Migrated from eDJGroupInc.com. Author: Greg Buckles. Published: 2014-12-14 19:00:00Format, images and links may no longer function correctly.
Amazon and Microsoft cloud storage and servers have driven the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for online data storage down into the 10-15¢/GB/month range depending on whether you need a dedicated, encrypted appliance or other special security for your sensitive data. The bottom line is that this has eDJ Group clients challenging traditional $15-30/GB/month hosting fee proposals. Why pay 100x the market rate for a provider or law firm with a dedicated data center? The response to my fast survey on the pro-portion of evidence vs. collection size has been great (lots of folks wanting to download the 2014 Analytics Adoption Report), so with Mikki’s 2014 legal hold surveys wrapping up, I have created two fast surveys (consumer/provider) with a couple simple questions to get some insight into the changing hosting fee market. For more than a decade, monthly $/GB hosting fees have provided a surprisingly large portion of provider revenue and profit. AWS and Azure have challenged that model and we all want to understand how customer attitudes have changed. What is a fair price for the expertise and liability of managing cloud storage for discovery collections?
As a small research consulting firm, eDJ Group tries to gather hard market data, but direct pricing information has always been the eDiscovery’s ‘third rail’. When eDJ had an active market analyst business model, pricing research was the top request from providers and the one that we always had to pass on. Instead of asking respondents what they pay for hosting, I have asked what you think is a fair price for hosting. Hopefully that walks the anti-trust line and still gains us all some useful data on consumer attitudes. So take a Hosting Cost survey and I should publish the raw results in time for the LTNY buying festival. Speaking of LTNY, Mikki and I will be escorting clients and making our usual rounds of the exhibit floor and briefing rooms. Please stop us for an introduction and to share your impressions of the show, products and the market.
Greg Buckles can be reached at Greg@eDJGroupInc.com for offline comment, questions or consulting. His active research topics include analytics, mobile device discovery, the discovery impact of the cloud, Microsoft’s 2013 eDiscovery Center and multi-matter discovery. Recent consulting engagements include managing preservation during enterprise migrations, legacy tape eliminations, retention enablement and many more. Blog market perspectives are personal opinions and should not be interpreted as a professional judgment.