Hi everyone,

I’ve started pushing backups of media important to me (family pictures, video etc) to backblaze with client-side encryption.

However, are they a reliable storage provider? I can’t help but compare them to something like Amazon who likely has a better chance of maintaining my files but they are so expensive that I don’t even bother.

What do you think? Yes, I’ve heard of 3-2-1, however for now I only have backblaze and a local backup. I’m trying not to spend too much on this.

Thanks!

    • Findmysec@infosec.pubOPEnglish
      111·
      2 months ago

      I’m worried about reliability; what are the chances that they will lose my data? I have a local backup but I’m also feeling paranoid

      • Dlayknee@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        2 months ago

        Bottom line, there’s always a possibility a cloud/service provider could lose you data. That chance is (/should be) exponentially smaller on their environments however than the likelihood of your own local stores.

        If you’re really serious about preserving your data, consider the 3-2-1 Backup Rule:

        3 copies of your data 2 different types of media 1 copy stored off-site

  • 𝔻𝕒𝕧𝕖@lemmy.worldEnglish
    25·
    3 months ago

    I am a happy backblaze user and generally I’ve only heard good things about them.

    They do have multiple data centers and they are operating B2B products too.

    Is there anything in particular that would make you think they could be unreliable?

    • Findmysec@infosec.pubOPEnglish
      22·
      2 months ago

      I’m just afraid of data loss, but I also know that that is unlikely. I have a local backup but sometimes I feel like that’s not enough, unfortunately my budget is also tight which means I can’t spend too much on replicated buckets/another cloud provider with a complete backup etc.

      Also, have you ever faced the issue where you’re pushing files to backblaze with rclone and there are many failed uploads (rclone retries them eventually after reaching the end of the queue), which is something I’ve never had with S3. Well, you get what you pay for I suppose.

  • nickiam2@aussie.zoneEnglish
    20·
    2 months ago

    I’ve used backblaze b2 for almost 8 years now and it just works. I’ve never had any data lost by them in that time.

    I just recently switched over to Storj.io as it a bit cheaper at only $4/TB as compared to B2 at $6/TB. Both are S3 compatible and work with just about every backup software out there. I have used Borg, Kopia and now Restic to do backups of important data. All 3 tools deduplicate all your data and reduces the amount of storage used. They also do encryption client side and are open source. They also have a built-in verification mechanism that checks the data is intact.

    • bitwolf@lemmy.oneEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      Do you use zfs? Something that I am unsure if is whether people are making ZFS backups to backblaze, or if they’re backing up files directly.

      Ie: Do I need the same filesystem as the source in order to recover the data?

      • nickiam2@aussie.zoneEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        I do use ZFS and I just backup the files with restic. To restore a file in a zfs snapshot I would have to download the entire thing to a spare HDD, even if I only need to recover a few files. Restic has snapshots too and is designed to be used with cloud providers like B2.

  • SayCyberOnceMore@feddit.ukEnglish
    14·
    2 months ago

    I think the main thing is for you to try doing a test restore of your data before you need to (and you already have a local backup anyway if your test goes wrong)

    That will give you a better understanding of the whole process - they might be 100% reliable in storing data which is totally unusable by you because you’ve lost your decryption key, weren’t backing it up correctly, etc (for example).

    • sem@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      5·
      2 months ago

      I’ve never really understood the logistics of how to do a test restore.

      Do you have to buy a 2nd computer?

      • ThetaDev@lemm.eeEnglish
        5·
        2 months ago

        You dont need a second computer, just replace the drive with an empty one.

      • SayCyberOnceMore@feddit.ukEnglish
        4·
        2 months ago

        No, you can jusy restore to a second location…it depends on whether everything was backed up, or just a few test files.

        I prefer backing up specific folders rather than “everything”, so it’s easier to test. (I’d just reinstall the OS if that was nuked)

        Let’s say I want to do a test restore of all my photos. I just rename that folder to simulate that it’s been accidentally deleted… then I just do a normal restore - and do a bit-by-bit comparison of the two folders and check it all went well.

      • sunbeam60@lemmy.oneEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        I just have a smaller dataset using the same settings, which I try to recover a couple of times/year.

        It’s not perfect as recovery exercises go … but it feels safe enough for me.

      • SayCyberOnceMore@feddit.ukEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        Yeah, that was me a couple years ago… I’d read some blogs, watched some yoochoobz and had data going from my NAS to Backblaze… encrypted…so… ok… is it restorable? No idea.

  • sunbeam60@lemmy.oneEnglish
    11·
    2 months ago

    I’ve used backblaze for years and regularly run recovery exercises. Never had a problem.

    However, to avoid any fears, I store remote backups in two locations (the other one being OVH, a large French cloud provider).

    My data retention regime:

    • Mirrored disks in local NAS.
    • Continually (every night) copy to Backblaze(US) and OVH (DE).
    • Once/year, copy all local NAS data to offline disks (ie disks that are plugged into a tray only during the copy) to avoid a file locking/encryption infection that could spread to the online files.
      • sunbeam60@lemmy.oneEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        I pay about £2.50 for 700+ GB storage, with about 2-10 GB of ingress every month. Storage alone is only £1.40. That’s using OVH’s “Cloud Archive” product; they also have a product called Cold Storage which is a smidge cheaper but doesn’t offer updating of existing data, so according to my projections based on the class of data I am archiving it wouldn’t be cheaper in the long term.

  • Kcg@lemmy.mlEnglish
    9·
    3 months ago

    I use them as my backup backup provider. Crazy cheap, my bill was like $1.50 for a month. Their backup command line tool is pretty solid also. I would definitely use them if you need a new backup provider.

      • Kcg@lemmy.mlEnglish
        5·
        2 months ago

        It is $6 a TB. I use less than a TB. Their whole sthick is being cheaper than others. It is a very basic service overall. But does it’s job.

        Also they publish drive stats which is pretty cool to have that transparency.

        • XNX@slrpnk.netEnglish
          3·
          2 months ago

          Oh ok. $6 a TB but if you use the computer backup instead its $10 for infinite storage which is great

          • Jyek@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            3·
            2 months ago

            It’s more expensive than one other provider, iDrive. But iDrive doesnt provide nearly the same level of service. Back laze is the cheapest full featured B2 service on the market. If you are concerned about data integrity of your backups but you cannot afford $18 a month, then you cannot afford to have that much data.

          • Findmysec@infosec.pubOPEnglish
            1·
            2 months ago

            I admit that Storj is less expensive but it has egress costs which B2 + cloudflare doesn’t (the latter with a free account)

        • Findmysec@infosec.pubOPEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          That’s personal pictures, ripped media, documents, some sensitive information etc. Netflix can go to hell

          • Jyek@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            2·
            2 months ago

            I wasn’t saying to use Netflix that doesn’t even make sense. I was saying that’s the same price as a Netflix subscription…

  • breakingcups@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    3 months ago

    It’s alright. I use both their desktop backup service and B2 extensively. Their desktop client and web interface is very basic and a bit rough, you don’t buy their service for the well-developed UI. The service works as advertised though.

  • speeding_slug@feddit.nlEnglish
    5·
    3 months ago

    I use them as well. Cheap, reliable and easy to use. I only had trouble once, where I was caught in some sort of anti-spam measure and they blocked my account. An email to their support fixed the problem pretty quickly though.

    One thing to look out for is to determine where you want your backups. You can’t change your account’s server location after you create your account afaik.

  • theit8514@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    3 months ago

    I’ve got my mom setup on their PC backup service, no complaints so far (on the Backblaze side that is, she still insists that she doesn’t need continuous backups even though I’ve had to restore multiple times for her).

    I switched my backups from Crashplan to B2 as it was significantly cheaper than going to AWS. B2 is more expensive than what I was paying for Crashplan Pro Unlimited (about 8x for the amount of data I have), but I have more peace of mind with it not relying on Crashplan’s terrible Java client.

    A reminder that the only good backup is a tested backup.

  • conrad82@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    3 months ago

    I have used them since januar 2019, and I don’t have any complaints. I have only needed to restore backups once - it worked as well as could be expected.

    Any issues with backups have always been on my side

    • Findmysec@infosec.pubOPEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      Can you explain the situation around you restoring a backup? Did backblaze lose your data?

      AFAIK AWS replicates your data across buckets for reliability in case their datacentre goes down, which (from what I understand) is the cost of a whole another bucket with B2. That’s my concern. I don’t think Backblaze is going out of business any time soon but I’m afraid of data loss (I do have one local backup but my budget is unfortunately a bit tight right now - I’m going to have to pick and choose important bits from all of the data and add a second backup I guess)

      • waitmarks@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        2 months ago

        AWS has multiple teirs of storage options in s3, some replicate and some dont. by default those that do replicate do so in multiple availability zones, but not across regions. unless you turn on cross-region replication (CRR) which is an additional charge.

        So, for example without CRR if your bucket is in us-east-1 and 1 availability zone goes down you can still access the data, but if all of us-east-1 is down, you cannot.

  • sleepmode@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    2 months ago

    Used them since the company started but stopped this year due to the cost going up. Never had an issue.

  • Mountain_Mike_420@lemmy.mlEnglish
    2·
    2 months ago

    I don’t use them but I work for a dj that uses them to backup all their music and production music. This has been going on for over 10 years now and they are still using them. At one point I was over there while they were downloading a large batch of their files and the speed was fast enough to saturate his internet.

    • greywolf0x1@lemmy.mlEnglish
      14·
      2 months ago

      ignore the cucks downvoting you, what privacy-respecting alternatives do you suggest?

      • smiletolerantly@awful.systemsEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        I’ve recently switched from Backblaze to a Hetzner Storagebox. 5TB for only slightly more than I was paying for Backblaze.

        They support BorgBackup out of the box, so super simple to set up encrypted, differential backups

        • Findmysec@infosec.pubOPEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          Is there an SLA on the Hetzner storage boxes? What do you think about their reliability (will they recover if their underlying hardware fails?)

        • greywolf0x1@lemmy.mlEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          there’s also the 14 eyes, when you consider this, you don’t even want to do or put anything online as everyone and everything wants to violate you for some profit

          i’m now considering South America and Russian services as alternatives, but of course I’ll be encrypting my data before it leaves my device

      • 03ari@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        not the op of this comment. I know there’s Infomaniak that is an independent host based in Switzerland, and they have a service called Infomaniak Swiss Backup. I might use their services in few times, so will come back to this comment to tell what I think of them in a few weeks if you wanna know

        You could still encrypt your backups tho to make them private.

        • philpo@feddit.deEnglish
          3·
          2 months ago

          Just saying, but swiss privacy laws are a huge marketing hoax and amongst the worst in Europe.

          • sunbeam60@lemmy.oneEnglish
            1·
            2 months ago

            I know - it’s unreal how much people confuse Swiss banking privacy with Swiss privacy laws in general. FADP is weaker than GDPR IMHO.

            • philpo@feddit.deEnglish
              2·
              2 months ago

              A few (German language)sources: https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/der-geheimdienst-will-auch-die-internetkabel-anzapfen-895734682308

              https://www.republik.ch/2024/01/09/der-bund-ueberwacht-uns-alle

              Basically: The Swiss Intelligence Agency do monitor all traffic going in and out of Switzerland(including incountry routing that uses external routes)and have the right to safe as much traffic as they want for 18 months- and can force swiss companies to give them access to their infrastructure even when they do not provide a service for non-swiss customers. Coming from a Intelligence agency that had the highest amount of files of their citizens of all democratic nations once (see Fichenskandal) it is more than troublesome.

              Additionally swiss privacy law itself,while improved in 2023 after years of doing nothing, is still inferior to the GDPR. Unlike the GDPR it is not necessary for a person to explicitly consent to data collection unless the data is deemed especially sensitive. Unlike the GDPR there is no time-limit to notify authorities of data breaches and it is only mandatory for high risk breaches. And the right of data deletion is severely limited as the company can refuse to delete the data if it is still deemed “necessary” for the original purpose.

              For me this is also why I can’t take Proton and Threema seriously. Whoever uses “swiss privacy law” as a marketing catchphrase without lobbying for improved laws (especially before 2023). And Proton openly lies on their “Why Switzerland” page.