As educational institutions increasingly face challenges related to data security, storage capacity, and backup solutions, cloud storage providers like Backblaze are stepping up to offer reliable, cost-effective alternatives.
In this exclusive VMblog Q&A, we speak with Kari Rivas, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Backblaze, to discuss the company’s participation in EDUCAUSE 2024 and how their solutions specifically cater to the needs of higher education. From ransomware protection to simplifying data backup across campus, Backblaze offers tailored cloud storage services designed to help educational institutions manage and protect their ever-growing data assets. Discover how Backblaze is empowering universities and colleges to modernize their storage infrastructure while overcoming budget constraints and legacy systems.
VMblog: What motivated Backblaze to sponsor EDUCAUSE this year? How does this event align with your company’s goals?
Kari Rivas: Backblaze has exhibited at Educause for the past two years and we previously participated in the conference with our channel partner, Carahsoft. Backblaze serves higher education institutions by offering affordable, secure cloud storage without vendor lock-in. As cloud storage innovators, Backblaze provides an open cloud ecosystem for many use cases within higher ed, including data backup and archive, ransomware protection, disaster recovery, and storage for AI/ML, application, and media workflows. For IT admins in the higher ed space, who serve a wide variety of needs and often are running their own on-prem networks, this means you have a cloud storage partner that can rise to any occasion.
VMblog: Can you give us an overview of the main products or services Backblaze will be showcasing at Educause?
Rivas: Backblaze will be offering demos of B2 Cloud Storage and Computer Backup with Enterprise Control at Educause.
Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage is always-hot, performant object storage at one-fifth the cost of AWS with 3x free egress. Backblaze B2 offers features like Object Lock for immutable ransomware protection, a 99.9% uptime SLA, and seamless tech integrations via any S3 compatible API tools like Veeam, Commvault, Synology, Rubrik, and Snowflake.
Backblaze Computer Backup with Enterprise Control provides unlimited, automatic data backup for Macs and PCs with one year included version history. The lightweight, non-Java client backs up all user data by default without slowdowns. Enterprise Control offers OIDC SSO and advanced, granular backup administration controls to better support cybersecurity requirements.
Higher education institutions will also be interested in viewing demos of Cloud Instant Backup Recovery, a fully-automated disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) platform for Veeam backups stored in Backblaze B2.
VMblog: How does Backblaze’s technology specifically cater to the needs of educational institutions?
Rivas: A recent Sophos report found that 79% of higher education institutions are hit by ransomware every year. These schools generate a lot of data, including research data and PII, yet they are also constrained by limited budgets and legacy infrastructure. Backblaze makes it affordable for educational institutions to update their storage systems and better protect against ransomware, to more easily scale their storage as their data grows, and to better protect faculty, staff, student, and researcher computers. Backblaze pricing is simple and straightforward with no hidden fees like minimum retention requirements or minimum file size requirements. That means no budget surprises or unexpected conversations with budget offices.
VMblog: What are some of the biggest data storage and backup challenges faced by universities and colleges today, and how does Backblaze address these?
Rivas: It can be very challenging for central IT departments to manage the massive amount of data sprawl. It is not uncommon for IT administrators to hear from faculty and researchers that have lost their life’s work because they did not have a fully secure backup of their workstation or laptop. Backblaze Computer Backup works with Macs, PCs, and workstations and can be silently deployed en masse with tools like MSI Installer, JAMF, and Munki. It backs up all user data by default and includes an unlimited amount of data, which also eases the administrative burden on IT.
Similarly, there is a large amount of school data stored on legacy backup methods like tape. Higher ed will often solve for the “off-site” criteria of the 3-2-1 best practice by storing tape from one campus at a different campus or at a DR facility. But, the downside of tape is logistics: not only are you shuttling backups around, but you’re also setting yourself up for a several-day recovery time in the event of disasters. And, while storing tapes at a different location is good, if that location isn’t far enough away (read: regionally distinct), backups are often subject to the same vulnerabilities as at your primary storage site. Finally, sometimes backups are stored on individual departmental servers or network attached storage (NAS) devices. This kind of “backup sprawl” leads to a very fragmented DR stance.
As schools realize the impact of all of these decisions, they’re migrating their tape data to Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage (and we have a Universal Data Migration service that makes this easy with direct, high-speed connections). Schools are also offering Backblaze B2 as a storage target for those individual departments or faculty to directly store data or to back up their dedicated devices. These methods ensure more consistent and available backups across the entire school’s ecosystem.
It’s also a reality that higher ed institutions have relied on traditional SaaS platforms for their storage for years. While they offer the ease-of-use universities need with large user pools who have varying degrees of technical savvy, some platforms do not provide true backup by default. And, educational institutions abruptly had the rug pulled out from under them when some platforms ended their free-for-education storage tiers-and they’re now scrambling to delete or pare down their footprints on those services.
Backblaze provides reliable, secure, and more affordable solutions than the cloud drives offered by providers, and even when you are using those solutions, you need to backup your data. So, Backblaze is a win-win: We can provide everything from simple endpoint backup to our flexible cloud storage product. And, when you’re already using Backblaze B2 as a storage target for a NAS backup or with one of our many integration partners like Veeam, it becomes even more of a no-brainer to start moving some of your primary storage into B2 Cloud Storage-you’re set up and operational, and you can scale more quickly and easily than most on-prem solutions.
VMblog: Could you share a success story of an educational institution that has benefited from implementing Backblaze’s solutions?
Rivas: We recently published a customer story with California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt (Cal Poly Humboldt), a public university in northern California. Cal Poly Humboldt was using another cloud storage provider for off-site backups to protect their Veeam Backup and Replication data. They were concerned about numerous surprise bills they were receiving and realized it was due to the provider’s minimum retention requirement, a policy that requires data be kept in storage for a certain number of days before it can be deleted or overwritten. Or, more precisely, you could delete the data, but you’d still be charged for the minimum number of days required by that policy. At the same time, they faced an additional squeeze on their budget when Google ended its free storage for education tier. Cal Poly Humboldt migrated to Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage. The process has been so smooth that Cal Poly Humboldt is planning to scale their storage to over a petabyte to back up and safeguard research data that was formerly stored on another platform.
We also have a customer story with Texas A&M-Kingsville for our Computer Backup solution. Texas A&M is known for its prestigious animal life research and veterinary programs. They needed a backup solution for data stored on researcher computers. Researchers were often in the field to collect data, sometimes hundreds of miles from the campus, and they were able to remotely install Backblaze Computer Backup and now don’t have to worry about keeping that data safe, no matter where it lives.
VMblog: With the increasing importance of cloud storage in education, how does Backblaze differentiate itself from other providers in the market?
Rivas: Backblaze offers performance and security at one-fifth the cost of AWS S3. In fact, small file uploads (the kind utilized by Veeam as well as other backup software) are up to 30% faster on Backblaze B2 than on AWS. Other providers in the market also inflate their costs with hidden fees like minimum retention requirements, egress fees, API charges, and more. Backblaze has no hidden fees and 3x free egress, which empowers customers to access their data whenever they need it-without worrying about the consequences.
VMblog: Are there any new features or innovations that Backblaze is introducing specifically for the education sector?
Rivas: Backblaze is now an Internet2 member and is peered with Internet2 via its Internet2 Peer Exchange (I2PX) program. For members of Internet2, Backblaze’s participation in the community and I2PX program provides secure data storage with less latency and a lower cost.
Backblaze also recently released Backblaze B2 Event Notifications. With Backblaze’s Event Notifications, data changes-like uploads, updates, or deletions-can automatically trigger other actions including transcoding video files, sending reports to IT teams, spooling up data analytics, delivering finished assets to end users, and many others. Event Notifications can send to any webhook; it is not limited to any closed ecosystem or a narrow set of options. In an environment like higher ed, where interoperability is a must, this feature makes communication between preferred tech infrastructure easy.
VMblog: How does Backblaze approach data security and privacy, especially considering the sensitive nature of student and research data in educational settings?
Rivas: The Backblaze Storage Cloud provides a range of compliance achievements and security-related services to safeguard account access and the data within accounts. Backblaze, and our data centers, have received SOC 2 Type 2 certification. Key features to keep your data secure and compliant with GDPR/UK GDPR, PCI-DSS, and ISO 27001 include multi-factor authentication, application keys, access management controls, server-side encryption (SSE), and Object Lock immutability. Data is stored in infrastructure designed for 11 nines durability and Backblaze data centers are equipped with best-in-class security features and staffed 24/7/365. Higher education institutions can also request a copy of Backblaze’s completed Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Tool (HECVAT). More information can be found on the Backblaze compliance page.
VMblog: What message or key takeaway do you want Educause attendees to remember about Backblaze after visiting your booth?
Rivas: Backblaze is a cloud storage innovator providing a modern alternative to traditional cloud providers. From the beginning we’ve openly shared our storage architecture as well as years of Drive Stats. Higher education institutions can trust Backblaze to protect their data without surprise billing charges, vendor lock-in policies, or complicated storage tiers. Backblaze is performant and secure-without the exorbitant price tag. This empowers organizations to store, use, and protect their data in the best way possible without compromise.
VMblog: Looking ahead, how do you see Backblaze’s role evolving in the education technology landscape over the next few years?
Rivas: Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage is a solution for many education use cases, including video surveillance, research, endpoint backup, AI/ML, media storage, and libraries. Backblaze serves higher ed audiences as diverse as veterinary and medical schools, alumni relations departments, research labs, college sports teams, and, of course, central IT. Backblaze’s role in securing data for research and educational institutions will only grow as these organizations recognize the value of fully protecting and utilizing their data.
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