awareness before issues occur, rather than just detecting violations after the fact.

3. Storage management automation

Storage management becomes more efficient when Event Notifications feeds activity data directly to your management tools. As files are uploaded to and removed from your buckets over time, Event Notifications provides valuable data that helps you analyze storage utilization trends and backup data growth patterns.

Data usage monitoring workflow

This constant flow of information empowers teams to anticipate capacity needs and optimize resource allocation. Moving from reactive to proactive storage management helps control costs by notifying you when backups become larger on average.

4. Cross-bucket backup monitoring

Organizations using Cloud Replication or managing backups across multiple buckets gain valuable oversight through Event Notifications. This capability tracks file replication between regions and monitors backup activity across your entire footprint, giving you a comprehensive view of your distributed backup strategy. Teams can spot replication delays or issues immediately, rather than waiting for scheduled status checks.

Cloud Replication notification workflow

Understanding how data moves and grows across different locations ensures your distributed backup strategy performs as designed. Event Notifications makes it possible to track successful replications, monitor consistency between primary and replica buckets, and receive immediate alerts about any issues. This visibility is especially valuable for organizations maintaining geographic redundancy or managing complex multi-site backup strategies.

5. Integration with IT workflows

Event Notifications connects seamlessly with existing IT tools and processes through standard webhooks. Backup events can automatically flow into ticketing systems like Jira Service Management, monitoring dashboards like Grafana, or team communication channels like Microsoft Teams and Mattermost. This integration means teams can manage backup operations through familiar tools and processes, without needing to constantly switch between different interfaces or learn new systems.

Data integration workflow

The result is streamlined operations without the need for separate backup monitoring systems, ensuring backup activities receive proper attention within normal IT procedures. Teams can create ServiceNow tickets for failed backups, update Jira boards with backup status, or send notifications to Teams channels—all automatically and in real-time.

Why Event Notifications makes sense for backup teams

Managing backup operations has traditionally meant juggling multiple monitoring tools and hoping you catch issues before they impact recovery capabilities. Event Notifications transforms this approach by providing:

• Automated awareness: Replace manual checks with instant visibility into bucket changes.
• Enhanced security: Track backup data access and modifications as they happen.
• Simplified monitoring: Feed backup activity data directly to your management tools.
• Better operations: Free up time to focus on improving backup strategies rather than monitoring them.
• Flexible integration: Adapt backup monitoring to fit your existing processes, not the other way around.

How it works with your environment

Unlike traditional backup monitoring solutions that often require specific software for notification handling, Event Notifications works with any service that accepts webhooks. This fundamental difference means you aren’t locked into specific vendors’ ecosystems or forced to use particular monitoring tools.

Event Notifications is designed for reliability with at-least-once delivery, ensuring critical backup events are never missed. This reliability is especially important for teams building automated workflows that require consistency and transparency in their backup monitoring.

The pricing model is straightforward and predictable: Backblaze B2 Reserve customers receive unlimited notifications at no additional cost, while pay-as-you-go customers get 2,500 notifications free each day and pay just $0.004 per 10,000 additional calls. This transparent pricing applies regardless of which services you’re connecting to, enabling teams to build comprehensive backup monitoring without worrying about unpredictable costs.

Ready to automate your backup monitoring?

If you’re working with a Backblaze account manager, Event Notifications are already enabled—just ask them for setup guidance. Other existing customers can contact our Support team to request access.

New to Backblaze? Contact our Sales team to learn how Event Notifications can strengthen your backup operations.
Once enabled, visit the Event Notifications section in your B2 Cloud Storage buckets to configure your alerts. For detailed setup instructions and best practices, check out our Event Notifications documentation.

The post 5 Ways Event Notifications Strengthens Your Backup Strategy Automatically appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup

Post Syndicated from Kari Rivas original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/disaster-recovery-101-navigating-backup-and-archive-infrastructure/

Aging infrastructure, strained budgets, and exponential data growth create unique challenges for disaster recovery (DR) planning. When assessing your backup and archive infrastructure, you’re probably balancing data governance, data sovereignty requirements, compliance requirements, and the needs of your end users. Many legacy data storage systems can create gaps in an otherwise airtight DR plan. 

Today, I’m talking through how to approach infrastructure decisions for your cyber resilience posture. You have a lot of options. On-premises? Cloud services? Hot? Warm? Cold? What combination works best for your needs? Understanding the nuances can help you sharpen your strategy.

Disaster recovery challenges

1. Relying on on-premises backup and archive infrastructure

Traditionally, businesses have relied heavily on on-premises backup solutions. Robust storage systems hold critical data, often backed up to secondary storage within the same physical location. While this approach offers a sense of control, it also presents vulnerabilities. 

On-premises backups are at risk of localized events like loss of power, fire, flooding, or other natural disasters. A geographically separate DR site or other far off-site backup is essential for complete protection and compliance. Without this, the organization risks losing critical data in cases of a regional outage or loss of access. 

The shift to public cloud and SaaS options opened the door to more secure and reliable data backup and disaster recovery solutions. By utilizing cloud-based storage and backup services, organizations can ensure that their data is protected in multiple locations, reducing the risk of data loss due to localized disasters. Additionally, cloud-based solutions offer scalability and flexibility, allowing organizations to easily expand their storage capacity as needed.

2. Falling into the replication trap

Many businesses have established alternate data centers as a secondary backup layer. However, these sites frequently only use replication technology. This situation can result in a scenario known as the “replication trap.” There is a risk that data compromised by malware is replicated to the DR site, leading to potential data loss. 

Off-site, immutable backups, independent of the primary site’s data, are a key component of a robust DR strategy. In cases of malware attacks or accidental data deletion by users, off-site immutable backups allow for data retrieval from a backup saved prior to the incident and reduce possible interruptions. 

3. Underestimating LTO limitations

Despite being viewed as a legacy technology, tape backups continue to be used in many organizations due to their reliability and cost-effectiveness. It is common to store tapes in a separate location to diversify data storage geographically, which helps reduce the impact of local disasters on data access and enhances overall data resilience. 

Off-site tape backups may increase recoverability but create challenges with recovery time objectives (RTO) because of the increased time it takes to retrieve data from a separate location and restore it using tape technology. Hardware issues can happen often and unexpectedly. Cloud-based data storage and archiving has gained popularity because of higher availability and cost savings over traditional tape backups. 

The cost and time required to operate multiple data centers and meet recovery times should also be considered in the requirements for your production and DR infrastructure. Never underestimate the risk to a successful recovery when facing time-consuming tasks like physical site recovery and data restoration from tape.

4. Leaving cloud-based productivity tools vulnerable

Cloud-based collaboration and communication tools like Google Drive and Microsoft 365 are commonly used by businesses and yet are often left vulnerable to data loss. Cloud services do not provide sufficient protection and recovery options that organizations likely need. 

Businesses often find that the responsibility for backing up this data falls on their own IT, as these services typically operate under a shared responsibility model that doesn’t offer comprehensive backup solutions. 

To ensure a reliable DR plan that includes cloud services, you should: 

• Evaluate granular recovery requirements for productivity platforms like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. 
• Evaluate adherence to your long-term backup retention policy keeping in mind the regulations that your business might be subject to. 
• Determine if data stored in cloud platforms needs to be backed up with immutability due to cyber insurance requirements or other security policies. 
• Examine best practices for comprehensive, secure data protection for shared cloud drive services and SaaS productivity tools to address the lack of built-in recovery features.
• Plan to store true backups of your SaaS data just as you would for any other data. It may seem redundant to back up cloud platforms to the public cloud, but doing so ensures that you have the right point-in-time backups you need and you can recover on your timeline—not Google or Microsoft’s. 

Cloud costs will need to factor into decisions for where to store your data. Cloud storage costs should be included as a non-functional requirement to make sure you can achieve your secure recovery goals without sacrificing affordability.

Best practices for cloud-based disaster recovery

Many enterprises rely on cloud-based DR solutions to ensure uninterrupted operations, protect critical data, and maintain customer trust. Unlike traditional DR methods, cloud-based solutions offer scalability, cost-effectiveness, and rapid recovery capabilities. To truly leverage the potential of these systems, it’s important to be aware of some key strategies and considerations to optimize your cloud-based disaster recovery plan, ensuring resilience in the face of unexpected disruptions.

• Consider diversifying your cloud portfolio: Using the same cloud service provider for your backups as for your production data may not be necessary, as you don’t need the same level of performance for backup data. You could consider a tiered recovery approach based on the criticality of your applications and data.
• Investigate existing tools for cloud compatibility: Many on-premises data protection tools like Synology or QNAP NAS devices also support cloud targets for backup storage. It’s important to match the capabilities of your current backup vendors to your recovery requirements and cloud storage budgets. 
• Avoid paying for storage you’re not using: Carefully read the fine print when considering cloud storage costs. Hidden fees, minimum retention requirements, and complicated pricing tiers make accurate forecasting difficult and could leave you paying for unused storage just to reach certain discount tiers. 
• Balance your budget with RTO and RPO targets: Using cloud data storage for production, backups, and archive can lead to some price shock as your environment scales. And moving data to lower cost storage tiers or cold storage may achieve attractive price reductions, but it often comes at the cost of recovery speed and added complexity. Look for a cloud storage provider with transparent pricing that makes it easier to plan your costs.

Finally, you should weigh your cloud-based options to evaluate platform compatibility, ongoing costs, and whether your CSP locks you in or out of specific ecosystems due to high storage costs, data transfer costs, and proprietary features. 

Leveraging cloud-based backup and archive infrastructure

Adopting cloud-based disaster recovery best practices is a key consideration for building a resilient and reliable business infrastructure. By developing a well-structured disaster recovery plan, determining the right mix of storage solutions, and optimizing costs with tiered recovery, businesses can minimize downtime and data loss during unexpected events. A proactive approach not only safeguards your organization’s operations but also strengthens customer trust and competitive advantage. In a world where disruptions are inevitable, being prepared is the key to bouncing back stronger and faster.

The post Disaster Recovery 101: Navigating Backup and Archive Infrastructure appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup

Post Syndicated from Bala Krishna Gangisetty original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/effortlessly-managing-unfinished-large-file-uploads-with-b2-cloud-storage/

Digital clutter isn’t just inefficient, it can be costly. And if cleaning up digital clutter in your business operations is one of your New Year’s resolutions for 2025, this post is for you. We’re talking about managing unfinished large file uploads.

One big culprit of digital clutter when it comes to cloud storage is unfinished large files. Managing unfinished large file uploads can be a complex task. If they are not managed well, they can consume space and incur costs without any benefit. 

To address this, we’ve introduced a feature in Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage that automatically cancels unfinished large file uploads, saving you both time and money. 

The challenge: Unfinished large file uploads

To upload a large file, you break it into smaller parts. You initiate the start notification. Each part is uploaded in parallel, and once all parts are received, a finish notification is sent. Only after the final step does the file become consumable. Sometimes, things don’t go as planned—network hiccups, API timeouts, or user interruptions can leave large file uploads unfinished. The process then likely restarts and completes successfully, but this leaves you with both a complete file and a partially completed file in your cloud storage instance. These unfinished uploads still take up storage space, leading to unnecessary costs.

Previously, users had to manually track down and delete these unfinished uploads. It’s error prone and time-consuming, and not an easy task especially with a large volume of files. 

The solution: Canceling unfinished uploads through lifecycle rules

To streamline the process, we’ve added a feature that allows users to automatically cancel these incomplete uploads after a set number of days. By setting lifecycle rules through the B2 Native API, users can now specify how many days an unfinished large file can remain before it’s automatically deleted. 

For detailed guidance on configuring this rule, check out our Lifecycle Rules Documentation.

Why it matters

This feature is useful in a variety of scenarios:

1. Network failures: If a network interruption prevents the final completion step, the unfinished upload will no longer remain indefinitely. Instead, it will be automatically cleared after the defined period, ensuring you aren’t paying for useless storage.
2. User interruptions: If an upload is manually paused or forgotten before completion, lifecycle rules will take care of these fragments, preventing forgotten uploads from lingering in storage.
3. Script failures: If your script fails or times out during the upload process, any incomplete files won’t go unnoticed. They’ll be cleared as per your rules, ensuring efficient storage management.

Cost-saving benefits

Unfinished uploads can quickly add up, both in storage usage and costs. By automatically canceling incomplete uploads, users can significantly reduce unnecessary expenses, keeping storage budgets under control. This is especially important for businesses with large-scale data transfers, where managing storage efficiency can have a direct impact on the bottom line.

What’s next?

Most users configure lifecycle rules through the console or Backblaze B2 command line tool (CLI), so we introduced this feature for the B2 Native API to address immediate customer needs while also laying the groundwork for integrating it into the B2 Cloud Storage web console. You can now use this feature via the CLI or B2 Native API. We’re working on adding UI support to make configuration even more accessible. Let us know in the comments if you’re looking for access to this feature via a different user interface.

In the meantime, here are a few steps you can take:

1. Implement lifecycle rules: Set rules that fit your upload behavior. Choose a reasonable timeframe to cancel unfinished large file uploads that balances with your cost-management goals.
2. Test the feature: Try configuring the lifecycle rule for a few test uploads to make sure it behaves as expected. Monitor how it handles interruptions or failures to ensure it aligns with your needs.
3. Monitor storage costs: Check your storage usage and billing before and after setting these rules to understand the impact on costs. Use the feedback to fine-tune your settings.
4. Stay tuned for UI updates: Keep an eye out for announcements regarding UI support for this feature. We’re committed to making it as intuitive and accessible as possible.

By leveraging lifecycle rules for unfinished large file uploads, you can maintain a cleaner, more efficient storage environment while saving money. For more details on configuring lifecycle rules, visit our API documentation.

The post Effortlessly Managing Unfinished Large File Uploads with B2 Cloud Storage appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup

Post Syndicated from Bala Krishna Gangisetty original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/seamless-data-migration-with-custom-upload-timestamps/

Migrating data to the cloud? Ensuring that original timestamps remain intact through a cloud migration can be a critical factor for successful data management at scale. Losing these timestamps can lead to operational challenges that hinder your ability to track data effectively, set proper lifecycle rules, create custom events, and more.

Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage now offers the Custom Upload Timestamps feature to help you manage your data. Today, I’m sharing details on the new feature, benefits, and how to enable it.

What are Custom Upload Timestamps?

The Custom Upload Timestamps feature is designed specifically to retain the original timestamps of your files during a migration. It is especially beneficial for users who rely on lifecycle rules to dictate file deletion or archiving based on age for compliance, to track file age manually, or maintain historical context of file.

Imagine this scenario: You have a critical file on another cloud storage provider, governed by a lifecycle rule that deletes it after 1,000 days. If you move the file to Backblaze B2 on day 999, the timestamp would be overwritten and you’d have to restart that lifecycle from day one. However, with this new feature, the original timestamp remains intact, and the file will still get deleted on day 1,000, just as planned. This capability not only simplifies the migration process, but also ensures continuity in your data retention policies, keeping your storage costs in line with expectations.

Benefits of Custom Upload Timestamps

Lifecycle rules play a crucial role in managing data retention, particularly when migrating large datasets. Losing the original timestamps means you’d have to manually reconfigure your rules or wait much longer for lifecycle events to take effect. The benefits of retaining original timestamps extend beyond just lifecycle rules.

Here is why this feature is essential:

1. Operational efficiency: Knowing the original timestamp of files allows for better organization and tracking. This is vital for businesses that rely on historical data to inform decisions or manage projects. When timestamps reset, it can lead to confusion and disarray in managing files. You may find yourself dealing with files that should have been deleted or archived but aren’t because of the reset timeline.
2. Compliance: For organizations that must adhere to regulatory standards for data retention, preserving timestamps can help meet legal requirements. It provides a clear audit trail and evidence of when files were created or modified.
3. Decreased workload: Manually tracking and reconfiguring lifecycle rules consumes valuable time and resources. By retaining the original timestamps, you eliminate unnecessary workloads.
4. File age tracking: Whether you’re managing backups, archival processes, or simple organizational tasks, knowing the age of a file can inform your decisions regarding when to review or delete files.
5. Historical context: For projects that span long periods, retaining timestamps helps maintain the context of data. This can be critical for collaborative efforts or projects that require consistent documentation.

Ultimately, the custom upload timestamps feature supports greater data portability, making it easier to move and manage large datasets. It ensures that migration to B2 Cloud Storage is as seamless as possible—without the need to reset or alter your data management policies. 

Ready to get started?

The Custom Upload Timestamps feature is enabled by default for all B2 Cloud Storage customers. To utilize this feature, you need to include the X-Bz-Custom-Upload-Timestamp parameter when calling the b2_upload_file API. This simple addition allows you to retain the original timestamp of your file, thereby preserving its lifecycle state without interruptions and ensuring that your data remains organized and easy to track.

By retaining the original timestamps, Backblaze B2 helps increase the ease and granularity with which you can manage your data, especially for organizations migrating large volumes of data. You can transition your data while maintaining control over important metadata like the original timestamp, streamlining your operations, improving overall efficiency, and avoiding the stress of potential compliance issues.

What next?

To make the most of the Custom Upload Timestamp feature, consider the following actionable steps:

1. Review your migration workflow. Before starting the migration, ensure that your processes include the X-Bz-Custom-Upload-Timestamp parameter in your upload scripts or APIs. This will help prevent any disruption in tracking important metadata.
2. Test the feature. Conduct a pilot migration with a small number of files. This will allow you to confirm that the timestamps are retained correctly. Monitor the behavior of your data tracking after this test migration to ensure everything operates as expected.
3. Verify lifecycle rules. Once you complete the migration, take the time to check that your lifecycle policies continue to function as intended on B2 Cloud Storage. This verification step is crucial to avoid unexpected data retention issues.
4. Engage with Support. If you have any questions or encounter challenges, don’t hesitate to reach out to our Support team. We’re here to help you make the most of B2 Cloud Storage.

For more details, visit our API documentation to ensure you’re ready for a smooth migration. By leveraging the Custom Upload Timestamps feature, you can simplify your data management processes.

The post Seamless Data Migration with Custom Upload Timestamps appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup

Post Syndicated from Kari Rivas original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/troubleshooting-disaster-recovery-scenarios-10-mistakes-to-avoid/

When it comes to disaster recovery (DR), hope isn’t a plan. Yet I’ve seen the same story play out too many times: Companies find themselves scrambling when the unthinkable happens, discovering that their disaster recovery strategy is, well, full of holes. It’s like packing a parachute: You don’t want to find out what you missed when you’re already falling through the air. From my experience, there are some common mistakes businesses make that can turn a manageable problem into a fire drill. 

In this post, I’m sharing the top 10 disaster recovery mistakes I’ve come across when helping businesses think through their disaster recovery posture so that you can strengthen your own safety net. By avoiding these mistakes and implementing a comprehensive DR plan, you can ensure a rapid and efficient recovery from unforeseen disruptions.

1. Proximity paradox

A geographically close disaster recovery site offers limited protection. A natural disaster impacting your primary location could easily disable the nearby DR facility as well. And, if you don’t have a DR site, this could still apply to your business if you keep your backups nearby, such as in a tape storage facility down the road.

2. Untested backups

Backups that haven’t been restored and verified are unreliable. Regularly test your backups to ensure a smooth recovery process during a disaster.

3. Replication trap

Relying solely on replication for DR creates a single point of failure. If your primary site is compromised, the replicated data at the DR site might be compromised as well. Off-site full and incremental backups are essential.

4. Paper plan peril

A DR plan gathering dust on a shelf is useless. Conduct regular drills to simulate disaster scenarios and expose weaknesses in your plan.

5. Snapshot snafu

Snapshots are not comprehensive backups. Using snapshots for long term storage and retention introduces both technical and compliance risks in relation to how snapshots are managed. This affects both cloud and on-premises platforms.

6. SaaS surprises

Software as a service (SaaS) providers like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace focus on high availability, but they operate on a shared responsibility model, meaning they may have limited built-in protection and recovery options. You may not be managing servers, but you do need a comprehensive data protection plan including regular, incremental backups outside of the SaaS platform.

7. Unforeseen force majeure

Disasters come in all shapes and sizes. Don’t limit your DR plan to common IT disruptions. Consider scenarios like widespread power outages or communication breakdowns, and plan accordingly. The goal is holistic cyber resilience—not only identifying threats and protecting against them, but also withstanding attacks as they’re happening and responding effectively.

8. Backup infiltration

Bad actors are increasingly targeting backups to increase the chances of a payout. Utilize immutable backups, unchangeable after creation, for an extra layer of protection against ransomware attacks.

9. Cloud drive disasters

Storing data on Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc. is incredibly common. But these platforms do not protect against ransomware and provide limited point-in-time recovery options. Cloud drives are not a sufficient backup of your data.

10. Overlooking compliance

Factor in compliance needs when building your data protection and DR strategy. Regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, and others may have security or archival requirements that should be considered in your plan.

Invest in cyber resilience

After working in the disaster recovery space, I can tell you this: It’s not just about having a plan; it’s about having one that works when it counts. The mistakes I’ve covered here are common, but they’re also avoidable. Take the time to address these now, and you’re not only protecting your systems and data, but your company’s future. For me, a strong DR plan is an investment in resilience, and it’s there to catch you when you need it most.

The post Troubleshooting Disaster Recovery Scenarios: 10 Mistakes to Avoid appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup

Post Syndicated from Amrit Singh original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/7-ways-to-use-event-notifications-to-streamline-application-workflows/

Event-driven infrastructure is at the core of modern application development. It helps businesses streamline processes like transcoding user-uploaded video or processing images for tagging, kicks off downstream workflows immediately, and reduces complexity by automating multi-step processes across distributed services. 

Today, I’m sharing seven ways you can use Backblaze Event Notifications to accelerate application workflows, automate processes, streamline operations, and scale revenue. If you’re interested in Event Notifications, but you’re not using it to run applications, stay tuned for future posts sharing use cases for media management and backup and archive. 

Event Notifications for applications: Simplified automation

Event Notifications delivers near real-time alerts for changes in B2 Cloud Storage, simplifying workflows across the services that interact with your stored data. Teams can use Event Notifications to create end-to-end processes that scale efficiently and integrate directly with any external service that accepts webhooks. This means no more manual monitoring of storage or relying on complex intermediaries.

Automating common application tasks with Event Notifications allows you to reduce operational overhead by minimizing manual monitoring, accelerate processes across integrations with your preferred services, and reduce manual entry errors that can cost enterprises time and money. 

Top 7 use cases for applications

Let’s explore some practical ways Event Notifications can be leveraged within your tech stack:

1. User-generated content processing

For applications dealing with user-uploaded content, Event Notifications can be used to trigger tasks immediately upon data upload. Imagine a user uploading a video or image: An Event Notification could be sent to a transcoding service to format it, a tagging service to categorize it, or even a moderation tool to ensure it complies with your community standards—all in near real time, without manual intervention.

Social platform workflow

By automating these processes, companies can ensure that user-generated content is formatted correctly, appropriately tagged, and moderated without delay. This not only saves time but guarantees a consistent user experience. 

2. Integrated alerts with automation tools

Event Notifications can easily integrate with productivity tools like Slack and Zapier, or any service that accepts a webhook, making it easy to provide team-wide awareness into changes in your storage environment without manual checks. This keeps teams informed and at the ready to be able to respond immediately to critical events.

Asset tracking and monitoring workflow

Additionally, for teams using workflow platforms such as Zapier to connect various services, Event Notifications makes it simple to trigger actions across multiple platforms, enabling powerful, automated workflows with your data in B2 Cloud Storage.

3. Surveillance and streaming automation

For applications managing large video files, such as surveillance or streaming platforms, Event Notifications can help automate the processing and distribution workflows. Videos can be transcoded, compressed, and prepared for delivery or playback promptly.

Streaming platform workflow

This automation is also useful for time-sensitive content, where quick turnaround is essential. Automating video processing reduces the manual effort involved and ensures content is always ready for viewing in the preferred format as soon as it’s available.

4. AI workload automation

For businesses building AI applications, Event Notifications can be used to trigger AI workloads in real time, enabling faster processing and response. For instance, when new data is uploaded, alerts can trigger downstream services to process that data, such as converting images to text or analyzing content for insights. 

AI image to text workflow

In this case, this AI workflow ensures tasks start the moment data becomes available. Whether you’re running an image recognition service, analyzing datasets, or building AI models, Event Notifications eliminates the delays that come with manual processing. No matter what your downstream service is, Event Notifications provides the flexibility to integrate seamlessly with your AI workflows, improving real-time processing capabilities and enabling teams to focus on delivering better solutions rather than managing manual data flow.

5. Monitor data usage

Since Event Notifications messages are sent within seconds of files being uploaded and deleted, and contain the size of the file in question, you can easily and reliably track your data usage in near real time, helping you identify trends and potential issues.

Monitoring workflow

In contrast with periodic usage reports, near real-time monitoring allows you to respond to situations as they are happening, mitigating risks and potentially reducing costs.

6. Respond to security events

Event Notifications can feed near real-time data to security information and event management (SIEM) systems, allowing you to detect and respond to anomalous access patterns as they are happening.

Security alert workflow

Event Notifications allows you to take a proactive, rather than reactive, security posture, again mitigating risks and reducing costs.

7. Automatically trigger data integration

Event Notifications enable your data integration workloads to run within seconds of new data being uploaded to Backblaze B2, continuously delivering data to analytical systems and dashboards, giving you a live view of the state of your business.

Data integration workflow

Delivering data to dashboards within seconds or minutes of its availability enables near real-time insights, faster decision-making, and the ability to react to events as they occur.

Beyond these example use cases, Event Notifications opens up a wide range of possibilities for automating and optimizing workflows. You can use Event Notifications to automate metadata extraction and tagging for better content organization, and handle errors programmatically by triggering reprocessing tasks whenever issues arise. This flexibility makes it easy to automate how your infrastructure interacts with and reacts to data changes in B2 Cloud Storage, simplifying workflows across your distributed services.

Why Event Notifications matter for application workflows

The benefits of real-time notifications extend beyond simply saving time—they transform the way teams work, automate processes, and reduce the margin for error.

• Awareness: Instant notifications for data changes, uploads, or deletions keep everyone on the same page.
• Actionable insights: Whether it’s confirming a successful upload or catching an unexpected change, real-time alerts provide critical information that helps make informed decisions quickly.
• Flexibility: Direct connections to services like transcoding, compute, or serverless applications mean more choice and less lock-in to specific vendors or tools.
• Improved security: By instantly alerting teams to unauthorized changes or unusual activity, Event Notifications help maintain data integrity and support proactive security measures.
• Cost efficiency: Automating tasks like media transcoding, data processing, or content delivery reduces the need for manual labor, saving on operational costs and freeing up resources for other strategic initiatives.

How Event Notifications compares

Unlike other offerings like Amazon’s messaging services, which are limited to specific ecosystems, Event Notifications integrates directly with any service that accepts webhooks, offering true flexibility and avoiding vendor lock-in.

Event Notifications is also designed for at-least-once delivery, ensuring critical notifications are not missed. This reliability is important for teams building workflows that require precision and a level of consistency their end users expect. 

The pricing for Event Notifications is simple and transparent, with 2,500 calls per day free, and just $0.004 per 10,000 transactions. This straightforward pricing applies no matter the service receiving the notification. This enables businesses to confidently scale their event-driven workflows, knowing exactly what to expect in terms of costs, regardless of the services they choose to integrate with. 

Ready to add automation to your application?

For existing customers working with a Backblaze account manager, Event Notifications is already enabled for you, and your account manager can assist with any questions. If you’re an existing customer not currently working with an account manager, please contact our Support team to request access to Event Notifications. 

New customers can contact our Sales team to learn more about how Event Notifications can streamline workflows and how to get started.

Once Event Notifications are enabled, log in to your Backblaze B2 account, navigate to the Buckets page, and click on the Event Notifications section. From there, you can set up notification rules for the events you want to track or configure notifications using our API.

For detailed instructions and best practices, visit our Event Notifications documentation.

The post 7 Ways to Use Event Notifications to Streamline Application Workflows appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup

Post Syndicated from Vinodh Subramanian original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/saas-and-the-shared-responsibility-model-a-guide-to-protecting-your-data/

Were you the person who stayed up until 2 a.m. to finish the group project? If you, like me, burned the midnight oil to save the team from utter failure, you suffered from a breakdown of shared responsibility. No one knew who was supposed to do what.

The same breakdown applies when you don’t fully understand the “shared responsibility model” that most software as a service (SaaS) platforms use when it comes to your data. You might assume that, because it’s in the cloud, your SaaS data is protected automatically. In reality, SaaS companies are only responsible for maintaining their uptime, not for retaining your files and critical information in case you need to get back online—and this has big implications for how you protect your data, ensure compliance, and optimize system performance.

Today, I’m diving into what this model means and how it affects how you use SaaS platforms.

What is the shared responsibility model?

The shared responsibility model defines the division of duties between a SaaS provider and its customers. It delineates which aspects of the system the provider manages and what tasks remain under the customer’s control. The primary goal is to clarify roles and reduce any ambiguity about who is responsible for certain aspects of security, data integrity, and system maintenance. 

Defined roles, reduced ambiguity. That all sounds great to me, but what do SaaS providers actually take responsibility for? And what are you responsible for? 

SaaS provider responsibilities

First and foremost, SaaS providers are responsible for ensuring that the application and its underlying infrastructure (servers, networking, data centers) are secure. This includes physical security, network protection, patching the platform, and overall system integrity. They typically guarantee a certain level of service availability, often formalized in a service level agreement (SLA). Downtime, system performance, and platform updates fall within the vendor’s scope.

Practically speaking, that means that they may not back up your data as often as you would like or archive it for as long as you need. SaaS vendors do not concern themselves with fully protecting your files. Most importantly, they may not offer a timely recovery option if you lose the data, which is critical to getting your business back online in the event of an outage. 

Customer responsibilities

SaaS providers and cloud drives typically take responsibility for the security “of” the cloud, including the infrastructure that runs all of the services offered in the cloud. On the other hand, the customers are responsible for security “in” the cloud. This means customers must manage the security of their own data.

What’s the difference? Let’s use an example I’ve come across many times. If a user inadvertently uploads a ransomware-infected file to a cloud drive like Google Drive or OneDrive, the service might protect the integrity of the cloud infrastructure, ensuring the malware doesn’t spread to other users. However, the responsibility to prevent the upload of the infected file in the first place, and managing its consequences, falls directly on the user. In essence, while cloud drives provide a platform for storing your data, relying solely on them without understanding the nuances of the shared responsibility model could leave gaps in your data protection strategy. 

Customer responsibilities include, among others:

• Data protection: While the provider secures the infrastructure, you are responsible for securing the data you upload, manage, and store within the platform. SaaS platforms may replicate data and have redundancy safeguards in place to ensure you can access your data through the platform reliably, but they do not assume responsibility for their users’ data. It’s up to you to ensure your data is backed up according to your needs and policies.
• Access management: You are responsible for controlling who has access to the SaaS environment. This involves creating strong user authentication processes, managing roles and permissions, and ensuring that the right people have access to the right information.
• Compliance: Even if the SaaS vendor is compliant with say HIPAA or GDPR standards, you are also responsible for ensuring that you’re using the platform in accordance with those standards.

Here’s a graph that shows how shared responsibility breaks down for Microsoft 365 as just one example:

When the shared responsibility model matters

Unfortunately, I’ve found the shared responsibility model can create a false sense of security because understanding your responsibilities as a customer is often a process of elimination. SaaS responsibilities may be hard to track down, and when you can find them, they won’t say “you need to handle backups.” They’ll list what the provider handles, and all the rest is up to you.  

When does this become important for you?

• Security breaches: Many security incidents occur because of a misunderstanding of this model. For example, if a company assumes their SaaS provider is responsible for data encryption and user access control when, in fact, the company is, this can lead to critical vulnerabilities. A lack of clarity can expose businesses to data breaches, financial losses, and reputational damage.
• Compliance issues: Regulatory compliance is another area that hinges on understanding shared responsibilities. Organizations that fail to implement required security measures or back up data properly can face fines, penalties, or legal consequences—even if the SaaS provider adheres to all necessary certifications.
• Operational efficiency: Knowing where your responsibility starts and ends helps optimize how you use the platform. You can improve operational efficiency by focusing on the areas you control.

And, this gets even more complicated the larger your business and the more complicated your processes. So, if you have a business running on Google Workspace or M365, you can take something like emails and understand that Google is responsible for the email platform, but you should backup the individual emails themselves. But what about when you’re a media management company using best-of-breed tools for editing and collaboration, transcoding, asset management, and maybe even content delivery? All of those platforms have some responsibility in a shared responsibility model, and your job as a business is to understand where you are vulnerable—and then plug the gaps.

Navigating the shared responsibility model

So, what should you do with all of this information? In my experience, these are the biggest takeaways businesses can put into practice to successfully navigate the shared responsibility model:

1. Know your provider’s SLAs and security measures. Before adopting a SaaS solution, ensure you have a clear understanding of the vendor’s SLA and their security protocols. Understand the terms of their compliance with data privacy regulations, system availability, and disaster recovery.

2. Educate your teams. Make sure that your internal teams are aware of their responsibilities in the shared model. Provide training on access control, data management, and security best practices to prevent accidental data exposure or misconfigurations.
3. Monitor and audit your usage. Set up regular audits to ensure that your organization is meeting its obligations under the shared responsibility model. Use tools to monitor access, detect unusual activity, and ensure data is being properly managed.
4. Make sure your backups are comprehensive. If you’re here, you’re probably well aware of this, but I can’t stress enough how important it is to back up your data, including data stored in cloud services like Microsoft 365, Google Drive, and OneDrive. Even if these services offer backups as part of the service, they may not meet your recovery needs.

How to approach the shared responsibility model

All this to say, you are ultimately responsible for backing up your data and files stored in SaaS clouds or cloud drives. The bottom line is that SaaS platforms’ top priority is to keep their own services running. By clearly understanding your role and responsibilities in this model, you can not only protect your data and ensure compliance, but also maximize the value of your SaaS investments.

The post SaaS and the Shared Responsibility Model: A Guide to Protecting Your Data appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup

Post Syndicated from Bala Krishna Gangisetty original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/introducing-scalable-application-keys-for-enhanced-security-and-performance/

If you work in an industry with high performance and security demands like video surveillance, internet of things (IoT), and mobile applications, a new Backblaze capability could help your cloud workflows—Scalable Application Keys. This new capability enables you to generate application keys for your Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage Buckets at 150 times the current scale. When you need high volume, short-lived application keys to upload your data to cloud storage, you can’t tolerate bottlenecks—the Scalable Application Keys feature removes them.

Today, I’m digging into the challenges solved by Scalable Application Keys, the use cases where it has the most impact, and the benefits of the feature.

The challenges

Managing large volumes of data under strict security requirements sometimes requires using application keys programmatically to interact with cloud storage buckets. In the video surveillance industry, for example, you might upload massive amounts of video footage directly from security cameras to Backblaze B2, and you need to regularly refresh the application keys used by each of those cameras to maintain a robust security posture. However, this practice has a few unique requirements:

• You can’t be hampered by rate limitations to generate the volume of application keys you need.
• You need high key limits sufficient for the total volume of keys.
• Throughput needs to be high to generate hundreds or thousands of new application keys simultaneously.

The irregular timing of key refreshes and the scale of operations can further amplify the problem, especially when hundreds or thousands of devices request new keys at the same time. 

The solution: Scalable Application Keys

With the introduction of Scalable Application Keys, Backblaze B2 customers can generate and refresh keys at significantly higher volumes and throughput—without hitting hard limits on the number of keys. This feature is designed to accommodate the unique requirements of customers who need:

• High key throughput: Create keys at scale, even when thousands of devices need new keys simultaneously. You can create up to 10,000 keys per minute.
• Unlimited key generation: Scale without interruption—there’s no hard cap on the number of application keys that can be generated.
• Short-lived keys: Easily generate keys with very short lifespans, enhancing security without compromising functionality.
• S3 compatibility: Maintain support for the Backblaze S3 compatible API, allowing you to avoid costly firmware upgrades on your devices.

Real-world applications

This feature is particularly beneficial for customers with many endpoints that all upload to Backblaze B2 cloud individually through the S3 Compatible API. For example:

Video surveillance: Companies with large networks of security cameras can now easily refresh keys for each device frequently. When you operate tens of thousands of cameras that record sensitive footage, you need to be able to refresh application keys regularly to maintain security. With Scalable Application Keys, you can handle refreshes efficiently and continue scaling the number of cameras in operation without worry. 

Mobile applications: Developers of mobile apps that store data in B2 Cloud Storage can generate unique keys for each user’s device. This is especially useful for apps that rely on user-generated and user-uploaded content, where each end device needs its own application key. 

IoT devices: Businesses managing large fleets of IoT devices, where each device needs a unique and regularly refreshed application key, can ensure secure, individualized access to cloud storage.

Benefits of Scalable Application Keys

1. Enhanced security:
   • Frequent key rotation becomes feasible at scale, significantly reducing the risk of unauthorized access.
   • Short-lived keys minimize the window of vulnerability if a key is compromised.
   • Customers can implement best practices for key management without extraneous components that could cause performance penalties.
2. Operational flexibility:
   • Easily manage key generation for large numbers of devices, from thousands to millions.
   • Accommodate sudden spikes in key requests, such as during system-wide updates or resets.
   • Adapt to varying usage patterns throughout the day without hitting rate limits.
3. Cost effectiveness:
   • Avoid expensive firmware upgrades by continuing to use the S3 Compatible API.
   • Eliminate the need for complex workarounds or additional infrastructure to handle key management.

Scalable Application Keys not only solves existing limitations but also future-proofs your workflows by providing the flexibility and performance needed to scale without restriction.This feature allows you to securely manage access to B2 Cloud Storage, no matter the scale of your operations.

Ready to get started?

This feature is available upon request. If you’re an existing Backblaze B2 customer and want to get access to this capability, please contact our Support team to request access.

New to Backblaze? Contact our Sales team to learn more about how Scalable Application Keys can benefit your business and how to get started.

Once this feature is enabled, you can generate application keys at scale. Check out the documentation for more on how to use the feature.

What next? 

Are you leveraging Scalable Application Keys to build more efficient and performant workflows? Share how it’s working for you so other organizations and developers can benefit from what you find. If you have any questions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

The post Introducing Scalable Application Keys for Enhanced Security and Performance appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup

Post Syndicated from Kari Rivas original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-fine-print-how-minimum-data-retention-fees-affect-cloud-costs/

You probably won’t notice a little asterisked footnote tucked at the bottom of the page the first time you read through a cloud storage vendor’s pricing tables. You probably won’t notice it the second or third time either. But you’ll definitely notice it when your bill comes in with charges for data you thought you deleted weeks ago. 

That footnote explains an often overlooked challenge to your budget: minimum data retention periods. These policies, used by cloud providers like AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and Wasabi, can lead to unexpected cost increases and complicated data management strategies. 

Today, I’m breaking down cloud storage retention minimums and common scenarios where they directly impact storage budgets and data management policies. 

What are minimum data retention periods?

Retention minimums specify the minimum amount of time that data must be stored before it can be deleted, overwritten, or moved to a different storage tier without incurring additional charges. 

Cloud storage providers with multiple tiers like AWS or Google Cloud use minimum retention policies to ensure that customers cannot frequently move data between storage tiers to exploit lower-cost storage classes for short-term storage. For cloud providers that have a single class of storage, these policies allow providers to stabilize their resource usage and maintain predictable pricing structures.

Minimum retention periods can vary significantly between providers, and even between different storage tiers offered by the same provider. For example, AWS S3 Standard has no minimum retention period, but S3 Standard-IA has a 30 day minimum, Glacier has a 90 day minimum, and Deep Archive has a 180 day minimum.

Despite their significance, information about these retention periods is often buried in the fine print of service agreements or technical documentation. 

What are delete fees?

Delete fees are a direct consequence of deleting or moving files before the retention minimum is met. Cloud providers charge these fees to ensure that the infrastructure allocated for the data is compensated for the resources it would have otherwise used during the retention period. This fee is typically prorated, representing the remaining days in the retention period that the data was meant to occupy in a storage class. 

The terms “delete fees,” “minimum storage duration,” and “minimum retention fees” all refer to a similar policy.

How are delete fees incurred?

Early deletion fees can be triggered by various actions, not just the obvious deletion of files. Some examples include:

• Moving data from a higher-cost tier to a lower-cost tier before the minimum retention period has been met: This scenario often catches organizations off guard when they attempt to optimize costs by transferring infrequently accessed data to a cheaper storage class.
• Overwriting existing files: When a file is overwritten, the cloud provider typically treats this as a delete operation followed by a new write operation. If the original file hasn’t met its minimum retention period, the organization may be charged for the remaining time, even though they’re still using the same amount of storage space.

• Implementation of automated lifecycle policies: Many organizations set up rules to automatically move or delete data based on its age or access patterns. However, if these policies don’t account for minimum retention periods, they can inadvertently trigger early delete fees on a large scale.
• Renaming files or folders: Even seemingly benign actions like renaming files or folders can sometimes be interpreted as delete-and-rewrite operations by certain cloud storage systems, potentially triggering these fees. 

Additionally, in multi-user or multi-team environments, lack of communication about retention policies can lead to unexpected charges. One team might delete or move data without realizing the financial implications for the entire organization. 

The financial impact of minimum data retention periods

Minimum data retention periods, particularly in cold storage tiers, can have significant impacts on IT budgets. What may have seemed like a cost-saving storage tier can actually increase expenses when operations require frequent deletions or movements of data before the minimum retention period is over. But even in hot storage, these policies can unexpectedly inflate overall costs.

To illustrate the real-world impact of retention minimums, let’s examine a few common scenarios:

1. Backup strategy

Let’s say you have a 30 day backup strategy for your critical infrastructure, and you opt for Wasabi object storage to save costs vs. AWS. You plan to keep a month’s worth of backups in the cloud and will then replace them with the newer backups.

Wasabi’s minimum retention policy is 90 days for its Pay as You Go storage (and 30 days for its Reserved Capacity Storage). 

You store an initial 50TB of backups in Wasabi on Day 1. On Day 31, the older backup is deleted and replaced with the newer backup. So, you incur costs for 30 days of Timed Active Storage (50TB) and 60 days of Timed Deleted Storage (50TB). These charges are incurred every time the backup is replaced.

With Wasabi’s Pay as You Go storage, your monthly bill will look like this:

50TB x $6.99/TB/month x 3 = $1048.50

We multiply by 3 because the 90 day minimum retention policy equals three months’ time. One of those you’ve actually stored for, and the other two are because you’ve replaced your backups with the new ones.  

Compare this to Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage, which has no minimum retention policy and costs $6 per TB/month for its Pay as You Go storage:

50TB x $6/TB/month = $300

The minimum retention policy effectively triples the anticipated storage expenses. When scaled across multiple backup sets or extended periods, the impact on the IT budget can be substantial.

2. Application storage

In application storage use cases, retention minimums can impact cloud spend significantly when the data has a short lifecycle. Applications with high transaction volumes—such as e-commerce, user-generated content applications, or surveillance platforms—frequently upload and delete as part of their daily operations. 

For example, most video surveillance platforms may only need 30 days of history for footage that’s been uploaded and processed, so something like a 90-day retention period doesn’t make financial or operational sense. E-commerce customers can also be affected; these businesses have users that frequently upload and delete content to manage storefronts, creating unpredictable data usage patterns. In these cases, you are at the mercy of your end users—if users churn through files quickly you will pay the retention penalties.

3. Video production

Retention minimums also affect video production workflows particularly when you need to make revisions once a project has been archived in cold storage—a common workflow many studios and broadcasting agencies use to get more affordable storage rates for seldom-accessed data. 

Whether due to last minute changes in branding, edits to visuals, or adjustments to sound, the project needs to be pulled from storage for further modification. Because the files were moved to colder storage under a 90 day retention policy, accessing and modifying them before that period ends can trigger significant early delete fees.

If you routinely archive files immediately after a project completes anticipating that no further changes will be required, these early delete fees can add up quickly.

The hidden complexities of minimum data retention periods

Retention minimums can significantly impact your bottom line. These policies, often buried in the fine print, can lead to unexpected costs and complicate data management strategies across various industries.

Understanding the nuances of minimum data retention periods and their associated costs is crucial for developing an effective and economically sound cloud storage strategy. It enables organizations to make more informed decisions, avoid unexpected expenses, and better align their storage choices with their specific data management needs and budget constraints.

The post The Fine Print: How Minimum Data Retention Fees Affect Cloud Costs appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup

Post Syndicated from Bala Krishna Gangisetty original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/using-b2-event-notifications/

No one likes being left out in the cold, least of all your data. With Backblaze B2 Event Notifications—now generally available—you can receive real-time notifications about object changes. That means that you can build more responsive and automated workflows across best-of-breed cloud platforms, saving time and money and improving your end users’ experiences. And, you can be alerted to changes in your data that may speed time to action.

Here’s how it works: With Backblaze B2 Event Notifications, any data changes within B2 Cloud Storage—like uploads, updates, or deletions—can automatically trigger actions in a workflow, including transcoding video files, spooling up data analytics, delivering finished assets to end users, and many others. Importantly, unlike many other solutions currently available, Backblaze’s service doesn’t lock you into one platform or require you to use legacy tools from AWS.

So, to businesses that want to create an automated workflow that combines different compute, content delivery networks (CDN), data analytics, and whatever other cloud service: Now you can, with the bonus of cloud storage at a fifth of the rates of other solutions and free egress.

Key capabilities

• Flexible implementation: Event Notifications are sent as HTTP POST requests to the desired service or endpoint within your infrastructure or any other cloud service. This flexibility ensures seamless integration with your existing workflows. For instance, your endpoint could be Fastly Compute, AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, or Google Cloud Functions, etc.
• Event categories: Specify the types of events you want to be notified about, such as when files are uploaded and deleted. This allows you to receive notifications tailored to your specific needs. For instance, you have the flexibility to specify different methods of object creation, such as copying, uploading, or multipart replication, to trigger event notifications. You can also manage Event Notification rules through UI or API.
• Filter by prefix: Define prefixes to filter events, enabling you to narrow down notifications to specific sets of objects or directories within your storage on Backblaze B2. For instance, if your bucket contains audio, video, and text files organized into separate prefixes, you can specify the prefix for audio files in order to receive Event Notifications exclusively for audio files.
• Custom headers: Include personalized HTTP headers in your Event Notifications to provide additional authentication or contextual information when communicating with your target endpoint. For example, you can use these headers to add necessary authentication tokens or API keys for your target endpoint, or include any extra metadata related to the payload to offer contextual information to your webhook endpoint, and more.
• Signed notification messages: You can configure outgoing messages to be signed by the Event Notifications service, allowing you to validate signatures and verify that each message was generated by Backblaze B2 and not tampered with in transit.
• Test rule functionality: Validate the functionality of your target endpoint by testing Event Notifications before deploying them into production. This allows you to ensure that your integration with your target endpoint is set up correctly and functioning as expected.
• Retries: Event Notifications are automatically re-sent if the initial delivery attempt fails. This feature increases the reliability of Event Notifications by ensuring that temporary issues do not result in missed events, thus maintaining the integrity of your event-driven workflows.
• Delivery: Event Notifications are designed for the at-least-once delivery guarantee to ensure Event Notifications are delivered reliably, even in the presence of network or system failures.

Versatile use cases

This past April, we announced Event Notifications in preview, and folks have put Event Notifications to work in some incredible ways. Today, we’re sharing some of the key use cases that came out of the preview to simplify your own workflows so you can focus on extracting insights from your data, rather than managing the logistics of data processing.

Automated media processing

Video transcoding: Many customers use Event Notifications to automate their video transcoding workflows. When a new video is uploaded to a Backblaze B2 Bucket, an Event Notification can trigger a transcoding process to generate all videos in the desired format. 

Image processing: Similarly, customers also use Event Notifications to set up automated image processing pipelines, such as generating thumbnails or applying filters when new images are added to a Backblaze B2 Bucket.

Media processing is not limited to video transcoding or image processing. It can be extended to any other media processing workflow, minimizing the number of steps in the workflow.

Backup monitoring

Customers can receive notifications when backups are successfully uploaded to a Backblaze B2 Bucket with Event Notifications, providing peace of mind and ensuring data protection. Whether you want to track your nightly or monthly backups, you can get a notification when they are completed.

Presigned URL monitoring

Using a presigned URL is a standard way to share a file without giving the full access to your Backblaze B2 Bucket. Customers are using Event Notifications to know when their clients upload files via presigned URLs to Backblaze B2. They can get a callback to confirm that the upload is complete.

Security and access control

Unauthorized access detection: Customers are using Event Notifications to track access to highly confidential video files and report back to their clients as needed. Event Notifications help them detect any unauthorized access and take immediate action.

Audit trails: Some customers are using Event Notifications to create a detailed audit log of supported bucket activities through Event Notifications, which is useful for their compliance and security purposes.

Anomaly/malware detection: Event Notifications can strengthen security by detecting unusual access patterns, like malware that deletes or overwrites backups, by getting notifications of changes to Backblaze B2 Buckets.

Integration with external systems

Database synchronization: Customers use Event Notifications to keep databases in sync with the state of their Backblaze B2 Buckets. It’s critical to ensure data consistency across systems as their applications run on the databases.

Document management system: Some customers use Event Notifications with a workflow system to track document revisions, uploads, and deletes, or to notify team members when specific documents are uploaded or deleted.

Analytics and reporting

Performance analytics: Some customers use Event Notifications to monitor their backup performance and completion times, helping to optimize their data management strategies.

Usage tracking: Event Notifications can help track storage consumption by individual users or projects, facilitating better resource management and cost allocation.

These are just a few of the use cases our preview customers shared with us, and the sky is truly the limit for ways Event Notifications can empower you to simplify and streamline your workflows. 

Ready to get started?

For existing customers working with a Backblaze account manager, Event Notifications is enabled for you today. If you need assistance, your account manager is happy to help.

For existing customers who are not currently working with an account manager, please contact our Support team to request access.

New to Backblaze? Contact our Sales team to learn more about how Event Notifications can benefit your business and how to get started.

Once Event Notifications is enabled on your account, log in to your Backblaze B2 account, navigate to the Buckets page, and click on the Event Notifications section. From there, you can set up notification rules for the events you want to track or configure notifications through our API. 

For detailed instructions and best practices, check out the Event Notifications documentation.

What’s next?

Please do share how you’re leveraging Event Notifications to build more efficient, automated, and responsive workflows so that other organizations and developers can benefit from what you find. If you have any questions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

The post Backblaze B2 Event Notifications Now Generally Available appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup