#168 – Storage Unicorns

#168 – Storage Unicorns

Chris EvansGarbage Collection, Storage Unpacked Podcast

This week Chris and Martin review the idea of storage unicorns, companies that have a valuation of one billion dollars or more. What exactly is the basis or justification for a billion dollar price tag? Is this something invented by the VC industry or is there a real degree of science behind the assumptions? The list in question comes from a Blocks & Files article written by Chris Mellor, which in turn references the list produced by an analyst firm. While valuation based on some multiple of money invested does give some indication of value, …

#94 – Backblaze HDD Reliability Stats with Andy Klein

#94 – Backblaze HDD Reliability Stats with Andy Klein

Chris EvansGuest Speakers

In this episode, Martin and Chris talk to Andy Klein from Backblaze.  Since 2014, Backblaze has been collecting and publishing hard drive reliability information for their storage pods.  The pods are custom-built and used to hold backup data from customers and to support the B2 cloud storage offering.  Rather than buy an expensive storage platform or use the public cloud, Backblaze initially decided to build their own solution at a fraction of the cost of other options.  Once at scale, it seemed logical to use the platform for B2. Over the years, the Backblaze team …