How to reduce your data storage costs in 6 steps

Data storage often represents a significant expense for businesses or administrations. Discover some tips to reduce your expenses related to data hosting.

Many organizations are now exploring modern data storage solutions to reduce complexity and improve cost-efficiency.

1. Switch from on-premises storage to online storage

If you want to limit your data storage expenses, avoid choosing local hosting: it is indeed the most expensive method. This approach requires purchasing physical servers, as well as their installation and configuration (either by an in-house IT team or an external provider). The same applies to server maintenance and infrastructure management over time. All these costs add up to a substantial expense for the company. This is particularly true when using traditional storage setups like network-attached storage (NAS), storage area network (SAN), or direct attached storage (DAS), which can drive up maintenance costs.

In contrast, online data storage and object storage minimize the initial investment. The hosting, maintenance, and management are handled by the provider, so there’s no need to purchase equipment or hire IT staff. These options are particularly well-suited for managing mass data storage across distributed teams.

Switching to cloud storage services can streamline operations and improve data accessibility for remote teams.

2. Opt for a public cloud for your data storage

Any company considering cloud storage has two options for online storage: public cloud or private cloud.

In a private cloud, the infrastructure is entirely dedicated to the company, which has full control over it. In contrast, a public cloud shares server usage among different companies. With a private cloud, the provider reserves a server exclusively for the client at a fixed price. Therefore, a private cloud is more expensive than a public cloud, where data storage costs are shared among the various clients using the server.

Public cloud models also offer greater scalability and flexibility for growing businesses. For organizations juggling multiple environments, hybrid cloud storage offers a balanced approach between cost efficiency and control.

3. Choose pay-as-you-go pricing to avoid over-provisioning

Local data storage relies on servers that provide storage capacity used gradually by the company. When the server is full, the company must invest in additional storage space.Some cloud providers follow the same principle, offering, for example, a minimum storage capacity of 3 TB per user. Many also offer “unlimited storage” plans. Be careful not to choose an online storage capacity that exceeds your actual needs.

Oversized storage capacity often leads to underused data storage devices such as hard disk drives (HDDs) or solid-state drives (SSDs), wasting both money and space. It’s better to regularly assess your storage usage to align your consumption with your real needs and avoid over-provisioning. Some data storage methods offer pay-as-you-go pricing, where storage costs adjust to the company’s actual consumption.

This model aligns well with digital transformation goals, promoting cost-effective and adaptable infrastructures.

4. Adopt a data lifecycle management policy

Beyond technical considerations, it’s important to establish a data lifecycle management policy to determine which data must be retained and which can be archived or deleted based on their age or usage. Keeping all your data can be very costly. Deleting obsolete or unnecessary data reduces the volume of data to store, thereby lowering your costs.

Implementing data retention strategies and using data organization methods tailored to your data formats can significantly reduce storage volumes. Unstructured data should be assessed regularly to determine its business value and storage necessity. Centralizing content in well-structured data lakes and warehouses also helps refine your storage architecture and reduce redundancy.

5. Choose the right provider for your object storage

While object storage providers’ rates are less expensive than on-premises or cloud storage, it’s crucial to compare the pricing of different solutions, as there can be significant differences. At Leviia, for example, we offer costs four times lower than those of major object storage providers like Amazon S3.

Enterprise storage solutions that offer high availability storage and automated backup solutions further ensure business continuity. Choosing a provider that supports file, block, and object storage types allows better alignment with diverse use cases.

6. Understand pricing proposals thoroughly

There are significant pricing differences among providers of online and non-online storage solutions. To compare storage costs, you can rely on two indicators.

First, compare the cost per user for a given storage amount (e.g., 1 TB). This will help you quickly identify solutions that fit your budget and workforce size.

The second indicator to analyze is the total cost of ownership, which evaluates the overall budget for purchasing and operating an asset. In the context of data storage, this includes the purchase or rental of servers, maintenance costs, expenses related to power and cooling, backup costs, data recovery costs, and more.

Providers that offer comprehensive data backup and recovery services, disaster recovery solutions, and data protection algorithms can help reduce unforeseen expenses.

Many providers charge additional fees beyond storage costs, such as infrastructure management fees, as well as transfer or exit fees if you want to move your data to another space or delete it. These additional costs can be very high and significantly increase the total cost of ownership.

Be sure to assess encryption and data protection standards as well as software-defined storage (SDS) capabilities, which can improve data integrity maintenance.

Implementing advanced data security measures ensures compliance with regulatory requirements and builds long-term resilience.

Solutions that include built-in performance optimization features help maximize system responsiveness even under heavy workloads.

To further enhance decision-making, companies can invest in data analytics infrastructure that leverages stored information more effectively.

Another factor to consider when choosing a provider is its geographical proximity to your company. First, using a foreign storage solution may involve paying in a foreign currency subject to exchange rate fluctuations. Additionally, using a data center located in France reduces the bandwidth required to transfer data, which helps lower costs.

Leviia, the ideal cloud solution to reduce your data storage costs

As a French storage solution, we host our clients’ data in three data centers located in France.

Combined with our public cloud solution in SaaS mode, this geographical proximity allows us to offer our clients an extremely competitive cost per user, with a base offer of €50 for 1 TB and 5 users, then €2 per additional user and €10 per additional TB.

This setup supports collaborative data sharing across departments, while enabling high-speed data transfer for daily operations.

At Leviia, we also provide an object storage solution with pay-as-you-go pricing that is 3 to 4 times cheaper than our competitors: €5.99 per TB, with no additional exit or transfer fees. Try it free for 15 days.

Looking to migrate? We also offer expert data migration services and consulting for digital data management, ensuring seamless transitions.

Want to discuss your data storage expenses? Our team is available to advise you: contact us now!