The 15 TB Problem: Why Standard Cloud Pricing Fails

Remote media companies live in a unique cost reality. You're not storing a static archive—you're constantly ingesting raw footage, creating proxies, collaborating on edits, and archiving final deliverables. At 15 TB per month, that's 180 TB annually. On most cloud platforms, that's where the real hidden costs emerge.

Most teams discover too late that storing data is cheap; getting it out is expensive. AWS S3 storage runs about $23 per TB annually in standard regions, but egress (data transfers out of their network) costs $0.09 per GB. Download just 10 TB of project files and you've already spent $900 on egress alone.

This is why successful remote media setups don't use a single cloud solution. They combine multiple services based on workflow: hot storage for active projects, cold storage for archives, and smart transfer mechanisms to avoid egress charges.

Cloud Storage Providers at 15 TB Scale

Provider	Storage Cost (15 TB)	Egress Charges	Monthly Total*
AWS S3 Standard	$345	$0.09/GB out	$345–$1,200+
Wasabi	$105	None (egress-free)	$105
Backblaze B2	$75	$0.06/GB out	$75–$675+
Wasabi + P2P Transfer	$105	No egress (P2P)	$105

*Assumes 100 GB/month egress for active projects. Real costs vary with usage patterns.

Breaking Down Each Option

AWS S3 remains the default choice for media companies because of its ecosystem: direct integrations with editing software, excellent reliability, and regional redundancy. But the math gets brutal quickly. For 15 TB stored, you're paying $345/month in storage. If your team downloads 100 GB of project files weekly for active edits, you'll pay an additional $900/month in egress. S3 makes sense if you're using AWS for compute (rendering, encoding) and keeping data in-region. Otherwise, the egress trap will surprise you.

Wasabi flips the AWS model: no egress charges, ever. At 15 TB, that's a flat $105/month. You can download terabytes without penalty. The trade-off is less ecosystem integration than AWS, and slightly lower global availability in some regions. For remote media teams, Wasabi is often the smartest default—the $105/month cost is predictable and S3-compatible.

Backblaze B2 undercuts both at $75/month for storage, but charges $0.06/GB for egress. If you're downloading 100 GB weekly, that's $600/month in additional costs, bringing the total to $675. B2 works well if your media stays mostly archived and you download infrequently. For active remote workflows, it's typically more expensive than Wasabi.

The Hybrid Approach: Hot + Cold Storage

Smart media companies don't use one cloud provider for everything. Instead, they split their workflow:

Hot storage (Wasabi): current projects, proxies, dailies. Everything your team actively accesses. Cost: ~$105/month for 15 TB. Archive tier (Backblaze B2 or AWS Glacier): finished projects, completed deliverables, historical assets. Cost: ~$40–50/month for unlimited archive. Local NAS: fast local cache for your primary office. Acts as hot backup and speeds up file access for on-site editors.

This three-tier setup costs about $150/month and gives you the speed of local storage, the scalability of cloud, and the disaster recovery of redundant archives.

Streaming File Systems for Remote Editing

If your team edits directly from cloud storage (instead of downloading full projects), streaming file system tools bridge the gap. They sit between your editing workstations and cloud object storage, creating a virtual filesystem that streams data on-demand. This eliminates the need to download 100 GB proxy files to your local machine.

Cost runs $500–1,200/month depending on team size, but if it saves you from downloading terabytes monthly, it pays for itself quickly.

The P2P Solution: Moving Data Between Team Members

Here's what most teams miss: not all transfers should go through cloud providers. When your editor needs to send project files to your color grader, routing through cloud storage (and paying egress) is wasteful.

Handrive changes the equation here. Instead of uploading to cloud then downloading from cloud, Handrive transfers files directly between your team members' systems. No egress charges, no bandwidth limits, just peer-to-peer speed. Use it for active collaboration—daily proxy deliveries, project file handoffs, feedback rounds. Keep cloud storage for archive and backup.

Real-World Budget: A 15 TB Media Team

Here's a realistic setup:

Wasabi storage (15 TB hot): $105/month. Backblaze B2 archive (cold): $45/month. Handrive for P2P transfers between team: free. Local 40 TB NAS (backup + local cache): $800 one-time, ~$20/month power. Monthly total: ~$170 for infrastructure serving a media team generating 15 TB monthly.

Compare this to the AWS-only approach ($345 storage + $900 egress = $1,245/month), and the savings are immediate. You've also gained local redundancy and faster collaboration speeds.

Implementation Checklist

Set up Wasabi for your active project storage. Configure lifecycle policies to move older projects to archive storage after 30 days. Deploy a NAS in your primary office for local backup and fast access. Use Handrive for daily handoffs and active team collaboration. Train your team to use the right tool for each job: Handrive for person-to-person, Wasabi for team access, archive storage for finished work.

Learn more about transfer costs in our petabyte-scale transfer cost guide, and dive deeper into remote team workflows in our remote post-production collaboration guide.

Cut Your Transfer Costs

At 15 TB per month, every transfer decision impacts your bottom line. Handrive eliminates cloud egress fees for active collaboration with free P2P transfers between team members—no bandwidth limits, no monthly costs.

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