Backblaze

Backblaze, an online backup start-up, announced plans to release an iPhone app in coming weeks to let customers tap into their files.

"Having restored 2.5 billion files for our customers, we found that 22 percent of recoveries contained a single file and realized customers were using Backblaze to access their files remotely," said Chief Executive Gleb Budman in a statement. Backblaze's Web interface already lets people retrieve files, but the iOS app will extend the ability to mobile devices.

Backblaze still is chiefly about backup rather than synchronizing files across multiple devices. For example, it keeps … Read more

Retailers have engineered Black Friday to whip consumers into a buying frenzy, but it turns out it can be good for startups looking for a good deal, too.

Backblaze, the online backup company that headed off a hard-drive price-hike crisis by enlisting friends and family as deputy procurement officers, found itself scouring the ads for good deals again during the holiday buying season. The result: another round of "drive farming" by people willing to help the company.

This time, though, the drive farming was open to the first 200 people who signed up to participate, and Backblaze paid … Read more

What do you do when you have a 1,000-unit-per-month hard-drive habit -- then Thailand floods wipe out your supply?

In the case of online backup specialist Backblaze, whose business could have been crippled when the natural disaster last year raised the price of a $129 3TB drive to $349, you improvise.

The company turned employees, their friends, and their families into an ad hoc supply chain who scoured Best Buy, Costco, NewEgg, B&H Foto, and other retailers across the country for drives. And when they learned that external USB storage devices were actually cheaper than the drives … Read more

BackBlaze, an online backup company that for the last five years bootstrapped itself with its own funding, has taken a $5 million investment from U.K.-based TMT Investments to speed its growth.

The funding will be used for advertising, promotional partnerships, and hiring engineers to bring new features such as an iOS app to market, Chief Executive Gleb Budman said.

The 16-employee company, founded in 2007 ago and headquartered in San Mateo, Calif., has been profitable with plans that cost $5 a month, $50 for a year, or $95 for two years. TMT said in its announcement today that … Read more

Online-backup company Backblaze (Windows | Mac) announced on Tuesday that it has opened its service up to businesses. Backblaze will charge companies a flat fee of $50 per computer per year.

Backblaze's service mimics other, more popular services like Mozy (Windows | Mac) and Carbonite (Windows). Users need only to download its uploading software to their computers and create an account. Once complete, Backblaze starts backing up the contents of the user's computer to its data center.

Backblaze backs up all files on the computer, except for the operating system, temporary files, apps, or files over 4GB in size. Uploading … Read more

I just got the preview for Backblaze, yet another online backup service. Or to use the current vernacular, cloud storage. It's a nifty service in that it does but one thing: back up your PC (Macs coming). Setup is so easy my cat could do it: you grab the software, run it, enter in an ID and password, and you're done.

By default, Backblaze begins to backup your PC in idle times, grabbing everything on your disk except the contents of your system and program directories, and your temp files. There's no storage or bandwidth limit, and … Read more