Backblaze Taps Chris Opat to Lead Cloud Operations

SAN MATEO, Calif., Aug. 15, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Backblaze, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLZE), today announced that Christoper (Chris) Opat has joined the company as Senior Vice President of Cloud Operations overseeing the strategy and operations of the Backblaze global cloud storage platform.

With over 500,000 customers and three billion gigabytes of data storage under management, the company has built significant experience in more than 15 years in business. Opat expands the company's leadership by bringing his impressive cloud and infrastructure knowledge developed during his time leading cloud operations at companies like StackPath and Cloudreach.

In his role at Backblaze, Opat oversees cloud strategy, platform engineering, and technology infrastructure, enabling the company to further scale capacity and improve performance for all customers as well as providing for the growing pool of larger-sized customers' needs as the company continues to see as the company continues to see success in moving up-market.

“Chris is a forward-thinking cloud leader with a proven track record of leading teams that are clever and bold in solving problems. I was impressed by his focus on how his teams can contribute to creating best-in-class experiences for customers,” said Gleb Budman, Backblaze CEO and Chairperson of the Board. “His expertise and approach will be pivotal as more customers move to an open cloud ecosystem, and he will help advance Backblaze’s cloud strategy as we continue to grow.”

Opat brings more than 25 years of industry experience to Backblaze. Previously, he served as senior vice president leading platform engineering and operations at StackPath, a specialized provider in edge technology and content delivery. He also held leadership roles at CyrusOne, CompuCom, Cloudreach, and Bear Stearns/JPMorgan. Chris earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Television and Digital Media Production from Ithaca College.

“Backblaze’s vision and mission resonate with me. I’m proud to be joining a company that is supporting customers and advocating for an open cloud ecosystem,” said Opat. “I’m looking forward to working with the amazing team at Backblaze as we continue to scale with our customers and accelerate growth.”

Backblaze provides developers, businesses, and consumers with cloud services to store and use their data in an easy and affordable manner, serving as a foundation for customers to back up & archive data, host content, manage media, build their applications, and more. Backblaze’s mission is to make storing and using data astonishingly easy.

About Backblaze

Backblaze makes it astonishingly easy to store, use, and protect data. The Backblaze Storage Cloud provides a foundation for businesses, developers, IT professionals, and individuals to build applications, host content, manage media, back up and archive data, and more. With over three billion gigabytes of data storage under management, the company currently works with more than 500,000 customers in over 175 countries. Founded in 2007, the company is based in San Mateo, CA. For more information, please go to www.backblaze.com.

Press Contact:
Jeanette Foster
Communications Manager, Backblaze
jfoster@backblaze.com