Over the past several months, B2 Cloud Storage has continued to grow like we planted magic beans. During that time we have added a B2 Java SDK, and certified integrations with GoodSync, Arq, Panic, UpdraftPlus, Morro Data, QNAP, Archiware, Restic, and more. In addition, B2 customers like Panna Cooking, Sermon Audio, and Fellowship Church are happy they chose B2 as their cloud storage provider. If any of that sounds interesting, read on.
The B2 Java SDK
While the Backblaze B2 API is well documented and straight-forward to implement, we were asked by a few of our Integration Partners if we had an SDK they could use. So we developed one as an open-source project on GitHub, where we hope interested parties will not only use our Java SDK, but make it better for everyone else.
There are different reasons one might use the Java SDK, but a couple of areas where the SDK can simplify the coding process are:
Expiring Authorization — B2 requires an application key for a given account be reissued once a day when using the API. If the application key expires while you are in the middle of transferring files or some other B2 activity (bucket list, etc.), the SDK can be used to detect and then update the application key on the fly. Your B2 related activities will continue without incident and without having to capture and code your own exception case.
Error Handling — There are different types of error codes B2 will return, from expired application keys to detecting malformed requests to command time-outs. The SDK can dramatically simplify the coding needed to capture and account for the various things that can happen.
While Backblaze has created the Java SDK, developers in the GitHub community have also created other SDKs for B2, for example, for PHP (https://github.com/cwhite92/b2-sdk-php,) and Go (https://github.com/kurin/blazer.) Let us know in the comments about other SDKs you’d like to see or perhaps start your own GitHub project. We will publish any updates in our next B2 roundup.
What You Can Do with Affordable and Available Cloud Storage
You’re probably aware that B2 is up to 75% less expensive than other similar cloud storage services like Amazon S3 and Microsoft Azure. Businesses and organizations are finding that projects that previously weren’t economically feasible with other Cloud Storage services are now not only possible, but a reality with B2. Here are a few recent examples:
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SermonAudio wanted their media files to be readily available, but didn’t want to build and manage their own internal storage farm. Until B2, cloud storage was just too expensive to use. Now they use B2 to store their audio and video files, and also as the primary source of downloads and streaming requests from their subscribers. | |
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Fellowship Church wanted to escape from the ever increasing amount of time they were spending saving their data to their LTO-based system. Using B2 saved countless hours of personnel time versus LTO, fit easily into their video processing workflow, and provided instant access at any time to their media library. | |
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Panna Cooking replaced their closet full of archive hard drives with a cost-efficient hybrid-storage solution combining 45Drives and Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage. Archived media files that used to take hours to locate are now readily available regardless of whether they reside in local storage or in the B2 Cloud. |
B2 Integrations
Leading companies in backup, archive, and sync continue to add B2 Cloud Storage as a storage destination for their customers. These companies realize that by offering B2 as an option, they can dramatically lower the total cost of ownership for their customers — and that’s always a good thing.
If your favorite application is not integrated to B2, you can do something about it. One integration partner told us they received over 200 customer requests for a B2 integration. The partner got the message and the integration is currently in beta test.
Below are some of the partner integrations completed in the past few months. You can check the B2 Partner Integrations page for a complete list.
Archiware — Both P5 Archive and P5 Backup can now store data in the B2 Cloud making your offsite media files readily available while keeping your off-site storage costs predictable and affordable.
Arq — Combine Arq and B2 for amazingly affordable backup of external drives, network drives, NAS devices, Windows PCs, Windows Servers, and Macs to the cloud.
GoodSync — Automatically synchronize and back up all your photos, music, email, and other important files between all your desktops, laptops, servers, external drives, and sync, or back up to B2 Cloud Storage for off-site storage.
QNAP — QNAP Hybrid Backup Sync consolidates backup, restoration, and synchronization functions into a single QTS application to easily transfer your data to local, remote, and cloud storage.
Morro Data — Their CloudNAS solution stores files in the cloud, caches them locally as needed, and syncs files globally among other CloudNAS systems in an organization.
Restic – Restic is a fast, secure, multi-platform command line backup program. Files are uploaded to a B2 bucket as de-duplicated, encrypted chunks. Each backup is a snapshot of only the data that has changed, making restores of a specific date or time easy.
Transmit 5 by Panic — Transmit 5, the gold standard for macOS file transfer apps, now supports B2. Upload, download, and manage files on tons of servers with an easy, familiar, and powerful UI.
UpdraftPlus — WordPress developers and admins can now use the UpdraftPlus Premium WordPress plugin to affordably back up their data to the B2 Cloud.
Getting Started with B2 Cloud Storage
If you’re using B2 today, thank you. If you’d like to try B2, but don’t know where to start, here’s a guide to getting started with the B2 Web Interface — no programming or scripting is required. You get 10 gigabytes of free storage and 1 gigabyte a day in free downloads. Give it a try.
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