Backblaze launches ultra-fast cloud storage service with 1 Tbps speeds and no egress fees to compete with AWS and Google.

Backblaze has introduced a new service tier called B2 Overdrive, focused on supporting artificial intelligence (AI) workloads, high-performance computing (HPC), and other processes that require high bandwidth. This service starts at a price of $15 per terabyte and promises continuous network performance of up to 1 Tbps, making it an accessible option for companies that handle large volumes of data.

Unlike other providers that apply tiered pricing, B2 Overdrive includes in a single cost storage, read (Get), write (Put), and data egress. This feature is particularly aimed at clients with petabyte-scale storage needs. The basic B2 tier, which is already available, costs $6 per terabyte per month and offers features such as object locking and a 99.9% availability SLA, being regarded as one of the best cloud backup services for small businesses and individual users.

B2 Overdrive, in contrast, is designed for entities operating at large scale. Backblaze claims that its performance equates to 100% of approximately one-fifth the cost of AWS S3, in addition to offering free data egress up to three times the average monthly storage, with an additional cost of $0.01 per GB for excess egress. This new layer is based on disk infrastructure and connects directly to customers' environments via secure private networks, allowing for seamless data movement to GPU clouds or high-performance computing clusters without additional egress charges.

The focus of B2 Overdrive lies in the usage needs in fields such as AI training and machine learning, large-scale analytics, media processing, and research computing. Unlike most cloud storage providers that prioritize latency, Backblaze emphasizes sustained performance. Among the major U.S. providers—AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, and Oracle—Backblaze is the only one that directly publishes performance figures.

Although B2 Overdrive is not a general-purpose solution, it could appeal to companies that value transparency in pricing and performance. With its affordability and scalable storage capability, it could even position itself as an interesting option for archiving photo storage.

Gleb Budman, CEO of Backblaze, stated, "With B2 Overdrive, we are challenging the assumption that organizations need to pay exorbitant prices for exceptional performance. We have designed a solution that provides the sustained high performance organizations need, without the egress fees and complex pricing tiers common among traditional providers."