16. Partner ecosystem plays

Partners carry the deal into the account. Know who sources, who influences, and who fulfills.

Partner types (backblaze.com/partners, checked 2026-10-14)

• Technology / integration partners: backup, NAS, MAM, CDN, compute.
• Channel: resellers, distributors, VARs.
• MSPs: dedicated program page.
• Powered by Backblaze: embed B2 in your own product (Partner API).
• Alliance partners: CoreWeave, Cloudflare, Fastly, Vultr, etc. (free egress).

Play 1: Veeam (backup, enterprise and mid-market)

• Fit: VBR v12+ direct-to-object or SOBR capacity tier; Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365; Kasten K10.
• Hook: immutable off-site copy for insurance; “set up in under 20 minutes” (Backblaze claim).
• SE checklist: bucket with Object Lock enabled, lifecycle “keep all versions”, bucket-scoped key, correct S3 endpoint, Veeam immutability days set, test restore.
• Co-sell motion: find Veeam customers whose capacity tier is S3 Standard or Azure Hot. Run 14-tco math with a full restore scenario.

Play 2: Rubrik

• Fit: archival location / cloud archive.
• Gotcha: SigV4 must be enabled by Rubrik support first (default SigV2 fails). File the case in week one.

Play 3: Commvault

• Backblaze publishes a Commvault integration guide. Position B2 as cloud library for secondary copies with immutability. [verify WORM support specifics in Commvault guide before claiming]

Play 4: Synology and QNAP (SMB, media, branch)

• Synology Hyper Backup and Cloud Sync to B2; Fireball rapid ingest guide for Hyper Backup seeding; Fireball itself is a Synology NAS.
• QNAP Hybrid Backup Sync to B2.
• Motion: NAS resellers and MSPs. “Your NAS is not your off-site copy.”

Play 5: TrueNAS

• Cloud Sync tasks to B2 (Backblaze guide). Strong with research labs and homelab-to-SMB crossovers.

Play 6: MAM / media (iconik, Mimir, axle ai, CuttingRoom, Backlight, Archiware P5, Tiger Bridge, Suite Studios, LucidLink, Telestream Vantage)

• iconik has a Backblaze integration page and a Fireball with iconik gateway guide.
• Telestream Vantage with Live Read guide.
• Suite Studios (Sep 10 2026): S3-native streaming that turns B2 into a high-performance drive.
• Motion: sell into post houses and sports with the MAM vendor; B2 is the library under their UI.

Play 7: MSP360 and MSP platforms

• MSP360 integration and Fireball rapid ingest guide.
• Motion: MSPs standardize backup storage across clients; Object Lock satisfies insurer checklists; Partner API for sub-accounts.

Play 8: CDN partners (Cloudflare, Fastly, bunny.net, CacheFly)

• $0 egress from B2 to these CDNs.
• Guides: deliver public and private B2 content through Cloudflare; Fastly CDN and Fastly Compute integrations.
• Motion: origin swap. Find customers on S3 origin behind Cloudflare/Fastly.

Play 9: Compute and GPU partners (CoreWeave, Vultr, Equinix Metal, phoenixNAP)

• $0 egress from B2.
• CoreWeave: strategic agreement; Backblaze powers HDD tiers in CoreWeave AI Object Storage.
• Motion: AI teams renting GPUs from these providers keep data in B2 with no egress tax.

Play 10: AI tooling (WEKA, Pixeltable, CVAT, MLflow-style artifact stores, MCP clients)

• WEKA as hot tier above B2 (Hume AI tags WEKA).
• Motion: architecture partner; joint whiteboard where both win.

Partner qualification questions

1. Which of our joint customers are on hyperscaler storage today?
2. Who owns the storage decision in your deals?
3. Do you resell storage or refer it?
4. What breaks in the field when you integrate with S3-compatible targets?
5. Will you co-present a POC?

Integration landmines

• Some tools use the Native B2 API, some S3. Object Lock with NAS sync uses the Native API per Backblaze FAQ.
• SigV2-only tools fail (Rubrik default).
• Tools that rely on object tagging or per-object ACLs need testing.