I often think of it as open sourcing a company. They give up a competitional advantage but probably gain as much or more in return (reactions on their article as "pull requests" for instance). I don't want to sound hyperbolic but I think it also advances humanity (The information and the spirit behind it).
Other companies do talks and papers too, but the Backblaze info seems really unfiltered and close to the real world.
> the Backblaze info seems really unfiltered and close to the real world.
Cloudflare seems to be a similar company. I recommend them both to anyone somewhat technical who needs a CDN.
My only complaint about Backblaze is no Unix client. I thought about setting up a Windows VM to manage backups, but I was terrified that Gninjas would sneak into my house at night and shave my beard.
Other companies do talks and papers too, but the Backblaze info seems really unfiltered and close to the real world.