135TB Backblaze storage pod v2.0

[LavinaD]

Does anyone heard about the Backblaze storage pod v2.0? It is a Custom 4U chassis, 45 consumer-grades HDDs. 135TB raw for each pod intended for $7384. Nice developments within the RAID controller particularly.

[Alondra]

The peculiarity of Backblaze is that the company deliberately optimized architecture to offer its service at minimum cost. Backblaze has designed its own storage systems, the Backblaze Pods systems that enable it to offer an unlimited amount of backup at a cost of $ 5 per month.

As explained by Brian Wilson, CTO of the company, the firm did not require sophisticated storage arrays, but simply protected storage of the cheapest possible. The price of traditional storage systems making the service economically impossible, it was finally determined to develop its own systems in addition to associated software (software that manages the distribution of user data between pods to maximize particular performance but also security data.

[The$Tourist]

The distributed architecture is based on a solution Backblaze called Central Authority that distributes all data between the Pod and this without using a database. "Over time, the databases become gigantic and slow down significantly across the platform.

[Svana]

I read the whole doc is not a bad idea but there is at least one big mistake: They have two power supply for one-half of each disc. So if a plant of power supplies they lose all data on the bay (in RAID-6 cannot afford to lose one-half of the disks). The only thing that could prevent a problem if it makes the RAID-1 between 2 bay 4U (RAID-6). Then, if a disk is stranded in their config I will not say the brothel to find him, It happened to me on a RAID-5 config on Debian 3-disc drive me gourrer (the numbering of the disks in Linux non-obvious and generally having all discs the same name).

[brynhildur]

If Backblaze finally agreed to sell its Storage Pod - but does not provide support - it keeps hold of its software.

[strongArm]

Backblaze produced this chart comparing the costs of NetApp, EMC, DELL, ... proposing solutions close to the petabytes (1 inch = 1000 Terabytes = 1 million gigabytes). Backblaze solution is very close to that of a set of disks "naked" Backblaze offered free access to the plans for the design of the POD (their goal is hosting high capacity) to make it perform at companies like Protocase .

[CRiley]

Each pod comes in the form of a 4U server with three rows of 15 SATA drives each protected by a dual-parity (RAID-6). The pod of the OS is a Debian distribution. Each pod now has a gross capacity of 90 TB with 2 TB disks (78 TB in RAID-6 protected) and amounts to about $ 7800. The cost over three years of such systems to store a petabyte is thus estimated by Backblaze about $ 100 000 (excluding accommodation and electricity). Assembled with the same capacity systems "Thumper" Oracle (X4550) would be 10 times more expensive and 17 times more expensive with NetApp FAS-6000. Backblaze remains cautious in noting that his system does not inherently safety, performance or features advanced software companies berries - this part being provided by the software layer that performs the checksum checks, "scrub" the data for regular detect possible corruption, etc

[GracieSingh]

Backblaze backup now more than 10 petabytes of data for hundreds of thousands of users. Approximately 1000 companies are also using the enterprise version of its service (at the same price as the consumer version but with additional administration interface). And it costs $ 5 per month per job saved (unlimited capacity) or $ 50 per year (prepaid). And despite the low price, Backblaze is profitable (and still owned by its founders) ...

[pctechman]

It's a great idea and while it's open source, Backblaze isn't giving any details regarding the full software installs and functionality. The software is crucial to running a setup the same way Backblaze does, otherwise the Backblaze pod is just a large electronic file cabinet which is a good use for backup/storage. For instance, how are the pods linked together to form one universal structure, how do admins allow users sign on to their space? As far as cost the below 8,000 price tag is not for a single unit, it's based on building many pods. The case price is shown as $350 but if you go to the protocase web site it's $875 per single unit. Same thing with the hard drive pricing, based on purchasing hundreds not 45 at a time... So the real cost is probably around 10-11k not counting time & labor, but it's still a bargain at that price and gives the security of in house ownership!