Cloud storage vendor Backblaze has launched a purpose-built iteration of its flagship B2 offering specifically targeting neoclouds.

Dubbed B2 Neo, the offering aims to provide nascent GPU-centric cloud providers with a storage layer capable of handling the sizable datasets and high-throughput workloads typically seen from players like CoreWeave, Vultr, or Nscale.

“Neoclouds are under pressure to scale GPU capacity as fast as possible. Building and operating high-performance scalable object storage competes directly with that mission,” said Gleb Budman, co-founder and CEO of Backblaze. “B2 Neo lets them launch a storage offering in weeks, not years, so they can stay focused on what makes them different.”

The rise of the neocloud has subsequently turned several industry heads to say the least, with vendors across the compute, storage, and networking stack rushing to court these new, and deep-pocketed providers.

Synergy Research Group data suggests that neocloud providers like Crusoe, Nebius, Lambda, and CoreWeave are actively eating into the big three cloud providers’ market share. Backblaze itself cited Mordor Intelligence projections that the neocloud market will surge from $35.22 billion in 2026 to a staggering $236.53 billion by 2031, with apparent explosive demand for AI workloads behind the forecasted 46.37% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).

To support neoclouds on their momentous rise, Backblaze’s B2 Neo launch sees it showcase a storage layer capable of handling throughput speeds up to 1 terabit per second (1Tb/s). While Backblaze’s flagship B2 Overdrive solution can handle up to such speeds, the neocloud variant was apparently designed in collaboration with those emerging players to make it more applicable for them.

B2 Neo can integrate into a customer’s existing platforms, with the addition of branded endpoints and partner-controlled pricing. Neoclouds can also provision accounts, manage permissions, and handle billing through existing platform tools without a separate console or manual setup.

One such company – an unnamed edge services platform – are among the early adopters of B2 Neo, using it as a core component of its AI, high-performance computing (HPC), and media storage strategies.

Neoclouds reshape network behavior

Backblaze’s launch comes after it published data suggesting that neoclouds were in fact reshaping network behaviors faster than AI.

The firm’s recently published quarterly "Network Stats" analysis revealed that neocloud traffic was proving to be fundamentally different from general internet or cloud traffic.

Where traditional internet traffic has a “uniqueness” to it, with a larger number of data centers and a mix of workloads resulting in an array of outputs, the rise of the neocloud and its penchant for AI has resulted in what Backblaze suggests is fewer, more sizable datasets moving in short, sustained bursts across persistent endpoints and pipelines.

“This contrast reveals a broader trend: AI networking is less about many-to-many communication and more about sustained high-throughput relationships between specialized systems,” Backblaze technical lead network engineer Brent Nowak explained.

Nowak’s report also revealed that the physical locality was also playing an important role in where these emerging players are looking to place their storage. Data for Q4 2025 revealed that AI-driven data transfers were largely concentrated in the "US East" region, near neocloud compute hubs like Northern Virginia, New York, and Atlanta.

“Latency plays a role when you're talking about big data transfers. So if you are having GPU availability on the West Coast, but your data stored on the East Coast, you obviously have many miles to get through to transfer data. So we're seeing a concentration where East Coast has been the preference so far,” Nowak explained in a conversation with SDxCentral.

“That could shift in the future, as new things come online. Nebius’s last earnings report said they’re expanding. So that could be a big change where they’re choosing facilities, because I saw their geographical map and they’re more midwest and some more European locations, so partners like thatcould shift where decisions are in the future.”