Blockbridge: Virtualization Storage Ledger 2026 Scorecard

Part of the Virtualization Storage Ledger (edition 2026-10-16). How the scores work: methodology.

Snapshot

Type: product
Owner: Blockbridge Networks LLC (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; founded 2010; privately held; owners and investors not named)
Licence: Commercial, closed source; no public price, units or editions; sold as software for any server vendor or as all-flash systems on Dell, Supermicro and QCT servers; Proxmox users report pricing per TB per month (forum, unverified); no free tier found
Latest release: Core 6.1.0 (2025-08-20), with no core release since; Proxmox driver 3.7.7 (2026-05-27, PVE 9.2 API compatibility). Inclusion test 1 is met by the eight 3.7.x driver releases from 2025-10-20
Support lifecycle: No published policy; vendor claims 24x7 monitoring and support; the platform FAQ advises against running hardware beyond about 5 to 7 years for business-critical use
Next milestone: none published
Hypervisors: Proxmox VE 6.0 to 9.2 (native plug-in, KB compatibility table), VMware vSphere and ESXi (VAAI; vSphere 7 U3c or newer for NVMe/TCP), Microsoft Hyper-V (CSV, MPIO), OpenStack Cinder, Kubernetes through CSI (blockbridge.com software page and KB, read 2026-10-16); no XCP-ng or KubeVirt found
Tier: Software-defined storage
Archetype: Dependable builder with a quiet core
Evidence grade: B. The Proxmox driver history is read from the dated Blockbridge KB guide (grade A). Core features come from the 5.1, 6.0 and 6.1 posts and KB release pages, of which only the 6.1 post carries a reliable date (grade B). The redundancy scheme, minimum system, capacity limits and replication are not documented on any public page, so resilience, scale and DR are grade C, as is the 2017 start, which is the dossier's judgement for the AnyScale GA release.

Scorecard

Dimension	Score	Direction
Capability today	64.7 / 100	higher is better
Momentum since end of 2022	+8.5 points (2017 to 2022: +1.2)	higher is better
Credibility	12.5 / 25	higher is better
Commercial risk	12.0 / 25	lower is better
Technical lock-in	8.0 / 25	lower is better
Integrator fit	9.0 / 20	higher is better
AI leverage	3.0 / 20	higher is better
Ledger Index	52.8 / 100	balanced weights; see the methodology

Capability by domain, 2015 to today

Scores 0 to 5 against fixed anchors; total is weighted to 100.

Domain (weight)	2015	2019	2022	Today
Data services core (15)	n/a	3.5	3.5	3.5
Resilience and HA (15)	n/a	2.5	2.5	3
Performance and protocols (12)	n/a	3	3	3.5
Hypervisor integration (12)	n/a	3	3.5	4
Scale and topology (10)	n/a	2.5	2.5	2.5
Data protection and DR (10)	n/a	1.5	1.5	2.5
Security (8)	n/a	3	3	3.5
Operations and automation (8)	n/a	3	3	3.5
Hardware and deployment freedom (5)	n/a	3	3	3
Kubernetes and containers (5)	n/a	2	2	3
Total / 100	n/a	55.0	56.2	64.7

Year by year: 2017: 55.0 · 2018: 55.0 · 2019: 55.0 · 2020: 55.0 · 2021: 56.2 · 2022: 56.2 · 2023: 60.9 · 2024: 61.9 · 2025: 64.7 · 2026: 64.7

What moved the score

Year	Domain	Change	Points	Trigger
2021	Hypervisor integration	3 → 3.5	+1.2	Proxmox driver 2.1.0 (2021-08-24): native Proxmox VE plug-in with snapshots and rollback
2023	Hypervisor integration	3.5 → 4	+1.2	6.0: NVMe equivalents of VAAI and ANA for ESXi; 5.1 and driver 3.1.0 deepen Proxmox support; later drivers add Veeam on Proxmox VE and PVE 9.2
2023	Operations and automation	3 → 3.5	+0.8	5.1: Grafana dashboards, CLI roles and faster failover; no Terraform or Ansible found
2023	Performance and protocols	3 → 3.5	+1.2	6.0: NVMe/TCP built into the data engine with ANA and native multipathing (a preview reached Proxmox in driver 3.0.0 on 2022-10-03); no NFS, SMB or Fibre Channel
2023	Resilience and HA	2.5 → 3	+1.5	6.0: soft fencing tied to the hardware watchdog and write-intent logs for resync (post timestamped 2023-09-15); failure tolerance still undocumented
2024	Data protection and DR	1.5 → 2	+1.0	Driver 3.3.0 (2024-11-19): Veeam Backup and Replication 12.2 support on Proxmox VE
2025	Data protection and DR	2 → 2.5	+1.0	Driver 3.6.0 (2025-09-15): volume import and export for cross-datacentre migration; 3.7.2: Veeam v13; no asynchronous replication or immutability documented
2025	Kubernetes and containers	2 → 3	+1.0	6.1: CSI topology-aware provisioning and raw block volumes; RWX block for KubeVirt not found
2025	Security	3 → 3.5	+0.8	6.1 (2025-08-20): NVMe DHCHAP authentication and tenant VLAN binding

Direction, 2023 to 2026

Each release item carries one theme and one driver (V vision, C customer need, M market window, U upstream, P portfolio).

Date	Item	Theme	Driver
2023-06	Driver 3.1.0: multi-tenant networking for Proxmox VE	Security	C
2023-09	Core 5.1: Proxmox plug-in support, Grafana dashboards, CLI roles, faster failover	Operations	C
2023-09	Core 6.0: NVMe/TCP data engine, NVMe equivalents of VAAI and ANA, soft fencing, write-intent logs (date uncertain)	Performance	C
2024-05	Driver 3.2.0: multipath local binding	Performance	C
2024-11	Driver 3.3.0: Veeam Backup and Replication 12.2 support on Proxmox VE	Data protection	M
2025-04	Driver 3.4.0: Proxmox VE storage API update	Hypervisor integration	U
2025-08	Driver 3.5.0: Debian Trixie and Proxmox VE 9	Hypervisor integration	U
2025-08	Core 6.1: cache redesign, NVMe DHCHAP, tenant VLAN binding, CSI topology and raw block volumes	Performance	C
2025-09	Driver 3.6.0: volume import and export for cross-datacentre migration	Data protection	C
2025-10	Driver 3.7.0: adaptive iSCSI tuning, host-specific tuning, hardware discovery	Operations	C
2025-12	Driver 3.7.2: Proxmox VE 9.1 API and Veeam v13 on Proxmox VE 8	Data protection	M
2026	AMD Zen4 platforms from Dell and Supermicro listed as current hardware	Hardware	C
2026-03	Drivers 3.7.4 to 3.7.6: node-restricted storage configuration, client daemon, large-scale optimisations	Scale	C
2026-05	Driver 3.7.7: Proxmox VE 9.2 API compatibility	Hypervisor integration	U

Centre of gravity: Performance (3), Data protection (3), Hypervisor integration (3)
Blind spots (no items): Data services, Resilience, Kubernetes, Packaging, Licensing, AI
Driver mix: Vision 0%, Customer need 64%, Market window 14%, Upstream 21%, Portfolio 0%
Idea-to-need index: 0.00 (0 = demand-pulled, 1 = thesis-pushed)

Credibility: 12.5 / 25

Criterion	Score	Basis
Cadence	3	Dated Proxmox driver releases about every six weeks; core releases undated except 6.1, and none in the 14 months since
Roadmap transparency	1.5	Public KB version history for the driver; no roadmap; core release dates not shown
Say-do	3	Almost nothing announced ahead; the 2022 NVMe/TCP preview reached GA in core 6.0
Velocity	2.5	Core 6.1 carried several items in 2025; 2026 work is driver compatibility and fixes
Lifecycle stability	2.5	No support policy published; upgrades documented per driver release; core dates unclear

Commercial risk: 12.0 / 25 (lower is better)

Criterion	Score	Basis
Price and licence volatility	2	No public price or history; per TB per month reported by users
Purchase constraints	3	Quote only; enterprise NVMe or SSD hardware required
Channel and access	2.5	Direct sales only found; KB, guides and driver documentation public; download terms not found
Owner stability	2	Small private company since 2010; ownership not disclosed; no acquisition found
Cost of staying supported	2.5	Support bundled in the reported per TB per month model; no published windows

Technical lock-in: 8.0 / 25 (lower is better)

Criterion	Score	Basis
Formats	1	Standard iSCSI and NVMe/TCP block volumes; VM disks keep the hypervisor format
Export path	1.5	Per-volume import and export since driver 3.6.0; hypervisor-level storage migration
Stack coupling	2	Needs a Blockbridge system plus a driver on each host, using the supported Proxmox storage API and no extra kernel modules
Hardware / cloud coupling	1.5	Any server vendor, but enterprise flash with power-loss protection only
Skills and tooling coupling	2	Blockbridge CLI and REST API; small skills pool

Integrator fit: 9.0 / 20

Criterion	Score	Basis
Partner programme openness	1.5	No partner programme found
Multi-tenancy and self-service	3.5	Crypto-isolated tenants with a tenant UI, per-tenant networking and VLAN binding
API and infrastructure-as-code	3	Documented REST API, CLI, CSI driver and Proxmox driver; no Terraform or Ansible found
Skills and certification	1	No training or certification found

AI leverage: 3.0 / 20

How the product uses AI, scored per year like capability. Only GA counts.

Criterion	2019	2022	Today	Latest step
AI workload infrastructure	0	0	1	2023: 6.0: NVMe/TCP shared block storage usable by GPU hosts; no AI-specific validation
AI platform stack	0	0	0	2017: None
AI-assisted operations	0	0	0	2017: None
Agent openness	2	2	2	2017: Documented REST API and the bb CLI; no MCP server

Year by year: 2017: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2026: 3

AI say-do, 2023 to 2026: 0 AI items announced; 0 GA, 0 still preview, 0 pending, 0 dropped. Blockbridge has announced no AI features.

Blockbridge has no AI features and has announced none. A documented REST API is the surface an agent could drive.

Reading

Blockbridge scores as a disaggregated block store tuned for Proxmox VE: a native plug-in with dated releases about every six weeks, NVMe/TCP since core 6.0, VAAI on vSphere and tenant isolation that suits service providers. It is held back by what the public record leaves out: the redundancy scheme across engines, the failure tolerance, the minimum system and how replication works are undocumented, so resilience and DR stay low with grade C. The core software has had no release since 6.1 on 2025-08-20, and the recent work is all in the Proxmox driver. A buyer should ask for the written redundancy design and failure behaviour before sizing a system.

Open questions and items to re-score

The last core release is 6.1 (2025-08-20); inclusion test 1 is met only by the 3.7.x Proxmox driver releases since 2025-10-20. Re-check for a new core release.
Redundancy scheme across engines, failure tolerance, minimum system, capacity limits and replication are not documented.
The true dates of 5.1 and 6.0 are unclear; both posts carry a 2023-09-15 timestamp that may be a site migration date.
The 2017 first scored year is a judgement; releases 3.0 to 5.0 are undated.
Licence, price and the licence of the Proxmox driver package were not found.
Supported ESXi and Hyper-V versions are not listed beyond vSphere 7 U3c for NVMe/TCP; the VMware guide cites 2012 to 2018 material.
Deduplication, the encryption algorithm and external key management are not stated.