---
title: "Backblaze Case Study"
date: 2019-08-05
summary: "Backblaze vendor case study on Bright Bear Technology Solutions, quoting Nathan Phinney, its president, on why a managed service provider starts with backup."
outlet: "Backblaze"
source: "https://f001.backblazeb2.com/file/backblaze-b4-case-studies/CS_Bright_Bear.pdf"
url: "https://nathanphinney.com/backblaze-case-study/"
author: "Nathan Phinney"
author_role: "COO, AllSafe IT"
author_url: "https://nathanphinney.com/about/"
same_as: ["https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanphinney"]
expertise: ["IT", "InfoSec", "Managed Services", "Cybersecurity", "Business Operations", "Technology for Escrow Companies", "Technology for Nonprofits"]
updated: 2026-10-10
---

Backblaze vendor case study on Bright Bear Technology Solutions, quoting Nathan Phinney, its president, on why a managed service provider starts with backup.

Backblaze case study (vendor-produced PDF); no author and no date printed. The entry date of 2019-08-05 is kept because Nathan recalls it as 2019; the text itself only refers to a Backblaze product release in "early 2017".

Title as printed: "Backblaze for Business simplifies data backup billing and management", subhead "Bright Bear Technology Solutions". Backblaze printed Nathan's title as "Nathan Phinney is the President of Bright Bear Technology Solutions (http://www.brightbear.com/), an IT Managed Service Provider in Irvine, California." (as printed by Backblaze).

[Read the case study at Backblaze](https://f001.backblazeb2.com/file/backblaze-b4-case-studies/CS_Bright_Bear.pdf)

## What Nathan said

> "For a managed service provider, a good backup makes everything less stressful."

Backblaze reported: Nathan is fond of saying that line, and the case study's heading is "We start with backup".

## Key facts

- "Back in 2009, Bright Bear Technology Solutions started with hourly break-fix services, just like everyone else in the business."
- "Today, these services are the cornerstone of their thriving managed services business."
- Led by Roger Gentry, Project Manager at Bright Bear, they migrated their customers to the new version of Backblaze within the first few days that the new version was available.
- "This lets their customer's spend their time being homebuilders, dentists, industrial fabricators, or whatever and let's Bright Bear do the IT part." (as printed)

[Read the original](https://f001.backblazeb2.com/file/backblaze-b4-case-studies/CS_Bright_Bear.pdf)

## About the author

**Nathan Phinney**, COO, AllSafe IT.

- Co-founded Bright Bear Technology Solutions (2010 to 2020), which reached the CRN MSP 500 and Ingram Micro SMB 500 lists before its 2020 acquisition by Datapath.
- 17 SOC 2 initiatives across six companies, never an exception on an effort he led
- Member of InfraGard
- Member of the XChange Advisory Board, The Channel Company (2018 to 2022 and 2026)
- Author of _CTRL ALT SURVIVE: The Secrets of My Small Business Success_

Expertise: IT, InfoSec, Managed Services, Cybersecurity, Business Operations, Technology for Escrow Companies, Technology for Nonprofits.

Featured in: CRN (7 articles, 2019 to 2026), Backblaze, Bigleaf Networks, Channel Partners Expo, GTIA, Orange County Business Journal. See https://nathanphinney.com/press.md

Recommended on LinkedIn by Brook Porter (Partner and Co-Founder at G2 Venture Partners; previously at Kleiner Perkins, where he worked with Al Gore) and Tim Acker (Former channel chief at Lumen).

More: [About Nathan Phinney](https://nathanphinney.com/about.md) | [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanphinney)