The business model is based on only rarely having to retrieve old data. I suspect they spin down the drives (or possibly hibernate the whole box) when not in active "load" mode.
You would need to compare the pricing here to Amazon Glacier, if anything.
Backblaze employee here. Our drives never spin down, although we have considered this because electricity is a large monthly bill to us.
Because it is "backup" we are pretty relaxed about shutting down our pods to do maintenance, like replacing a drive. But that only takes 10 minutes, we try not to have machines offline more than that if possible, or it causes support issues from people trying to restore files.
Don't the writing patterns make old data tend to remain in older drives and newer data ending up in the newer devices? If that's the case, would reads to those devices become increasingly infrequent to the point it would be worth to spin them down? Are you worried about the stresses induced by spin up/down and thermal variations?
In general that's my theory also (that after the initial fill, and maybe after an initial "data churn" we might power them down). However, a full pod often has at least one file from several hundred thousand individual customers. If any one of those customers prepares a restore, those drives have to be spinning. Also, we now have an iOS and Android app that you have access to all your files on your laptop from the convenience of your Smartphone - which again means the drives have to be spinning.
> Are you worried about the stresses induced by spin up/down and thermal variations?
Absolutely. Our datacenter techs are convinced that if they swap a drive QUICKLY the pod has a higher chance of coming back up without any problems, if they let the pod get entirely cool it statistically seems to have more problems when it comes back up - a full cool down and heat up seems to cause issues.
Backblaze tech is not that impressive to give them competitive edge over the economy of scale of the big boys have. Amazon & co are not selling at cost, but at whatever the market with bear.
Sorry not relevant to the subject, but who is allowed to trade after-hours? How come some people are allowed to take advantage of trading while the general public is not allowed?
genuine question - how come when I submit an after hours trade through my bank it says "trading is closed, your order will be submitted first thing tomorrow" ?
It could be your bank just doesn't offer it. For most retail brokerage accounts you have to specifically request an extended "time in force" if you want to send orders outside of the core session.
It's your brokerage. For example, Tradeking allows trading from 8:00-9:30 ET and 4:00-5:00 ET. Some other brokerages, like Interactive Brokers, allow trading to 8:00 PM ET.
Just an FYI, if you trade after hours remember to set your price (buy or sell). As it's after hours, there is no market price, and therefore if you offer to buy 100 shares another party can sell at any price they want. Same goes for the sell side.
The term "after-hours" has become antiquated in trading. Pretty much every electronic exchange operates ~23 hours/day (1 or 2 few close periods for maintenance/book-keeping stuff).
Now you'd just refer to those time periods as "Asian hours" and "European hours." Also, remember there is not 1 stock market. There are somewhere around 50-60 exchanges where a company's stock may be traded (counting dark pools), and each of those may have different rules/open periods/etc.
You can ask your current employer to make counteroffer. Also, indicate that you are willing train the next guy before you leave. You want to leave in good-terms.
You should also know that when an employer want to terminate you, they don't think about your current situation before they lay you off. You still get laid-off when you are in middle of having a baby and need insurance. So employer's current situation shouldn't affect your decision.
