Maximizing Backblaze Upload Speed for Cloud Storage

Uploading files to Backblaze can be a slow process, but there are ways to boost your upload speed.

First, check your internet connection speed to ensure it's fast enough to handle large file uploads. Backblaze recommends a minimum upload speed of 10 Mbps for optimal performance.

A wired Ethernet connection is generally faster and more stable than a Wi-Fi connection. This is especially true for large file uploads, where a dropped connection can be frustrating.

Using a dedicated upload server or a cloud-based upload service can also help improve upload speeds.

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You can improve your upload speed by upgrading your hardware, such as using SSDs, which can result in a significant performance gain for small files.

One way to do this is by using a shard stash, a separate pool of servers populated with SSDs, to store small files. This can significantly speed up the upload process.

To use a shard stash, you'll need to split your file into shards and send them to both HDD Pods and the shard stash. The shard stash will easily win the "flush the data to disk" race and return its status in just a few milliseconds.

Another way to improve upload speed is by increasing the number of threads. Backblaze 4 allows you to increase your Backup Threads limit, which can optimize bandwidth utilization when network latency is present.

To activate threading, you'll need to be running Backblaze 4.0, and then you can increase the number of threads by "1" each time until you have optimized your upload speed.

Here's a rough guide to get you started:

Keep in mind that increasing the number of threads can also increase the amount of data and processing power that Backblaze is using at any given time, so be sure to monitor your system's network traffic and CPU utilization.

By using a shard stash and increasing the number of threads, you can significantly improve your upload speed and get your backups done faster.

Raise the upload speed limit by unchecking the Automatic Throttle option in the Performance tab of Backblaze settings. This will allow Backblaze to run as fast as it can, but may slow down other activities.

To do this, go to System Preferences, then Backblaze, and finally Settings. From there, uncheck the Automatic Throttle option and you're good to go.

Threading can also improve upload speed by optimizing bandwidth utilization when network latency is present. This works by having multiple processes independently sending encrypted blocks of data over the wire.

To activate threading, start with two threads and work your way up, monitoring network resources along the way. This is because too many processes can slow down the upload speed.

Here's a step-by-step guide to getting started with threading:

Threading can actually make upload speeds worse if you have too many processes going at once.

Threading is designed to optimize bandwidth utilization when network latency is present, but it can overload the wire if not used correctly.

To troubleshoot slow uploads, start by activating threading with just two threads and monitor your network resources.

If you're experiencing slow uploads, try increasing the number of threads one at a time to see if it improves your speed.

Network latency is a major factor in how well threading works, so if you're on a slow connection, you might not see much improvement.

By monitoring your network resources, you can avoid overloading the wire and ensure threading is working efficiently for you.

For another approach, see: How to Stop Uploads to Google Drive

You can boost your Backblaze upload speed by taking a few simple steps.

First, consider raising the upload speed limit by going to System Preferences, then Backblaze, and finally unchecking the Automatic Throttle option under the Performance tab. This will allow Backblaze to run as fast as it can, though it may slow down other activities.

To optimize bandwidth utilization when network latency is present, you can activate threading. This works by having multiple processes independently sending encrypted blocks of data over the wire.

If you do activate threading, start with two threads and work your way up, monitoring network resources along the way. This will help prevent the wire from getting overstuffed and slowing down the upload speed.

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To get a clear picture of how we tested Backblaze upload speeds, let's take a look at our test methodology. We wrote a simple Python test app using the AWS SDK for Python (Boto3).

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Each test run involved timing 100 file uploads, with a 10ms delay between each upload. The delay is not included in the measured time, so you get a true sense of how fast the uploads are.

We used a single HTTPS connection across the test run, following best practice for API usage. This helps ensure our results are accurate and reliable.

Our test app has been running on a VM in Vultr's New Jersey region every six hours for the past few weeks. This consistent testing schedule allows us to capture a range of performance data.

We've been testing against both our U.S. East region and its AWS neighbor. This gives us a solid comparison of performance across different locations.

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