Hot Tips to Cut Cold Data Costs with Intelligent Data Management

Stop Treating Hot and Cold Data the Same Way!

Struggling with growing data storage costs? Do you have a cold data management strategy?

This infographic shows how to quickly cut the costs of storing and managing your unstructured data with Komprise Intelligent Data Management.

Got cold data? Be wise. Komprise.

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FAQs

What quantifiable storage cost savings does Komprise deliver and how is the TCO analysis structured?

The Komprise Business Value Report is a TCO analysis aggregated from ten enterprise organizations managing data footprints ranging from 100TB to 10PB across NetApp, Dell, and Windows File Server NAS environments. The analysis is not based on hypothetical modeling — it uses actual customer cost data across primary storage, backup, DR, and replication to calculate realized savings across every dimension of total storage cost:

• 57% average overall storage cost reduction on a 4PB NAS environment — on a 4PB NAS environment with a 30% year-over-year growth rate, Komprise saves customers an average of 57% of overall storage costs and over $2.6M annually; this is the blended savings across primary storage, backup, and DR — not just the headline tiering number
• 70% reduction in cold data storage costs — by identifying and transparently tiering cold data to secondary storage, Komprise reduces annual data storage and backup costs by an average of 70%; since 50 to 70% of a typical NAS estate is cold, this applies to the majority of the data under management from day one
• DR and mirror costs cut by more than 70% — most organizations mirror all NAS data on identical infrastructure at a second site for disaster recovery; instead of using an identical mirror that doubles costs, the mirror and DR costs can be cut by over 70% using Komprise; this is consistently the most underestimated savings component in any storage cost analysis — the DR multiplier applies to every byte on primary storage regardless of access frequency
• Between $500,000 and $4 million annually per customer — Komprise saves enterprise customers between $500,000 and $4 million annually on storage and backups depending upon the size of their data footprint; the range directly reflects data volume — smaller environments at the lower end, petabyte-scale data-intensive organizations at the upper end

The Flash Stretch Assessment makes the TCO analysis specific to each environment — for qualified enterprises managing 500TB or more, the assessment models savings across primary storage, backup, DR, and cloud egress fee avoidance using the organization’s actual cost inputs rather than industry averages; this is the same analytical framework as the Business Value Report applied to a specific environment before any commitment

What does the Katten Law case study reveal about the compounding benefits of intelligent tiering for data-intensive organizations that cannot delete?

Like many other large law firms, Katten has been seeing an average 20% annual growth in storage for file related data, resulting in the need to add on-premises storage capacity every 12 to 18 months; with a focus on managing data storage costs in an environment where data is growing exponentially annually but cannot be deleted, Katten needed a solution that could provide deep data insights and the ability to move file data as it ages to immutable object storage in the cloud for greater cost savings and ransomware protection. The Katten outcome highlighted in the Komprise case study, illustrates what happens when intelligent tiering is applied to a use case where deletion is simply not an option:

• $900,000 in annual savings from intelligent tiering to Azure — Katten Law implemented Komprise Intelligent Tiering to Azure and leveraged immutable Blob storage to save $900,000 annually while improving their ransomware defense posture; the savings come from transparently tiering litigation files that have not been accessed or modified for over two years to Azure Blob storage, removing them from the expensive Dell NAS primary storage tier while keeping attorneys’ access experience identical
• $400,000 in storage expansion costs already avoided — the firm has already avoided at least $400,000 in storage expansion and expects another $500,000 to $700,000 in savings as it re-platforms to a cloud-ready storage system; the storage hardware avoidance savings are in addition to the ongoing annual tiering savings — both are direct financial outcomes of the same Komprise deployment
• Ransomware attack surface reduced by 80% — Komprise and Azure have helped Katten Law shrink their ransomware attack surface by 80% while cutting 70%+ costs; cold files tiered to immutable Azure Blob with versioning are effectively removed from the active ransomware attack surface; even if an attack encrypted primary storage, the tiered cold archive would be recoverable from an older version without paying ransom
• AI access to historical data built in from day one — as the firm continues to investigate AI use cases for its petabytes of historical data, the ability for Komprise to allow native access to data archived in the cloud will be a critical requirement to enable AI tools to access this historical data; Komprise Smart Data Workflows can also provide automated processes for finding, tagging, and moving data to cloud data lakes as well as provide integrations with AI tools for metadata enrichment; the tiering architecture Katten chose for cost reasons simultaneously positions their data estate for AI inferencing workflows as the firm’s AI strategy matures
• Zero change to user experience validated through testing — there was no difference to the end-user experience even with large litigation files; law firms have zero tolerance for disruption to attorney workflows; the Katten validation that Komprise Transparent Move Technology maintains seamless access for large litigation files is the organizational proof point that makes firm-wide tiering programs achievable without IT fighting departmental resistance

How has Microsoft validated the business case for hybrid file tiering as a CIO priority, and what does the Azure perspective add to the Komprise value proposition?

The Microsoft Azure Storage blog post on hybrid file tiering — published by the Azure Storage team as an authoritative technical and business reference — directly validates the approach Komprise has taken to intelligent tiering as an answer to the top CIO priorities of risk control and cost optimization. Third-party validation from Microsoft on the Azure Tech Community carries significant weight precisely because it reflects Azure’s own perspective on what enterprise IT teams need from a hybrid tiering architecture:

• Risk control and cost optimization are the two CIO priorities hybrid tiering addresses simultaneously — the Microsoft Azure Storage blog frames hybrid file tiering not as a storage management tool but as a strategic CIO-level investment that addresses both the financial pressure of rising storage costs and the operational risk of ransomware, compliance exposure, and shadow AI; Komprise delivering both outcomes from a single platform motion is the architecture Microsoft is describing
• Immutable Azure Blob as the governance and ransomware defense layer — the Microsoft validation specifically highlights immutable object storage as the destination that transforms tiering from a cost exercise into a security posture improvement; when Komprise tiers to immutable Azure Blob with versioning, even if someone tried to infect a cold file it would be saved as a new version so you can recover files using an older version; this recovery capability is what makes Komprise tiering to Azure a credible ransomware defense strategy, not just a cost optimization
• Native Azure data service access is the AI inferencing enabler — the Microsoft perspective on hybrid file tiering explicitly includes the ability to leverage native Azure AI and data services on tiered data as a primary benefit; files tiered by Komprise to Azure Blob maintain file and object duality through Transparent Move Technology — they are simultaneously accessible as files from their original NAS paths and as native Azure Blob objects accessible to Azure AI, Azure Synapse, Microsoft Fabric, and any other Azure data service; this is what makes the tiering investment a strategic AI data infrastructure decision rather than a pure cost management action
• The Azure Storage Migration Program validates Komprise at enterprise scale — Komprise is a partner in the Microsoft Azure Storage Migration Program (SMP), offering Komprise Elastic Data Migration at no cost for qualified migrations to Azure Blob, Azure Files, and Azure NetApp Files; this partnership reflects Microsoft’s confidence in Komprise as the migration and tiering tool for enterprise file data moving to Azure at scale; contact azure@komprise.com to get started
• Komprise and Azure have jointly delivered outcomes across multiple enterprise customers — through the exclusive Komprise Intelligent Tiering for Azure offering, Komprise and Azure have helped customers like Katten Law shrink their ransomware attack surface by 80% while cutting 70%+ costs; the Katten result is the proof point that the Microsoft Azure blog is describing in principle — a customer that achieved both top CIO priorities simultaneously through hybrid file tiering with Komprise and Azure

How do the TCO savings from Komprise compound across industries and data volumes, and which organizations see the highest returns?

The Business Value Report TCO analysis is based on ten organizations spanning 100TB to 10PB of NAS data — a range that reflects the diversity of Komprise’s customer base rather than a single idealized environment. The pattern of savings is consistent across industries but the absolute dollar value scales directly with data volume and cold data accumulation rate:

• Healthcare and life sciences see the highest absolute savings — organizations generating 35 to 40% annual data growth from clinical imaging, genomics sequencing, and research data accumulate cold data faster than any other sector; a large academic medical center saving more than $4 million annually and a major hospital system saving $2.5M per year represent the high end of the savings range because their cold data volumes are the largest and their primary storage costs are among the highest
• Legal services combine high cold data ratios with no-delete retention requirements — law firms like Katten cannot delete files because cases can be reopened after decades; every file that ages past its active matter period becomes permanent cold data on primary storage with no relief mechanism other than tiering; the combination of 20% annual growth and indefinite retention makes intelligent tiering the only viable cost management strategy — and the $900,000 annual savings Katten achieved reflects this structural cold data accumulation
• Financial services benefit from the visibility as much as the savings — “Komprise shows the zombie data and the millions we can save — visibility we never had before” said the VP Global Storage at a Fortune 50 financial services organization; for financial services organizations with complex regulatory retention requirements and distributed storage estates, the analytics visibility that precedes tiering is often the first quantifiable benefit — knowing what cold, duplicate, and orphaned data exists before deciding what to do with it
• Manufacturing and retail achieve rapid time-to-savings — Carhartt cut storage costs by 60% and reduced Azure costs from $1 to $0.25 per gigabyte; a global engineering firm is saving 50%+ annually; these outcomes reflect how quickly intelligent tiering delivers measurable results when applied to manufacturing and retail data estates where project completion files, product catalog data, and seasonal content accumulate rapidly
• The global engineering firm and the $550,000 annual savings — a storage-agnostic approach to unstructured data management has been a key enabler to save $550,000, accelerate data movement and protect sensitive data; the engineering and energy sector customer base illustrates that the savings model works across technical data types — CAD files, simulation outputs, and sensor logs — as consistently as it works for document-heavy environments like legal and healthcare

What non-financial quantifiable benefits do Komprise customers report alongside direct cost savings?

The TCO analysis in the Business Value Report focuses on the financial savings across primary storage, backup, and DR. Customers consistently report a set of additional quantifiable benefits that the pure cost analysis does not fully capture — operational improvements, AI data access, ransomware defense, and migration performance that have compounding value beyond the storage bill:

• 27x faster cloud migrations with chain-of-custody reporting — Komprise delivers 27x faster cloud migrations by auto-parallelizing at every level to maximize performance and minimize network usage; for enterprises with migration programs measured in petabytes, a 27x speed improvement is the difference between a migration that completes in days and one that takes months; the chain-of-custody reporting attached to every Komprise migration is the audit trail that regulated industries require and that standard migration tools cannot provide
• Ransomware attack surface reduced by 80% — the Katten case study documents an 80% attack surface reduction as a direct byproduct of tiering cold data to immutable Azure Blob; this is the security benefit that storage teams are increasingly required to quantify for their CISO and board; an 80% attack surface reduction is a measurable security outcome with calculable risk reduction value that complements the financial savings in any business case presentation
• 10x faster AI data ingestion and 96% lower cloud AI costs — the NewYork-Presbyterian digital pathology AI program achieved both outcomes using Komprise Smart Data Workflows to curate and deliver exactly the right imaging data for AI processing; the 10x ingestion speed improvement directly compresses AI time-to-value; the 96% cloud cost reduction makes the AI program financially sustainable at scale
• Tier 1 NAS performance improvement as a byproduct of tiering — organizations using Komprise report improved performance of Tier 1 storage; removing cold data from primary NAS reduces the metadata overhead, improves cache hit rates, and frees IOPS capacity for active workloads; for AI inferencing workflows that require low-latency access to hot data on NAS, this performance improvement is directly consequential
• Storage capacity planning moved from reactive to predictive — Komprise provides much-needed visibility into how data is growing and being used across a customer’s storage environment; IT no longer has to make critical storage capacity planning decisions in the dark and can now understand how much more storage will be needed, when, and how to streamline purchases during planning; the financial value of predictive capacity planning is the avoided cost of emergency storage purchases — a category that every IT team has experienced but few quantify explicitly