Petabytes on a budget: How to build cheap cloud storage

At Backblaze, we provide unlimited storage to our customers for only $5 per month, so we had to figure out how to store hundreds of petabytes of customer data in a reliable, scalable way—and keep our costs low. After looking at several overpriced commercial solutions, we decided to build our own custom Backblaze Storage Pods: 67 terabyte 4U servers for $7,867. What we actually provide for our customers is online backup for home and business online backup for work. However, in this post, we’ll share how to make one of these storage pods, and you’re welcome to use this design. Below is a video that shows a 3-D model of the Backblaze Storage Pod. You can download the full 3-D model of the Backblaze Storage Pod here. Backblaze Needs Plenty of Reliable, Cheap Storage To say that Backblaze needs lots of storage is an understatement. To get a sense of what this looks like, here is a shot of me deploying new pods in our datacenter.

Five Reasons Willow Garage is Going to Succeed We just watched Willow Garage launch the beginning of their PR2 Beta Program, sending 11 advanced robots to live with research teams all over the globe in the hopes of fostering innovation. This is a big investment, $4.4 million in robots alone, not to mention the extensive support the company will provide. Not only that, but every aspect of this project is open source, hardware and software, meaning that Willow Garage doesn’t have proprietary rights to any of the advancements that will arise from ongoing research. Are they crazy? We’ve seen many impressive robots here at the Hub. 1. 2. 3. Recipients of the PR2 Beta Program met this week at Willow Garage to get to know their new robots. 4. 5. For these reasons and more, Willow Garage is poised to make a huge impact in the robotics research community, to transform it into a personal robotics industry. [image credits: Willow Garage] [source: Willow Garage PR2 Beta Program Launch event]