“Let’s buy some cheap cloud storage”
Said no one ever. Because we all know cloud storage comes with hidden costs. Minimum retention, API calls, retrieval fees, and the evil egress.
But hold on, what about the new wave of cheap cloud storage providers who throw all that in for one modest monthly payment.
Well how about we reframe. In a business there’s no such thing as cheap cloud storage. There’s a lot of storage, some of it is cheap, some of it is in the cloud. But you’ve never calculated the total cost of your entire storage estate.
The Seductive Promise of “Cheap”
Cloud providers lead with their lowest price per gigabyte. AWS S3 Glacier Deep Archive $1 per TB per month. Awesome! Google Cloud Coldline at $4 per TB per month! Azure Archive is $1 per TB per month!
These prices look great on an excel spreadsheet, on a powerpoint slide, and in that hallway conversation you have with the CFO about next year’s budget.
But reality is messier
Storage is a Commodity
Let’s go back to the coffee metaphor for a minute. We have instant coffee for pennies or a boutique flat white at 100x the cost. Both deliver caffeine. Both technically “work.” But total cost, and experience, are worlds apart.
Storage, the commodity, applies the same logic. Base functionality is simple: store data without corruption. Everything else (performance, accessibility, retrieval speed, management overhead) determines the real cost.
From a finance perspective, the CFO doesn’t see “block vs file vs object” storage. They see cost centers. Budget line items. And they want to understand the total cost of ownership by project, business unit, or location
Here are the four business-relevant storage classifications that are much more useful:
The Four Types of Storage That Align to Your Budget
Forget the tech speak. Here’s how storage works in business:
1. Filesystem Storage
Shared folders, network drives and file servers. Where active work happens. Users need instant access, applications expect low latency, and everything “just works.”
The Real Cost: Traditional infrastructure needing servers, storage and rackspace, immediately accessible, usually CapEx investment so a premium pricing per TB
2. Object Storage
Usually used for backups, servers and automated systems that access storage APIs. Think of it as bulk storage where scale and durability is more important than access speed
The Real Cost: On the surface, lower pricing per TB, but retrieval fees and API charges can sneak in and need to be managed
3. Platform Storage
OneDrive, Box, Dropbox. You’re not buying storage – you’re buying the platform capability and user experience.
The Real Cost: Predictable monthly fees, but performance can be limiting and there’s definitely data lock-in once you reach a critical amount of data on the platform
4. Archive Storage
Designed to keep data safe but don’t need to access much. Might be just tape, or combine filesystem and object storage with tape systems behind the scenes.
The Real Cost: Cheapest costs per TB, but access times are slow and the IT department will be your bottleneck to accessing data
Why “Buy Cheap, Buy Twice” Applies to Cloud Storage
Here’s what happens when you chase the cheapest per-GB pricing:
The Archive Storage Trap
Everything gets moved to cheap cloud storage to reduce costs. It sits there for a while. Then your need to retrieve data. Suddenly you’re paying:
- Retrieval fees that dwarf your monthly storage costs
- Staff time waiting hours or days for data access
- Opportunity costs from delayed projects and frustrated teams
Egress is Evil
Everyone knows that cloud storage is cheap. But in reality it’s cheap to put data in. Getting data out if expensive. Need to move 10TB to a different provider? That’ll be $900 in egress fees, thank you very much.
The Performance Penalty
Cheap cloud storage is not fit for production. Video editors can’t use Object storage as a place to work. Most Platform Storage on the market isn’t fit for high performance workloads (except for maybe LucidLink). So saving money on storage costs penalises the user experience, who then work around their issues and you end up with data siloes, duplications and quite frankly a mess.
Think Total Cost of Ownership
Organisations shouldn’t optimise for the lowest price per TB. They need to optimise for the lowest total cost of ownership.
TCO includes:
- Storage costs (the obvious one)
- Retrieval and egress fees (the gotcha)
- Staff time (lost time to slow access and complex management)
- Opportunity costs (delayed projects and inefficient workflows delay output)
- Migration costs (when you inevitably need to move data again)
- Management overhead (from dealing with multiple storage silos)
The Real Solution: Data-Driven Storage Optimization
Rather than chasing “cheap” storage, successful companies take the data-driven approach:
Understand what you have. Most organisations don’t hage any idea what’s sitting in their storage. 20-40% might be duplicates, obsolete files, or data that could live on cheaper tiers.
Match data to the right storage class. Active project files belong on high-performance filesystem storage. Finished projects should move to object storage. Legal archives can use true archive storage.
Model costs before you move data. What will it cost to retrieve data when you need it? How will infrastructure affect large transfers?
Automate based on business rules. Create policies that automatically move data to the right storage class based on age, usage patterns, and business requirements.
The CloudSoda Advantage: See Before You Spend
This is what CloudSoda was built for. Before you move a single byte, you can see:
- Ongoing storage costs across all tiers and providers
- Exact transfer costs down to the penny
- Cost projections based on your actual usage patterns
Our customers typically achieve 20%+ cost reductions not by chasing “cheaper cloud storage”, but by putting the right data in the right place at the right time.
The Bottom Line: Think Like a CFO, Not a Procurement Manager
“Cheap cloud storage” is like “cheap airline tickets.” You’ll find a lower price. But by the time you add seat selection, baggage fees, and the cost of your sanity dealing with delays, the “bargain” flight starts to look expensive.
The companies who are winning in 2025 aren’t the ones with cheapest storage. They’re the ones with the best tools to manage their unstructured data and the best strategies to keep their data flowing in line with their business need.
Stop chasing cheap storage. Start optimising for business value.