Introduction
SharePoint Online storage costs can increase gradually over a period of time without getting noticed. Accumulation of content may increase over a few years increasing storage costs incrementally year on year and going way beyond initially estimated costs. While Microsoft provides a default storage (typically 1 TB + 10 GB per licensed user), exceeding that limit can cost several tens of thousands of dollars annually if you have a large number of users or you have large content being gradually added by users. Within companies, SharePoint also serves as a safe cloud storage and many users inadvertently use this for less important or unwanted data that could be less expensive to handle with low-cost cloud storage options.
For many organizations, there is another dimension to storage costs that lies hidden without users knowing about it. Unmanaged content sprawl such as duplicate files, excessive version history, inactive sites, and redundant data all contribute to hidden costs that are difficult to track down because of individual users’ actions that go unnoticed.
This is where a third-party SharePoint online data export and archiving solution like Vyapin SharePoint Content Export tool (SPListX) becomes very useful. The software provides discovery, visibility, automation, and precision cleanup capabilities that native tools lack.
Why SharePoint Storage Costs Get Out of Control
Here are the main reasons why SharePoint storage costs escalate silently:
1. Version History Explosion
In SharePoint online each modification of a file creates a new version of a file, something that many are not aware of. This is the default behaviour in SharePoint Online, versioning is enabled by default for all document libraries. Whenever you edit a file, a new major version is automatically created. Over time, a single document can consume several times more than its original storage based on the number of versions that accumulate over a period of time.
2. Inactive and Orphaned Sites (Stale Content)
Stale content accumulates when Projects come to an end or employees leave or when business units get merged or closed, but all the content generated by them continue to remain in SharePoint. These unused sites remain in storage indefinitely.
3. Large Files
Users and departments sometimes use SharePoint for just plain storage because it provides for safe storage. Media files, Engineering application documents, temporary backups often sit in SharePoint where they don’t belong.
4. Redundant unwanted content
These are contents that get “lost” in the large sprawl and often go unnoticed. A significant portion of SharePoint content belong to such untouched sprawl and can be considered for removal to reduce storage.
All such contents above contribute in their own ways to storage, especially over a period of time, but they are rarely monitored or periodically cleaned up.
Why Native SharePoint Tools Fall Short
Microsoft offers basic controls like retention policies and the Microsoft 365 Archive.
While useful, they have limitations:
- Limited granularity for version cleanup
- No periodic detection of unused content
- Minimal or automation for lifecycle management of contents
- Poor visibility into how storage is consumed by users
Even Microsoft’s archive feature mainly shifts data to a cheaper tier rather than fully optimizing usage.
How Third-Party Tools like Vyapin SharePoint Content Export tool (SPListX) Reduce SharePoint Storage Costs
1. Contents that require discovery, assessment and cleanup
- Stale content lying around as Inactive files and sites – this is perhaps the most prevalent in companies, as projects come and go, users come and go, temporary groups of users creating their content and not cleaning up later and so on.
- Duplicate content – Most users keep the same copy at different locations for reasons such as project backups, different information groups, department heads storing their own duplicate content for quick and easier access to user content that requires review and feedback.
- Large sized files that accumulate over time, especially in Engineering and Design firms that have special, application generated files.
- Large version histories, that is, documents that have a large number of versions produced over time and requiring retention for tracking from the very first versions.
Vyapin SharePoint data export tool has intelligent filters for admins and managers to systematically track down and reorganize different types of content sprawl.
2. Exporting Inactive Content or unwanted content to the File System or to a Lower-Cost Cloud Storage
You can archive or export content based on the staleness, say, content that was created 10 years ago and not accessed in the last 5 years. If not needed for regulatory purposes such content can also be deleted permanently. If content needs to be retained for regulatory compliance, moving to a network file system drive or a low cost storage like Azure Blob storage (including the Cold tier for further cost reduction) is ideal.
