Tackling Data Bloat before (or after) Cloud Migration

Before migrating to the cloud—or even if you’ve already made the move—it’s essential to tidy up your data. That means keeping only the documents you actually need. We’ve all seen those old photos from the 2012 school Olympics still hanging around in storage… thinking we’ll use them someday. Spoiler: we won’t.

While cluttered files may seem harmless when they’re just sitting on your server, once they’re in the cloud, they’re costing you money.

We can install a small utility (costs around £50) that scans your files and identifies documents based on age or usage—like those over a certain number of years old or those that haven’t been accessed in a long time. Once identified, these files can be archived onto an external hard drive and stored securely—just in case you ever need them again.

For example: a school we migrated to the cloud had over 100GB of unused documents in their shared teacher folders. We flagged files that were over 5 years old and hadn’t been modified or opened in that time. These were safely moved to an external drive, keeping the migration to the cloud clean and cost-efficient. Saving the school over £200 a year.

There was no data loss—just smarter data management. You can choose a time frame that suits your needs (3 years, for instance), and even set a reminder to run the same check annually on your cloud storage. If something hasn’t been used since the last review, archive it locally and keep your cloud lean and affordable.

If you would like to learn more, or to find out how to reduce your data please email admin@intermit.co.uk

Article written by Steve Roberts – Technical Director