How Much Will I Pay for Cloud Storage for My Business?

Cloud storage pricing can feel extremely complicated at the best of times. Even if you’re looking into a company that’s very transparent about their pricing and cloud storage options, someone who’s never looked into cloud storage may not know enough about the process to know how much they’re going to pay. Here are four simple questions that can help you understand how cloud storage pricing will work for your business.

1. How Much Stable Storage Are You Using?

This has to do with how much data you’re hoping to store on the cloud itself. For example, if you have 500GB of files currently sitting on a hard drive in your company office, and you know your 10 employees each have 50GB of files they need to get rid of on their computer hard drives, you’re going to be using around 1,000GB, or 1TB, of data. Of course, this number may change over time, but having a general idea of the amount of stable storage you’re using will help you estimate cost.

2. How Often Are You Downloading Files?

When it comes to business cloud storage, most companies are going to charge a fee for downloads, typically by the GB. Certain cloud storage companies may also have partnerships with other companies that allow you to download through these companies for free. The more you’re downloading these archived files, the more you’re going to pay.

3. Do You Regularly Use API Calls?

API calls are their own special section of cloud storage purchases. These transactions can be incredibly valuable for a company, but they also require a lot of computing and data movement on the part of the cloud storage company. That means you’re typically going to pay for the API calls individually. Most often, these will be billed in batches, allowing you to pay a fraction of a cent per 1,000 API calls. If you currently use API regularly or you’re interested in using API more frequently, talk to the cloud storage system you’re interested in using to learn more about how that might impact pricing.

4. Do You Need Ongoing Product Support?

Product support is one of the things that can be very difficult for businesses to manage on their own. Most frequently, product support is free on a fairly limited basis, and will be charged if you want more personalized customer support. Look into options for free customer support before you make your purchase so you know whether upgraded customer support is right for your company.

Conclusion

Cloud storage cost is often individualized for each business; after all, every business needs individual things for their cloud storage to be effective for their needs. However, if you know the answers to these four questions, you may be able to at least estimate how expensive cloud storage will be for your business. If you’re looking for a way to reduce cost, it’s always a good idea to get in touch with the cloud storage company to learn more about your options.