Save Up to 70%+ on SharePoint Online Storage Costs
Section titled “Save Up to 70%+ on SharePoint Online Storage Costs”REDUCE COSTS. KEEP THE OVERVIEW.
SMART Offload helps reduce storage costs by moving eligible document binaries and historical versions from SharePoint Online to Azure Blob Storage. Keep document proxies, metadata and version records visible in SharePoint, and restore the content when it is needed.
Save up to 70% on storage costs for eligible offloaded content. Actual savings depend on your Microsoft storage pricing, offload scope, Azure configuration, licensing and retrieval activity.
How storage savings grow over time
Section titled “How storage savings grow over time”Reduce today’s expense and the cost of future growth
The commercial benefit of SMART Offload has two parts: reducing the additional SharePoint storage already required and lowering the cost of storing eligible content added in future years.
The business case compares the additional SharePoint storage expense avoided against SMART Offload licensing, Azure storage and associated operating costs. Savings become a cash benefit when additional storage purchases can be avoided or existing commitments reduced under the customer’s agreement.
Organic data growth continues without additional users
Daily business activity creates new documents, project files and additional versions of existing content. Retention requirements can also preserve content for longer. Storage consumption can therefore increase while employee numbers and the included SharePoint allocation remain unchanged.
Microsoft documents that version history consumes storage and that retention settings influence how long versions are kept. Forecast growth using the customer’s actual storage trends, version consumption and business requirements.
Annual growth compounds. At an illustrative 15% annual rate, 45 TB becomes 51.75 TB after one year and approximately 59.51 TB after two years. The second annual increase applies to the larger accumulated volume.
The 15% rate is a planning assumption for this example, not a universal SharePoint growth benchmark.
Example: 500 licences and 45 TB of additional storage
This example uses 500 eligible Microsoft licences, approximately 6 TB of included SharePoint storage and 45 TB of chargeable additional storage. At an assumed annual price of EUR 2,100 per additional TB, the initial storage expense is EUR 94,500. The model applies 15% annual growth to the chargeable volume.
| Annual cost | Year 0 | Year 1 | Year 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Additional SharePoint storage | €94,500 | €108,675 | €124,976 |
| SMART platform and Azure storage | €22,267 | €25,392 | €28,581 |
| Modelled annual saving | €72,233 | €83,283 | €96,395 |
The supplied model indicates approximately EUR 251,910 in cumulative savings over three annual billing periods, equivalent to approximately 77% of the additional SharePoint storage expense.
This specific example exceeds the article’s headline saving. It includes the SMART platform and Azure storage charges shown, with both increasing over time. Figures are rounded. Include implementation, retrieval, transactions, data transfer and any remaining SharePoint storage when calculating the final customer business case.
Incremental offload sustains the saving
A one-time offload reduces the existing SharePoint footprint. Recurring incremental offload extends the mechanism to newly eligible files and historical versions, helping prevent higher-cost storage from building up again.
The objective is to reduce the cost of growth. Azure storage and offload licensing still increase with usage, but eligible content can accumulate at a lower storage cost.
Microsoft: Plan version storage Microsoft: Version history and retention
How SMART Offload works
Section titled “How SMART Offload works”Move binary content and retain the SharePoint item
When a document library item is offloaded, its binary content is transferred to Azure Blob Storage and replaced in SharePoint by a small proxy containing the blob reference. The item remains visible with its metadata and version records; the offloaded file content is held in Azure.
Supported rename, copy and move operations within the tenant can retain the offload reference. The reference is associated with the item rather than relying solely on its containing folder. Validate the behaviour of any third-party tool or script used to manipulate offloaded items.
Keep the current version active
Choose to retain the current document version in SharePoint and offload only the binary content of historical versions. Users can continue working with the active file and create new versions.
The current binary remains available for normal SharePoint indexing and eligible Microsoft 365 Copilot access, subject to permissions, licensing and service configuration. Historical content stored only in Azure Blob Storage is not automatically available through SharePoint content indexing.
Retain visibility with a smaller storage footprint
Offloading replaces large binary files and historical version binaries with small proxy content. The remaining SharePoint footprint depends on metadata, version count and whether the current binary is retained.
When all binary content is offloaded, users can still see the item and its metadata, but the original document content must be restored before normal viewing or editing.
Restore content when it is needed
Section titled “Restore content when it is needed”Restore a file, folder or library
Provide the SharePoint URL identifying the offloaded content and, optionally, a destination SharePoint URL or file share UNC path.
Restore in place: Omit the destination to restore content to its existing SharePoint location.
Restore elsewhere in SharePoint: Select another site or a document library used by Teams, including version history where supported.
Restore to a file share: Provide a UNC path to retrieve file content for local access or processing.
Restore availability and timing depend on the Azure storage tier. Archive-tier content requires rehydration before retrieval.
Large video, CAD and specialist files
For large files such as 8K video or CAD content, restoring to a file share can provide a practical working location for specialist applications. SharePoint retains the visible item and metadata while Azure Blob Storage holds the offloaded binary.
Confirm file-size limits and application requirements for the selected ingestion and restore workflow.
Offload and restore capabilities
Section titled “Offload and restore capabilities”Select and automate the offload scope
- Select libraries, folders or individual files for offload.
- Apply filters using file size, modified date and subfolder scope.
- Keep items visible with metadata and version records.
- Retain the current binary and offload historical versions only.
- Run incremental offload for newly added files or new historical versions.
- Import multiple offload and restore job definitions from supported data sources.
Restore, relocate and manage versions
- Restore individual files, folders or entire libraries.
- Restore to the original location or another supported destination.
- Restore version history to supported SharePoint destinations.
- Support copy and move operations that preserve valid offload references.
- Configure version trimming to remove historical versions or retain the latest specified number.
Version trimming deletes content rather than offloading it. Apply it only where the agreed retention requirements permit deletion.
Offload during migration
Section titled “Offload during migration”Build cost reduction into the migration design
SMART Migration can offload documents as part of the migration process. This supports large content estates while reducing the binary storage that must remain in SharePoint.
Users can request restoration of selected documents or folders to an active Teams document library or SharePoint site through the organisation’s configured request and restore process.
Microsoft 365 Archive
Section titled “Microsoft 365 Archive”Review the available storage approaches
Include Microsoft 365 Archive in your assessment of storage options. Compare content availability, restore behaviour, metadata requirements and costs against the intended SMART Offload configuration.
Microsoft 365 Archive — what it is
Important limitations
Section titled “Important limitations”Sensitivity labels, retention labels and Purview encryption
The SMART Offload workflow described here does not support preservation of sensitivity labels or retention labels during offload. Forcing these files through the process can result in label loss. Files encrypted using Microsoft Purview are also outside the supported scope of this workflow.
Exclude affected content from offload and resolve its treatment before execution. These are limitations of the described SMART Offload workflow, not a general statement about Azure Blob Storage.
Reduce today’s storage expense and the cost of future growth. Keep documents visible in SharePoint and restore content when your business needs it.
See also