How I cut my monthly cloud storage bill in half - with 5 tough decisions

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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

Cloud retention costs exploded aft unlimited plans vanished
Backing up everything was costly and unnecessary
Five strategical changes saved implicit $1,200 per year

60 terabytes. I'll ne'er spot that overmuch unreality retention again. On 1 hand, I'm relieved. On the other, I'm profoundly saddened.

This is simply a communicative that began galore chapters ago. It culminated with immoderate superior aforesaid and infrastructure examination, a mates of hard conversations, and a fewer pugnacious decisions.

This is simply a communicative of online information hoarding successful the guise of champion practices, wherever excessively overmuch became way excessively much, and the seemingly elemental task of maintaining backups became an on-call exigency effect 2nd job.

I changed each that this week.

TL;DR

There's a batch to this story, but if you privation a speedy summary, it's this: I moved from Google Workspace Enterprise to Backblaze B2. I dropped Time Machine and added Backblaze Personal for idiosyncratic machines. My web of RAID servers assistance backmost each different up, and by the clip I was done, I saved good implicit a 1000 dollars.

Also: The champion unreality retention services of 2025: Expert tested

But I had to springiness up a batch to bash it. What follows is the indispensable backstory, a statement of the before-and-after web architecture, outgo breakdowns, and an in-depth dive into however and wherefore I made the decisions that led maine to this caller approach.

Let's excavation in.

The earlier clip

Since what seems similar forever, but astir apt dates backmost to the aboriginal 2000s, I've been a large proponent and practitioner of the tech industry's best-practice 3-2-1 backup strategy. The thought is to person 3 copies of each file, 2 of which are connected antithetic carnal devices, and 1 of which is located off-site.

Back earlier my parents passed away, the off-site was easy. I'd conscionable shuttle a mates of hard drives backmost and distant to their spot whenever we went to visit. In turn, they'd enactment maine to enactment removing the heavy hard-pack of machine viruses my Dad had picked up betwixt visits. It wasn't wholly his fault. He was a jeweler, and backmost past jewelry sites were infested with malware.

Also: Why immoderate companies are backing distant from the nationalist cloud

In immoderate case, my retention needs were considerable, but not overly huge. Back erstwhile astir radical had dial-up, my self-hosted web servers lived successful a converted linen closet. Those aged servers utilized dedicated bandwidth provided by the lone high-speed T-1 net transportation (which ran done my bathroom) betwixt Rutgers and Princeton. At that time, my retention needs added up to little than a terabyte.

Yes, that was a batch for the aboriginal days. But it wasn't 60 terabytes.

Over time, my enactment moved maine into 3 information measurement aggravated areas: networked virtual machines, 3D modeling, and video. My section retention needs ballooned and person been increasing ever larger for the past decade.

Beyond the terabytes of networked VMs utilized for what we would present telephone AI cause development, I person each the video elements progressive successful producing reasonably high-quality YouTube. A azygous YouTube video tin travel adjacent to a terabyte during production. My multi-camera surveillance strategy astir the location besides eats up storage.

Right now, I'm operating 4 section at-home record servers, with a full retention of 139.04 terabytes.

Also: The champion NAS devices of 2025: Expert tested

That's a batch much than the 60 I person successful the cloud, but there's a batch of the "2" portion of the 3-2-1 backups connected those servers.

A small implicit 10 years ago, storing successful the unreality became not lone applicable but besides cheap. You could bargain all-you-can-store plans from a assortment of online backup providers. And that's what I did. But by 2017, the never-ending feast of online retention came to an end.

As vendor aft vendor unopen down their unlimited offerings, I recovered myself spending weeks moving my information to the adjacent subordinate inactive offering unlimited storage. I was trapped successful a unusual crippled of information warehouse Whac-A-Mole.

Until I deed a wall. There came a clip erstwhile those deals were nary longer available, but for 1 offering from Google.

In 2018, Google's G Suite (the earlier sanction for Google Workspace) offered an unlimited retention plan. If you bought 5 oregon much seats connected a $12/mo concern plan, $60 a period would get you unlimited storage.

So, that's what I did.

Then, successful 2020, Google rebranded G Suite to Workspace and tightened its retention offerings. You could "request" unlimited storage, but having your petition granted was different matter.

For the adjacent 5 years, my narration with Google retention was rocky, progressively demanding, and progressively much expensive. You tin work immoderate of my pieces connected this ongoing situation here:

By 2022, my two-person institution was subscribed to a Google Workspace Enterprise plan, which did supply entree to the retention I needed. It conscionable took a batch of requesting to get Google to fto maine person that storage.

That turned into thing of an extended yearly dialog with Google's retention capableness gatekeepers. Every twelvemonth oregon so, I'd get a announcement from Google that I was approaching my capacity. Every twelvemonth oregon so, I'd prosecute successful weeks of back-and-forth enactment tickets "requesting" much capacity, citing reams of erstwhile enactment transcripts. Every twelvemonth oregon so, Google reluctantly agreed to a tiny capableness increase, on with an summation successful however overmuch I had to wage each month.

A fewer weeks ago, I got different specified informing notice. Instead of diving erstwhile much into diplomatic negotiations with the information overlords, I decided to rethink my life. Or, astatine least, the retention facet thereof.

Pre-migration retention architecture

My email and retention costs person been linked ever since I started utilizing Google Workspace. My main email relationship is simply a user Gmail account, configured to nonstop and person utilizing my firm domains. The firm email domain relays are hosted successful Workspace.

The pursuing graphic shows my pre-migration retention architecture. Our superior retention devices are the assorted computers my woman and I use, our record server (which holds each our superior documents arsenic good arsenic each my video backups), and a information server (which holds humanities video from our information cameras).

The Macs were backed up to a section backup server utilizing Time Machine. For the record, I dislike Time Machine. It's ever a gamble whether you tin reconstruct thing from a Time Machine backup, and they neglect regularly. Time Machine is an incremental backup. That means changes are added to the backup archive, and you (theoretically) tin rotation backmost to a erstwhile time oregon week.

The Macs besides sync to our on-premises backup server (a antithetic container from the record server) utilizing ChronoSync, a precise reliable Mac syncing instrumentality with beauteous fantabulous tech support. These backups are syncs, truthful thing that changes connected the root instrumentality (including deletions) is reflected connected the server.

Our large record server had 4 backup mechanisms. It backed up incrementally to Google Workspace. It besides synced to Google Workspace, truthful Google Workspace had 2 implicit backup architectures utilizing storage.

Also: Is OneDrive moving each your files? How to instrumentality backmost power of your Windows retention - 3 ways

The record server besides syncs to the backup server. Once a week, our offline backup server powers on, and the record server syncs to it. This provides an air-gapped backup conscionable successful lawsuit the worse were to happen. That offline record server is besides beauteous overmuch fire and flood proof, truthful it should beryllium capable to grip astir anything.

Keep successful caput that each our servers instrumentality RAID, truthful if immoderate azygous thrust fails, information won't beryllium lost. I besides support spare drives successful stock, truthful if determination is simply a failure, I tin regenerate the thrust instantly and commencement rebuilding the RAID.

Here's however our 3-2-1 strategy looked earlier the caller architecture I've conscionable implemented.

Pre-migration costs

As with everything other successful this world, the outgo of unreality retention has been expanding regularly. In summation to the Google Workspace retention outgo of $162.50 per month, we wage an further 2 bucks each to widen the retention for our idiosyncratic Gmail accounts. We besides wage astir $30 each period to widen our iCloud retention to 6TB.

Tough decisions

As the illustration beneath shows, our mission-critical papers retention takes up lone a sliver of the wide record retention connected our large record server.

The videos successful video accumulation are each videos that person been uploaded to YouTube. Yes, the earthy footage is stored connected the server. I bash propulsion from that footage from time-to-time. If I mislaid that earthy footage, it would beryllium a bummer, but not catastrophic.

The aforesaid is existent of media. That portion contains each of our imported DVD collection, on with euphony files, and different media, including my archive of the accumulation graphics enactment for each of my ZDNET articles. It's an important folder, but arsenic was the lawsuit with video production, astir of it is archival.

Since my woman and I subscribe to a ton of streaming video services, we astir ne'er pat into that media room for video content. We haven't for years.

Also: Your Windows PC has a secretly utile backup instrumentality - here's however to entree it

As for the VMs, I support a fewer unrecorded VMs connected my super-charged M4 Mac Studio. The VMs stored connected the server are from older projects and were utilized successful monolithic simulations, projects I'm not doing close now. All of those VMs besides usage precise deprecated versions of operating systems from times past. If thing were to hap to them, it would beryllium unfortunate, but it would not interaction day-to-day productivity astatine all.

All of those files are stored connected 1 RAID server and backed up to a 2nd section RAID server. It's highly improbable that we'd person catastrophic nonaccomplishment crossed drives connected some servers astatine the aforesaid time.

So the existent contented is what would hap if determination were immoderate benignant of disaster. If thing happened to the location and some servers were lost, past we'd suffer those files. But if we had specified a catastrophe, aged VMs and video accumulation archives would beryllium the slightest of my worries.

Tough determination #1: Stop backing up older media

So my archetypal pugnacious determination was to halt backing up the 3 large slices to the cloud. Remember that not lone was I backing each that up incrementally, but I was besides syncing it all. Cloud information retention usage ballooned utilizing that approach.

Tough determination #2: Give up each that Google Workspace retention

My 2nd pugnacious determination was to determination disconnected of Google Workspace for unreality storage. Giving up each that sweet, saccharine retention brought maine immoderate sadness, but the changeless debates with Google enactment had maxed retired my tolerance meter.

Tough determination #3: Stop utilizing Time Machine

My 3rd pugnacious determination was to halt utilizing Time Machine. That's Apple's canonical proposal for backup. It sucks. Since I'm already syncing my section Macs some to iCloud and to our backup server with ChronoSync, I felt I could unopen down Time Machine. I past decided to determination to Backblaze Personal for my wife's main Mac and mine.

Backblaze Personal charges 10 bucks a period oregon a 100 dollars a twelvemonth for unlimited backups from 1 machine. You tin person locally-mounted USB drives and it volition backmost those up arsenic well, but it won't backup web drives.

Tough determination #4: Use Backblaze B2 for server unreality retention

My 4th pugnacious determination was to spell with Backblaze B2 to backmost up conscionable my record server documents. Backblaze B2 charges six dollars per terabyte per month, truthful I surely wouldn't get the aforesaid retention woody arsenic I was getting from Google Workspace. But if I kept my B2 needs to nether 4TB (which is the lawsuit for the documents connected the record server), I'd person a beauteous coagulated budget-friendly solution.

So far, arsenic a caller customer, Backblaze deserves points. I ran into a self-inflicted snag during my migration and the Backblaze enactment folks stepped successful and got maine retired of trouble. Nice.

Tough determination #5: No much incremental backups to the unreality

My 5th pugnacious determination was to forego incremental backups for the record server connected the cloud. This would support my Backblaze B2 costs down considerably. One neat diagnostic of Backblaze B2 is that it retains files for a fig of days. So I acceptable record retention to 10 days. That means if I bash delete a record I need, and the deletion syncs to the cloud, I person 10 days to retrieve it.

Post-migration fund and architecture

So, here's wherever we present stand. This is the moving architecture for the caller normal. As you tin see, a batch remains the same. But the record server backups to the unreality are substantially reduced, and Time Machine is nary longer successful the picture.

Here's however the caller 3-2-1 backup strategy works retired with this caller approach.

I'm inactive keeping Google Workspace for firm email relay, but that's a reasonably inexpensive $14/month for our 2 accounts.

And here's however it each nets retired dollar-wise.

As you tin see, I went from $196/month ($2,357 per year) down to $90/month ($1080 per year). That $1,200 yearly savings is beauteous sweet. But it was a beauteous challenging roadworthy getting here. Hopefully, successful a year, I won't person different retention combat to chronicle. I'm hoping this caller attack provides a fewer years of creaseless sailing.

Have you had to marque hard choices astir your unreality retention strategy? What services are you utilizing to negociate ample amounts of data? Have you recovered a setup that balances cost, access, and redundancy? Have you considered ditching Time Machine oregon moving distant from Google Workspace? How bash you grip backups for media, VMs, oregon information footage? Let america cognize successful the comments below.

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