Backblaze launches public beta for B2 low-cost cloud storage service after getting 15K private beta requests
Crazy cloud pricing undercuts Amazon S3 Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch : Backblaze's Low-Cost Cloud Storage Service Comes Out Of Beta Josiah Motley / VatorNews : Backblaze announces open beta for affordable cloud storage Owen Williams / The Next Web : Backblaze's dirt-cheap developer storage is now available for all Andy Klein / Backblaze Blog : B2 Cloud Storage Opens Public Beta Tim Conneally / Forbes : Backblaze Undercuts All Cloud Storage Competitors Ian Barker / BetaNews : Backblaze launches low cost cloud storage for IT departments Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch : Backblaze Announces Low-Cost Cloud Storage Service To Compete With Amazon S3
Context & Ripple Effects
Backblaze is best known as a consumer backup vendor, but the 15,000 private-beta requests for B2 show developer demand for a cheaper object store than the incumbents offer. The move lands months after Google's Nearline launch legitimized the cheap-tier category from inside the hyperscaler camp — Backblaze is attacking it from outside, on price alone.
The bet pays off down the line: six years later Backblaze takes its storage business public at a ~$650M market cap, and the low-cost tier it seeded becomes a crowded lane with funded specialists like Wasabi behind it.
First-order effects
- Developers get a working, S3-undercutting object storage option today instead of a waitlist, and Backblaze converts its backup-brand audience into cloud infrastructure customers.
- Amazon faces a credible price challenger in object storage for the first time from a company whose entire cost structure is built around cheap commodity drives.
Second-order effects
- Google's response is already visible in the corpus — Nearline and later Filestore show the hyperscaler defending the low end with its own discounted tiers rather than matching Backblaze's headline price.
- The validated niche attracts capital: Wasabi's $68M Series B three years later shows investors funding pure-play cheap-storage competitors against both Backblaze and the hyperscalers.
Third-order effects
- Object storage splits structurally into a bundled hyperscaler tier and a specialist price-war tier, forcing buyers to choose between ecosystem lock-in and per-gigabyte cost — the pattern Dropbox later institutionalized with its own Cold Storage offering.
- If the price pressure holds, storage margins become a scale game where only vertically integrated operators like Backblaze or balance-sheet giants can sustainably compete.
The trend: Cloud storage is segmenting into premium bundled platforms and bare-cost specialists, with every new cheap tier forcing the hyperscalers to defend their pricing umbrellas.