Hey everyone! We're currently searching for affordable and latency-independent file storage solutions that we can use either centrally at our headquarters or in the cloud. Our main use case includes office files, such as Word documents, Excel sheets, PDFs, and images. Currently, we're using traditional on-site file servers, which have their pros (like user familiarity and easy setup) and cons (like infrastructure requirements, licensing fees, and maintenance). We've also migrated part of our storage to SharePoint Online, but with TBs of data, the costs are adding up (about $0.17/GB/month). Ideally, we'd like to enhance our SharePoint setup with additional cheaper storage options or find a centralized file server solution that can handle latency over 50ms. We've already tried Azure Files but found it too pricey, including the new SMB over QUIC, which didn't solve our latency issues. Any suggestions for storage options that are cheaper (under $0.05/GB/month) and capable of being run in our datacenters on traditional storage systems? It would be great if these solutions could also be accessed globally, though that's not a strict requirement. Looking forward to your thoughts!
1 Answer
It sounds like you're dealing with quite a challenge. Have you considered Nextcloud? It's a web file-serving solution that can be self-hosted and provides a lot of flexibility along with decent performance. I understand you're happy with SharePoint, but if you're leaning towards self-hosting, this could save you a lot of cash in the long run. Just keep in mind that setting up your own solution requires some management that might incur additional costs down the road—you have to weigh that against the fees with cloud services.
I hear you on the self-hosting management bit. But honestly, our experience with OneDrive has been positive too. It's improved a lot, especially in terms of syncing. There can be some hiccups, but it's generally reliable. Just make sure to manage what users are storing; a lot of unnecessary data isn't helping anyone!