As cloud computing and storage services have become the standard for data management and processing, organizations increasingly focus on controlling and minimizing associated costs, particularly cloud computing and egress costs.
Cloud egress refers to the costs associated with moving data (in and) out of a cloud environment, which are often charged by data volume and destination. Cloud clients often overlook these fees, which can quickly escalate, especially for companies handling large datasets or frequently accessing cloud data across multiple environments - think eDiscovery and FOIA response.
On-premises data virtualization is an emerging solution for managing and reducing cloud egress costs. Data virtualization technology enables organizations to access, query, and analyze cloud data without physically retrieving it, mitigating the need for repeated egress operations. This blog will explore the benefits of utilizing on-premises data virtualization as a cost-effective approach to reducing cloud egress costs, enhancing data accessibility, and supporting data-driven decision-making.
Understanding Cloud Egress Costs and Their Impact
Cloud providers often promote the benefits of scalable, accessible storage and computing power. While these features are valuable, the pricing model for data movement can be costly for organizations that frequently need to move data in and out of the cloud. For instance:
Data to the Internet: Most cloud providers charge for data transferred over the Internet, often based on the volume of data downloaded. Some cloud providers will also throttle or limit the amount of data that can be transferred daily.
Cross-Region Transfers: Additional fees can apply when data is transferred between different cloud geographic regions.
Inter-Cloud or Hybrid Transfers: Moving data between cloud providers or between cloud and on-premises environments incurs extra costs, which can quickly add up if data retrieval is frequent, especially for active data - which is data that is regularly accessed/retrieved, processed, and updated as part of day-to-day business activities.
Cloud providers set egress pricing in tiers, with costs rising for the amount of data transferred and the speed of exfiltration. These egress fees can create a substantial financial burden for organizations that store large amounts of data in the cloud but rely on on-premises tools for analysis, reporting, or operational tasks.
Comparing Cloud Data Transfer Costs to On-Premises Resources
Cloud data transfer costs contrast with on-premises environments, where data movement is often less expensive in the long term. Cost differences in specific areas include:
Data Transfer Within the Network
On-Premises: When data is moved within an on-premises network—whether across servers or between data centers within the same location—no additional data transfer fees apply - aside from potential hardware or networking equipment and personnel investments. External data transfers may incur costs based on ISP agreements or leased lines, but internal transfers are usually at no additional cost.
Cloud: Cloud providers charge for egress and (and occasionally ingress) since they manage the underlying infrastructure. Egress fees can be substantial for frequent or large data transfers, making it essential for companies to monitor data usage closely to avoid cost overruns.
Bandwidth Costs
On-Premises: Bandwidth costs in an on-premises environment are relatively fixed and involve only the cost of the internal network infrastructure, such as routers and switches, and any required maintenance or upgrades. External connections may incur ISP fees, but bandwidth use is typically unlimited within the network.
Cloud: Data transfer costs are based on bandwidth usage in cloud environments. Pricing can vary based on destination, data volume, and service type. Some cloud providers offer reduced rates for data transfers within the same region, but transfers across regions or to external networks are typically priced at higher rates.
Scalability of Costs
On-Premises: Scaling an on-premises infrastructure requires additional hardware investment, such as increasing storage capacity or expanding network bandwidth. These upgrades are one-time or scheduled costs, providing greater predictability in budgeting but limited flexibility.
Cloud: The cloud’s highly scalable nature means data transfer costs can fluctuate based on data volume and frequency. While this flexibility benefits companies with changing demands, it can result in unexpected expenses if egress volumes increase significantly.
Security and Compliance Costs
Data security and regulatory compliance are essential for any data transfer, whether on-premises or cloud-based.
On-Premises: With on-premises resources, organizations have complete control over network security, compliance standards, and data movement processes. However, ensuring security across large networks or multiple sites can require significant monitoring, encryption, and infrastructure management investments.
Cloud: In the cloud, providers are responsible for the security of the infrastructure, but clients must ensure data security, particularly for sensitive or regulated data. Some cloud providers offer private data transfer options (e.g., AWS Direct Connect, Azure ExpressRoute), which are more secure than public internet transfers but involve additional costs.
Introducing On-Premises Data Virtualization as a Solution
Data virtualization is a technology that enables unified data access across disparate storage environments without physically moving or copying data. It creates a “virtualized” view of data that users can query and analyze directly, regardless of where it resides. When applied to cloud data, on-premises data virtualization allows organizations to interact with cloud-stored data from their on-premises systems without triggering cloud egress.
Key Benefits of Data Virtualization for Reducing Cloud Egress Costs
Minimized Data Movement
With data virtualization, data remains in its original cloud storage location while the on-premises system queries it virtually. This approach eliminates downloading large datasets, significantly reducing egress fees.
Organizations can achieve substantial cost savings by avoiding frequent data retrieval from the cloud, especially when dealing with high-frequency access or large volumes of data.
Real-Time Data Access
Data virtualization provides real-time access to data stored in cloud environments without requiring physical data movement. This capability enables immediate, virtualized access to current data without incurring retrieval delays or egress fees. Additionally, teams can gain insights from cloud-stored data in real time, allowing them to make data-driven decisions without facing substantial delays or costs associated with data retrieval.
Enhanced Data Integration
Many organizations store data across various environments, from on-premises to multi-cloud platforms. Data virtualization allows seamless access to data across these silos without moving it. This approach enables organizations to view and analyze comprehensive datasets without needing costly data movement.
Data virtualization supports unified data governance for compliance with open records and data privacy regulations. Another benefit includes data visibility across all data sources, including cloud archives, hybrid environments, and on-premises data warehouses.
Cost-Effective Data Analysis and Reporting
With data virtualization, organizations can generate reports, perform analytics, and run queries on cloud-stored data from their on-premises systems without physically transferring it. This capability eliminates the need to download data for analysis, helping organizations avoid cloud egress fees.
By keeping data in the cloud but accessible through on-premises tools, teams can analyze data at scale without high retrieval costs, making it a practical approach for data-driven projects that require frequent analysis.
Improved Data Security and Compliance
Data virtualization minimizes the physical movement of data, reducing exposure to potential security vulnerabilities during data transfers. By reducing the number of transfers, data virtualization provides an extra layer of security for sensitive data.
For organizations with regulatory requirements or strict compliance standards, data virtualization ensures data remains in its original, controlled environment, helping meet data residency and privacy requirements.
Key Use Cases for On-Premises Data Virtualization to Reduce Cloud Egress Costs
Regulatory Compliance and eDiscovery
On-premises data virtualization enables compliance and legal teams to query and retrieve relevant cloud-stored data directly, allowing them to access records as needed without downloading the entire dataset. This approach minimizes egress costs while ensuring rapid access to the data required for compliance audits or legal investigations.
Other use cases include:
Business Intelligence and Data Analytics
Data virtualization allows analysts to access and analyze archived cloud data without moving it to an on-premises environment. This enables them to run historical comparisons and trend analyses without triggering costly egress charges.
Customer Experience and Support
Data virtualization allows support teams to access cloud-based customer records on demand without triggering data transfers. This will enable them to quickly retrieve relevant data, providing a better customer experience while minimizing egress expenses.
AI and Machine Learning Model Training
Data virtualization allows data scientists to access the cloud-stored data virtually, making it available for model training without physical data movement. This reduces egress costs and improves access to essential training data, helping to accelerate AI/ML initiatives.
Backup, Disaster Recovery, and Business Continuity
Solution with Data Virtualization: Data virtualization provides real-time access to cloud data without transferring it, enabling quick disaster recovery and continuity operations. This approach ensures critical data is accessible immediately, helping to minimize downtime and associated costs without the need for high egress expenses.
Implementing On-Premises Data Virtualization to Maximize Cost Savings
To implement on-premises data virtualization effectively and maximize cloud egress cost savings, organizations can follow the following procedure:
Evaluate Data Access Patterns:
Understanding how and how often cloud data is accessed is essential. Organizations should analyze which datasets are frequently accessed and whether these access patterns can be handled virtually instead of physically moving data. In many cases, inactive data—data that has not been accessed for more than one year—is the obvious target of on-prem-to-cloud data virtualization.
Choose the Right Data Virtualization Platform:
Several data virtualization tools and platforms are available, each with unique features tailored to different needs. Selecting a platform that integrates smoothly with both on-premises and cloud environments is crucial for seamless data access. Capabilities to look for include HSM, data encryption, and immutability for sensitive data for ransomware protection.
Implement Data Governance Policies:
Data virtualization provides a single access layer for multiple data sources, making it essential to enforce data governance policies. Access controls and compliance protocols should be established to maintain security and data privacy across all data sources. Also, look for the ability of virtualized files to be manageable by information management platforms.
Optimize Data Queries:
Virtualized data access enables efficient query optimization, allowing users to retrieve only the needed data. Optimizing queries to minimize unnecessary data retrieval can further help reduce potential egress costs.
A Low-Cost Data Management Strategy with Data Virtualization
On-premises to cloud data virtualization offers a powerful approach for organizations looking to reduce cloud egress costs while maintaining efficient, real-time access to cloud-stored data. By minimizing the need for physical data transfers, data virtualization enables seamless, cost-effective access to data across multiple cloud and on-premises environments, enhancing operational efficiency and empowering data-driven decision-making.
For companies relying heavily on both cloud storage and on-premises systems, investing in data virtualization technology can drive significant cost savings, streamline analytics workflows, and support robust compliance and security initiatives. In an era where cloud storage and data mobility are essential, data virtualization provides an invaluable tool for maximizing data accessibility while keeping egress costs in check.
restorVault Data Virtualization
restorVault has been a leader in enterprise data virtualization solutions for many years and has been awarded three US patents that take data virtualization to new levels. restorVault’s data virtualization solutions provide organizations with several benefits, including:
Enhanced data utilization and simplified data management capabilities
Improved data availability and resilience
Simplified scalability and flexibility
Hybrid virtualization capability across both on-prem and cloud platforms
Cost efficiency and investment protection (ROI)
Data protection against disasters and ransomware attacks (with data encryption and immutable storage)
And the ability to duplicate, move, and share large, unstructured data sets without the need for time-consuming and risky large-scale data migrations
restorVault’s data virtualization solution replaces files (based on policies) in an on-prem or cloud repository, such as an on-prem file share, with a pointer or virtual data file that points to the original file in the encrypted and immutable restorVault cloud. Whenever a user clicks on a virtual data file in their local Windows file explorer, a copy of the actual file is instantly retrieved from the restorVault cloud platform for viewing and ongoing work.
RestorVault data virtualization frees up large amounts of costly on-prem tier 1 enterprise storage for priority use by active data.
This data virtualization into the immutable restorVault trusted cloud repository also eliminates the wasteful need for numerous backups of inactive data. With your inactive files stored and managed in a secure, trusted, and inexpensive cloud repository, your enterprise backups can be approximately 80% or more smaller.
For every TB of restorVault virtual cloud storage, you could recoup 80% from expensive primary, backup, and other cloud platform storage.
The biggest question many IT professionals have is, how much inactive data do we have sitting on expensive tier-1 storage?
restorVault offers a free Data Discovery Assessment to help you determine the amount of inactive data within your system and categorize it based on file type, size, age, and activity level. Our analysis will reveal the potential capacity reclaimed from production, backup, cloud servers, and enterprise storage.
Contact us today to learn how restorVault can help your company save money by virtualizing and managing inactive data while increasing data security, regulatory compliance, and storage capacity!
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