Backblaze Developer Newsletter—September 2023

Our monthly newsletter brings technical articles, events, and news to developers working with Backblaze B2 Cloud Object Storage.

Hi there!   Welcome to our September 2023 Backblaze Developer Newsletter, bringing you, as always, news, articles, and events from the world of Backblaze B2.   As we return from our summer vacations, the big news is Backblaze Tech Day '23, our annual live virtual event aimed at developers, architects, and other technical professionals working with cloud-based applications and solutions. We invite you to join us for two hours of short, focused sessions covering Backblaze B2. You'll find all the details, and a link to register, below. We always love to hear about topics that you'd like to see us cover here in the newsletter, on the blog, or in the documentation. Email your suggestions to us at evangelism@backblaze.com (or just reply to this email). Backblaze Tech Day '23: Empowering Next-Gen Cloud Solutions Join us live on Wednesday October 11, at 10 a.m. PT, for Backblaze Tech Day '23! Our focus this year is on innovation, with a two hour program of short sessions explaining how you can leverage Backblaze B2 in areas such as AI/ML, edge computing, and data lakes. Backblaze CEO Gleb Budman will open proceedings, and Andy Klein, aka "Mr. Drive Stats", will be in the house, sharing his unique take on all things storage.   Right now, we're still finalizing the speakers, topics, and agenda, but the registration page is already live. The first 1,000 registrants will receive an exclusive Backblaze Tech Day '23 shirt, so don't miss out—register now and secure your spot (and your shirt)!   Register Today → Backblaze Product and Pricing Updates Backblaze CEO Gleb Budman last month announced a series of product and pricing updates for both B2 Cloud Storage and Computer Backup. On the Backblaze B2 side, effective October 3, 2023, we will be increasing the monthly pay-as-you-go storage rate from $5/TB to $6/TB. The price of B2 Reserve capacity bundles will not change. At the same time, we'll be making egress (that's data transfer from Backblaze B2 or, in other words, downloads) free for all Backblaze B2 customers—both pay-as-you-go and B2 Reserve—up to three times the amount of data you store with us, with any additional egress priced at just $0.01/GB. Gleb also shared that we will be announcing upload performance upgrades, expanded integrations, and more partnerships over the next few months. Click through to the blog post for the full announcement.   Read More → Inside Object Lock: Ransomware Protection for Developers and IT Professionals Object Lock allows Backblaze B2 customers to make data immutable, preventing files from being changed or deleted until a given date. Off-the-shelf products, such as backup software, leverage Object Lock to protect data that is stored in Backblaze B2 from threats like ransomware and insider attacks, or for regulatory compliance.    Last month, Pat Patterson, Chief Technical Evangelist at Backblaze, presented a webinar focused on Object Lock. Pat explained Object Lock's governance, compliance, and Legal Hold modes, how to enable Object Lock at the bucket and file level, and how to take advantage of Object Lock in your own applications. Essential viewing for anyone working hands-on with Backblaze B2!   Watch the Recording → Show Historical Versions of Files in a Backblaze B2 Bucket In a comment on a recent Reddit post concerning file versions in Backblaze B2, Redditor u/r0ck0 posed an interesting question: "Is there a screen/report anywhere in the Backblaze website where I can find out how much of my storage usage is being consumed by historical versions of files?"   The answer is: "There isn't." But, our intrepid Chief Technical Evangelist, Pat Patterson, quickly wrote a simple TypeScript app, using the community-created Backblaze B2 Node.js Library, to list historical file versions stored in a given bucket and calculate the storage that they consume.   Interestingly, the app includes an asynchronous generator function, listFileVersions(), to handle result paging. This function calls the library's listFileVersions() method, which in turn calls Backblaze B2's b2_list_file_versions API, retrieving up to 1,000 file objects per request. Calling code, in contrast, can use the generator, just like an iterator, to obtain a single file object at a time. It's a neat way to handle the impedance mismatch between a bulk producer and a singular consumer, helping Pat create a solution in just a few dozen lines of code.   Check it Out → Drive Stats Data Deep Dive: The Architecture When Senior Infrastructure Software Engineer David Winings was tasked with migrating Drive Stats data to a new server, the data took literally weeks to process. Diagnosing the root cause of the issue was challenging due to the amount of history surrounding the codebase. There was some documentation, but not a ton of practical knowledge. It all led him to an in-depth examination that mapped the existing Drive Stats data architecture, explored the effectiveness of legacy code, and eventually pointed towards a solution.   Read What Happened → Upcoming Events Catch up with us online or in person in the next few weeks:   QCon San Francisco: October 2–4, San Francisco, CA. This fall, our Evangelism team will be sponsoring QCon's San Francisco conference. Stop by our booth, say hi, and pick up some fun swag!   Know anyone who might like this newsletter? Forward this email to them so they can subscribe! Backblaze, 500 Ben Franklin Ct, San Mateo, CA Unsubscribe Manage preferences