Managing what accumulates.
WHAT DRIVES COST
Volume stored Access frequency and pattern Data transferred out Requests made
WHY TRANSFER MATTERS DISPROPORTIONATELY
Moving data out of a cloud provider is charged, frequently at rates exceeding storage.
WHAT THAT MEANS
Cross-region and cross-provider architectures accumulate cost silently.
WHAT STORAGE TIERS PROVIDE
Lower cost for data accessed rarely, with retrieval charges and delays.
WHAT TO PLACE WHERE
Active data on standard storage Older data on infrequent-access tiers Archival data on the cheapest tier
WHAT TO AUTOMATE
Lifecycle rules moving data between tiers by age.
WHAT TO BE CAREFUL WITH
Retrieval costs exceeding the storage saved Minimum retention periods on cheap tiers
WHAT TO DEFINE
Retention per dataset.
WHY
Storing everything forever is a growing cost and a growing liability.
WHAT TO DELETE
Intermediate data that can be regenerated Data past its retention period Datasets nobody uses
WHAT TO MEASURE BEFORE DELETING
Whether anything queries it.
WHAT TO MONITOR
Cost by dataset, so growth is attributable.