Articles

How to Migrate from DigitalOcean Spaces to AWS S3

May 11, 2026

Growing Out of DigitalOcean Spaces

DigitalOcean Spaces is a good starting point for object storage. It is simple, affordable ($5/month for 250 GB + 1 TB transfer), and S3-compatible. For small to mid-size projects, it does the job.

But as your storage needs grow, you run into limitations:

Region constraints. Spaces are region-scoped. Each region only sees its own Spaces. Cross-region replication is not available.
No storage tiers. Everything is stored at the same tier. There is no equivalent to S3’s Glacier or Intelligent-Tiering for cost optimization.
Limited ecosystem. AWS S3 integrates with hundreds of services: Lambda, CloudFront, Athena, Step Functions, SageMaker. DigitalOcean’s ecosystem is smaller.
Bandwidth limits. The included 1 TB transfer can be burned through quickly on busy applications.

When a project outgrows Spaces, AWS S3 is the most common destination.

Multi-Region Complexity

DigitalOcean runs Spaces across 7 regions: NYC3, SFO3, AMS3, SGP1, FRA1, SYD1, and BLR1. If you have Spaces in multiple regions, you need to handle each region separately.

Blober detects all your Spaces across all DigitalOcean regions automatically. When you connect your DigitalOcean account, Blober probes all 7 regions in parallel and presents a unified view of all your Spaces. You do not need to configure each region separately.

Tier Detection

DigitalOcean recently introduced cold storage tiers for Spaces. Blober detects whether a Space is using Standard or Cold storage and flags it accordingly. This helps you make informed decisions about which S3 storage class to target.

How to Transfer

Step 1: Connect DigitalOcean Spaces

Add DigitalOcean Spaces as a provider in Blober. You can use either:

S3-compatible credentials (Access Key + Secret Key) for basic access
Personal Access Token for richer bucket listing with project metadata

Blober discovers all your Spaces across all regions.

Step 2: Connect AWS S3

Add AWS S3 with your Access Key ID, Secret Access Key, and preferred region. Blober lists your S3 buckets.

Step 3: Map and Transfer

Create a workflow with DigitalOcean as the source and S3 as the destination. Browse your Spaces, select files or entire Spaces, and choose the target S3 bucket and storage class.

Options for the destination:

Storage class: Standard, Intelligent-Tiering, Standard-IA, Glacier Instant Retrieval, Glacier, or Deep Archive
Target bucket: Any existing S3 bucket (or create one in the AWS console first)

Step 4: Run

Blober handles the transfer with parallel multipart uploads on both sides. S3-to-S3-compatible transfers are efficient because both services speak the same protocol.

Cost Comparison

	DigitalOcean Spaces	AWS S3 Standard	AWS S3 Standard-IA
Storage (1 TB)	$5/mo (250 GB included) + $20/mo extra	$23/mo	$12.50/mo
Bandwidth (1 TB)	Included	$90/mo	$90/mo
PUT requests (100K)	$0.50	$0.50	$1.00

DigitalOcean is cheaper for simple, low-traffic use cases. S3 is more cost-effective at scale with its tiering options, especially if you use Intelligent-Tiering or Glacier for archival data.

Get Blober

One-time purchase. Transfer as much as you need.

Download Blober at blober.io

How to Migrate from Google Drive to Backblaze B2

May 11, 2026

Why Move from Google Drive to Backblaze B2?

Google Drive is a collaboration tool with storage built in. Backblaze B2 is pure storage built for scale. The reasons people move between them usually come down to one or more of these:

Cost. Google One charges $100/year for 2 TB. Backblaze B2 charges $6.95/TB/month, but for archival or backup data you access rarely, the math works differently. If you are storing 5+ TB of media, raw footage, or project archives, B2 can be significantly cheaper depending on your access patterns.
Control. B2 gives you S3-compatible API access, which means you can integrate it with backup tools, CDNs, media workflows, and custom applications. Google Drive’s API is more limited for bulk operations.
Redundancy. Keeping a copy of your Google Drive data in B2 means you are not dependent on a single provider. If Google changes pricing, restricts your account, or has an outage, your files are safe elsewhere.

The Google Drive Challenge

Google Drive stores native files (Docs, Sheets, Slides) as cloud-only application states, not as downloadable files. When you need them outside of Google, they must be converted to Office formats first.

Google Takeout can export your Drive, but it takes hours, produces fragmented zip archives, and flattens your folder structure. For a migration to B2 specifically, Takeout is especially awkward because you would need to download everything locally, extract it, then upload it to B2 using a separate tool.

How Blober Handles It

Blober connects to both Google Drive and Backblaze B2. It handles the tricky parts automatically:

Google Docs become .docx files during transfer
Google Sheets become .xlsx files during transfer
Google Slides become .pptx files during transfer
Regular files (photos, videos, PDFs) transfer as-is
Folder structure is preserved in your B2 bucket
Shared files are accessible through a “Shared with me” virtual folder

Steps

Connect Google Drive: Add Google Drive as a provider in Blober. OAuth login through your browser.
Connect Backblaze B2: Add B2 with your Application Key ID and Application Key. Blober auto-detects your bucket regions.
Create a workflow: Set Google Drive as source, B2 as destination. Browse and select files or folders.
Run: Blober streams files from Google Drive to B2 through your machine. No local storage needed for intermediate files.

Storage Cost Comparison

	Google One (2 TB)	Backblaze B2 (2 TB)
Monthly	$8.33	~$14
Annual	$100	~$167
5 TB	$25/month (Google One Premium)	~$35/month
10 TB+	Not available on consumer plans	~$70/month
Egress	Free (via Drive sync/download)	Free up to 3x stored

For small amounts of active data, Google Drive is the better deal. For large archives, backups, and media libraries that you rarely access, B2’s pay-for-what-you-use model wins.

A Common Setup

Many people do not fully leave Google Drive. Instead, they keep it for active collaboration (shared documents, team folders) and move everything else to B2:

Current projects stay in Google Drive for real-time editing
Completed projects, old photos, and archives go to Backblaze B2
Blober handles the transfer once, then you adjust your Google storage plan

This hybrid approach gives you the best of both: Google’s collaboration features for active work and B2’s affordable storage for everything else.

Get Blober

One-time purchase. No subscription, no per-GB fees.

Download Blober at blober.io

How to Migrate Google Drive Files to AWS S3

May 11, 2026

When Google Drive Is Not Enough

Google Drive works great as a collaboration tool. Real-time editing, sharing links, 15 GB free storage. But when your data grows past a few hundred gigabytes, or when you need programmatic access, versioning policies, or storage tiering, Google Drive starts showing its limits.

AWS S3 is built for exactly those use cases. It handles petabytes, offers multiple storage classes, integrates with hundreds of AWS services, and gives you full API control. The gap between Google Drive and S3 is not about which is “better.” It is about what each one is built for.

Moving from one to the other is where things get complicated.

The Google Drive Export Problem

Google Drive stores some files as native Google formats: Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides. These are not actual files on disk. They are application states stored in Google’s cloud. You cannot download a “Google Doc file” the way you download a PDF.

When you export from Google Drive (or use Google Takeout), these files get converted to their Microsoft Office equivalents: DOCX, XLSX, PPTX. But this conversion is often inconsistent with Takeout, and the folder structure gets flattened.

How Blober Handles Google Drive to S3

Blober connects to Google Drive via OAuth and to AWS S3 via access keys. It solves the two biggest pain points of this migration:

Automatic Google Docs Conversion

When Blober encounters a Google Doc, Sheet, or Slide, it automatically converts it to the corresponding Office format (DOCX, XLSX, PPTX) during transfer. This happens on the fly. You do not need to manually export anything.

The converted files land in your S3 bucket in a usable format that any application can read.

Folder Structure Preserved

Blober recreates your Google Drive folder hierarchy in S3. If you have Work/Projects/2025/Proposal.docx in Google Drive, it becomes Work/Projects/2025/Proposal.docx in your S3 bucket. No flat dumps, no reorganization needed.

Shared Files Included

Google Drive has a “Shared with me” section that is separate from your main drive. Blober shows this as a browsable folder, so you can include shared files in your migration if needed.

Steps

Connect Google Drive: Add Google Drive as a provider. Blober opens a browser window for OAuth authorization. Sign in and grant access.
Connect AWS S3: Add S3 with your Access Key ID, Secret Access Key, and region.
Create a workflow: Set Google Drive as source, S3 as destination. Browse your Drive, select files and folders.
Choose S3 options: Pick the storage class (Standard, Intelligent-Tiering, Standard-IA, Glacier, etc.) and target bucket.
Run: Blober transfers with progress tracking and auto-resume.

S3 Storage Class Selection

One advantage of moving to S3 is choosing the right storage class for your data:

Storage Class	Use Case	Cost (per TB/mo)
Standard	Frequently accessed files	~$23
Intelligent-Tiering	Unknown access patterns	~$23 (auto-optimizes)
Standard-IA	Infrequent access, fast retrieval	~$12.50
Glacier Instant	Archive with instant access	~$4
Glacier Deep Archive	Long-term cold storage	~$1

With Blober, you set the storage class when creating the workflow. All transferred files land on the tier you choose. If you want different tiers for different data, create multiple workflows.

Who Does This

Startups growing out of Google Workspace who need infrastructure-grade storage
Data teams that need to run analytics on files currently in Google Drive
Companies consolidating storage to AWS for compliance or integration reasons
Developers who want S3’s API and event-driven architecture instead of Google Drive’s sync model

Get Blober

One-time purchase. No per-GB fees, no subscription.

Download Blober at blober.io

How to Move Data from Azure Blob Storage to Cloudflare R2

May 11, 2026

The Egress Problem

Azure Blob Storage charges $0.087 per GB for data leaving their network. If you serve 1 TB of files per month to users or external systems, that is $87/month in egress alone, on top of storage costs.

Cloudflare R2 charges $0 for egress. Zero. Nothing. You pay for storage ($0.015/GB/month) and operations, but downloading data from R2 is free. For applications that serve files to users, APIs, CDNs, or other services, switching to R2 can cut your cloud bill significantly.

Why People Make This Move

The most common reason is cost. If your Azure Blob account is mostly used for serving static assets, media files, backups that get restored frequently, or API responses, the egress fees can dwarf your storage costs. R2 removes that variable entirely.

Another reason is simplicity. R2 is S3-compatible, meaning any tool or SDK that works with S3 works with R2. If your application already uses the S3 API (many do, even on Azure), the migration is mostly about moving data and updating the endpoint.

How to Transfer with Blober

Blober supports both Azure Blob Storage and Cloudflare R2 as native providers. The transfer works like any other Blober workflow: connect both accounts, select files, run.

Step 1: Connect Azure Blob Storage

Add Azure Blob as a provider with your connection string. Blober lists your containers and their contents.

Step 2: Connect Cloudflare R2

Add Cloudflare R2 as a provider. You will need your Account ID along with an S3-compatible Access Key ID and Secret Access Key from the Cloudflare dashboard. If you also provide a Cloudflare API token, Blober can list your buckets through Cloudflare’s native API with server-side pagination, which is more efficient for accounts with many buckets.

Step 3: Create a Workflow

Set Azure Blob as the source and Cloudflare R2 as the destination. Browse your Azure containers, select the files or containers you want to migrate, and choose the destination bucket in R2.

Step 4: Run

Blober streams data from Azure through your machine to R2. It uses parallel uploads on both ends, so large files move efficiently. If the transfer is interrupted, Blober resumes from where it stopped.

What About Azure Egress Fees During Migration?

This is the unavoidable part. Moving data out of Azure means paying egress. For the initial migration, you will pay $0.087/GB to get your data from Azure to your machine (where Blober runs), and from there to R2.

For 1 TB, that is about $87 in egress fees. That is a one-time cost. After the migration, your ongoing egress from R2 is $0.

If you were paying $87/month in Azure egress, the migration pays for itself in the first month.

Migration Cost Estimate

Data Size	Azure Egress Cost (one-time)	Monthly Savings on R2
500 GB	~$43	Depends on egress pattern
1 TB	~$87	Up to $87/month
5 TB	~$435	Up to $435/month
10 TB	~$870	Up to $870/month

R2 Is S3-Compatible

This matters because your application code likely uses the AWS SDK or an S3-compatible client. After migrating data to R2, updating your app is often as simple as changing the endpoint URL and credentials. No SDK changes, no API rewrites.

Blober connects to R2 using the same S3 protocol, so the transfer is seamless.

When Azure Is Still the Right Choice

R2 is excellent for serving files and eliminating egress. But Azure has features that R2 does not:

Storage tiers (Hot, Cool, Cold, Archive) for lifecycle cost optimization
Geo-redundant replication built into the platform
Azure Functions and event triggers tied to blob operations
Enterprise compliance certifications that some industries require

If you need those features, Azure is worth the egress premium. Many teams keep some data on Azure (for processing and compliance) and move the served/public data to R2 (for cost savings).

Get Blober

One-time purchase. Transfer as much data as you need.

Download Blober at blober.io

How to Move Files from Dropbox to Backblaze B2

May 11, 2026

Why People Leave Dropbox for Backblaze B2

Dropbox works well as a file sync tool. You drop files in a folder and they show up on all your devices. But as your data grows, Dropbox gets expensive. The Plus plan costs $120/year for 2 TB. If you have 5 TB or more, you need Dropbox Business at $180/year per user.

Backblaze B2 charges $6.95 per TB per month for storage. For 2 TB, that is about $14/month or $167/year. But here is where it gets interesting: most of the data sitting in Dropbox is not being actively synced. It is old projects, archives, backups, photos from three years ago. That data does not need instant sync to every device. It needs to be stored cheaply and retrieved when needed.

For archival and backup storage, Backblaze B2 is significantly cheaper. And unlike Dropbox, you only pay for what you use. No fixed plans, no storage ceilings.

The Problem with Moving Data Out of Dropbox

The obvious approach is to download everything from Dropbox to your computer, then upload it to Backblaze B2. This works for small amounts of data. For 500 GB or more, it becomes painful:

You need enough free space on your local disk to hold the download
Downloading takes hours or days depending on your connection
Uploading to B2 takes equally long
If anything fails midway, you start over

Some people try rclone for this. rclone works, but you need to configure both remotes in a text file, understand the command syntax, and handle errors yourself. If you are comfortable with the terminal, rclone is a solid choice. If you are not, it is a wall.

How to Transfer with Blober

Blober connects to both Dropbox and Backblaze B2. You set up both providers, select the files you want to move, and Blober handles the transfer. Files stream from Dropbox through your computer to Backblaze B2 without needing to store them locally.

Step 1: Connect Dropbox

Add Dropbox as a provider in Blober. Click the OAuth login button and authorize Blober with your Dropbox account. Blober stores your credentials locally on your machine, not on any server.

Step 2: Connect Backblaze B2

Add Backblaze B2 as a provider. You will need your Application Key ID and Application Key from the Backblaze dashboard. Blober verifies the connection and lists your buckets.

Step 3: Create a Workflow

Create a new workflow with Dropbox as the source and Backblaze B2 as the destination. Browse your Dropbox files, select what you want to transfer, and choose which B2 bucket to send it to.

Step 4: Run

Click run. Blober transfers files with parallel uploads, progress tracking, and automatic resume if your connection drops.

What About Folder Structure?

Blober preserves your folder structure. If you have Projects/2024/Client-A/ in Dropbox, it creates the same path in your B2 bucket. You do not end up with a flat pile of files.

Cost Comparison

	Dropbox Plus	Backblaze B2 (2 TB)
Monthly cost	$10/month	~$14/month
5 TB	Need Business plan ($15/user/mo)	~$35/month
10 TB	Need Business plan	~$70/month
Egress	Free (sync)	Free to Cloudflare partners, $0.01/GB otherwise
API access	OAuth	S3-compatible

For pure storage (not sync), B2 wins at every tier above 2 TB. And if you pair B2 with Cloudflare CDN through the Bandwidth Alliance, egress is free.

When to Keep Dropbox

This is not about abandoning Dropbox entirely. Dropbox is great for active files you need on every device. The move that makes sense for most people is:

Keep Dropbox for current projects and actively used files
Move archives, old projects, and large media to Backblaze B2
Use Blober to transfer the archival data once, then cancel the upgraded Dropbox plan

Get Blober

Blober is a one-time purchase. No subscription, no per-GB transfer fees.

Download Blober at blober.io