Backblaze to Present Strategy for Future-Proofing AI Initiatives at Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations, & Cloud Strategies Conference 2025

Head of GTM Patrick Thomas to outline how an independent data layer solves today’s data sprawl and creates long-term AI agility

SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Backblaze, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLZE), the high-performance cloud storage platform for the AI era, today announced that Patrick Thomas, head of go-to-market (GTM), will present a theater session at the Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations, & Cloud Strategies Conference 2025 (Gartner IOCS), taking place December 9–11 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Thomas’s session will give infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders a strategic playbook for building an independent data layer to overcome data sprawl, optimize storage economics, and create the flexible foundation required for AI and multi-cloud initiatives.

The presentation will address a central challenge facing I&O leaders: decades of accumulated data sprawl and fragmented infrastructure—often marked by vendor lock-in and unpredictable egress fees—are major blockers to delivering AI-driven workloads such as retrieval augmented generation (RAG), inference, analytics, and multi-cloud compute. Thomas will outline how adopting an independent, vendor-neutral, S3-compatible data layer enables organizations to consolidate storage, unlock data mobility, and eliminate cost barriers that impede innovation.

Thomas will also highlight real-world examples of how organizations, including Big Cartel, Decart, urlscan.io, and a Fortune 100 media company, have modernized their architectures with independent cloud storage. Several of these organizations achieved reductions of up to 80% in storage costs while improving performance and unlocking new AI and data-intensive workflows.

“Infrastructure and operations teams are under pressure to deliver both innovation and reliability,” said Thomas. “Backblaze exists to make those teams unstoppable—solving their toughest storage challenges with the performance, transparency, and trust they need to move faster. Gartner IOCS is where those conversations happen, and we’re excited to be part of it.”

Session Details

• Title: Backblaze: The Business Case for an Independent Data Layer—Future-Proof for AI
• Speaker: Patrick Thomas, Head of GTM
• Date/Time/Location: Thursday, December 11, 2025 | 9:50–10:10 AM PST, Gartner IOCS Theater Session

Meet with Backblaze at Gartner IOCS

Attendees can visit Booth 244 in the Cloud Solution Village to discuss their storage strategy and receive a personalized playbook for building an independent data layer. Backblaze experts will be available throughout the conference for tactical and architectural conversations.

About Backblaze

Backblaze (NASDAQ: BLZE) gives businesses the freedom to innovate without limits by removing the barriers of lock-in, complexity, and cost. Our high-performance cloud object storage accelerates AI workflows, powers data-heavy applications, streamlines media management, and protects critical data. As an award-winning independent cloud, we provide unparalleled levels of interoperability that enable over 500,000 of our customers to reach and serve hundreds of millions of end users in 175 countries around the world. For more information, please go to www.backblaze.com.