Backblaze Field Guide
Know the storage layer. Draw it at the whiteboard. Prove the bill.
An unofficial, independent field playbook for Backblaze Solutions Engineers and Field Sales. Written by Nix (Fred Nix). Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by Backblaze, Inc. Product names are used nominatively to describe the products. Every number cites a public source with the date it was checked. Anything not verified from a primary source is tagged [unverified].
How to use this guide
- Five minutes before a call: read the pitch (01), the persona card (03), and the matching battlecard (15).
- Thirty minutes before a whiteboard: read the matching architecture (09 to 13). Practice the draw steps out loud.
- Before a pricing conversation: rebuild the TCO math (14) with the customer’s numbers, not ours.
- Before a POC: run the demo script (17) end to end on a free account. First 10 GB is free.
The three things that win Backblaze deals
- Always-hot capacity at a single price. One storage class. No tiers, no retrieval delays, no minimum duration, no minimum object size. $6.95/TB/month list (US West, checked 2026-10-14).
- Egress that does not punish usage. Free egress up to 3x average stored data per month, then $0.01/GB. Unlimited free egress through partners (Cloudflare, Fastly, bunny.net, CacheFly, CoreWeave, Equinix Metal, Vultr, phoenixNAP). B2 Overdrive: unlimited free egress to anywhere.
- S3-compatible, so it drops in. Existing tools, SDKs, and 100s of integrations (Veeam, Rubrik, Commvault, Synology, TrueNAS, iconik, rclone). Object Lock for immutability at no extra charge.
Sections
| # | Section | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Pitch | 30-second and 2-minute versions, by persona |
| 02 | Company context | What Backblaze is in 2026, numbers, strategy |
| 03 | ICPs and personas | Who buys, why, what they fear |
| 04 | Discovery bank | 120+ questions by persona and workload |
| 05 | Qualification | STORE framework, red flags, deal sizing |
| 06 | B2 Cloud Storage deep dive | Every feature, how it actually behaves |
| 07 | Overdrive, B2 Neo, MCP, AI tooling | The AI and neocloud motion |
| 08 | Computer Backup | Endpoint backup, Business, Enterprise Control |
| 09 | Whiteboard: backup and ransomware | 3-2-1-1-0 with Object Lock |
| 10 | Whiteboard: media workflows | Camera to archive to delivery |
| 11 | Whiteboard: AI training data lake | GPU clouds, Overdrive, B2 Neo, hot and capacity tiers |
| 12 | Whiteboard: CDN origin | Bandwidth Alliance, zero egress delivery |
| 13 | Whiteboard: hybrid and migration | NAS/tape/S3 to B2 |
| 14 | TCO and economics | Formulas, 100 TB / 1 PB / 10 PB worked examples |
| 15 | Battlecards | S3, Wasabi, R2, Azure, GCS, on-prem, MinIO |
| 16 | Partner plays | Veeam, Rubrik, Commvault, Synology, TrueNAS, iconik, CDNs, MSPs |
| 17 | POC and demo scripts | b2 CLI, aws CLI, boto3, rclone, Object Lock, presigned URLs |
| 18 | Security and compliance FAQ | SOC 2, HIPAA BAA, GDPR, encryption, keys |
| 19 | Migration playbook | Universal Data Migration, Fireball, rclone, cutover |
| 20 | Objection bank | 60 objections with response and proof |
| 21 | Glossary | Terms an SE must use correctly |
| 22 | Deal story templates | How to write and tell a win |
| 23 | Sources | Every URL, date checked |
| 24 | Field lab | Scenario drills, 40 flashcards, quiz |
| 25 | Whiteboard fieldcraft | Ask, draw, validate |
| 26 | First 90 days | SE operating plan and metrics |
| 27 | Industry plays | Edu, healthcare, SLED, finserv, media, surveillance, gaming, MSP |
| 28 | CLI and API reference | Commands, endpoints, transaction classes, error decoder |
| 29 | Technical deep Q&A | For the skeptical storage architect |
| 30 | Outreach templates | Recaps and follow-ups |
| 31 | Call plans | Discovery, whiteboard, exec, POC, partner, neocloud |
| 32 | Feature matrix | What lives in which product; feature-to-pain map |
| 33 | Customer FAQ quickfire | 42 one-line answers |