Backup Strategy → Cost Calculator
Full + incremental backup cost with retention math. 10 TB source, 3% daily delta, weekly fulls, 90-day retention: S3 Standard = $X, S3 Glacier = $Y. That tier choice alone is a $3K/year difference. Compare local NAS, cloud object storage, and hybrid 3-2-1 strategies with real cumulative cost curves over 1/3/5-year horizons.
📐 Backup Workload Profile
Set source data size, daily delta %, snapshot frequency, retention, and storage class. The engine projects cumulative storage growth and TCO across local, cloud, and hybrid strategies.
The 3-2-1 Backup Rule: Cost vs. Resilience
The 3-2-1 rule — 3 copies of data, on 2 different media types, with 1 offsite copy — is the gold standard for disaster recovery. But what does it actually cost? The answer depends on your data size, change rate, snapshot frequency, and retention policy.
| Strategy | Storage Medium | Approx. $/TB/mo | Retrieval Speed | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local NAS (RAID 6) | Enterprise HDD | ~$15–25 | Instant | Operational recovery (RTO < 1h) |
| Cloud Object (Hot Tier) | S3 Standard / GCS Standard | ~$18–23 | Immediate | Recent snapshots, frequent restores |
| Cloud Object (Cold Tier) | S3 Glacier / Azure Archive | ~$1–4 | Hours | Long-term retention, compliance |
| Hybrid (NAS + Cloud Cold) | NAS + Archive Tier | ~$8–14 blended | Mixed | Balanced cost/resilience |
| Tape / LTO | LTO-9 Tape Library | ~$3–5 | Hours–Days | Air-gapped compliance archives |
Why this tool matters: Most teams either over-spend on backup (daily fulls to S3 with infinite retention) or under-protect (one local copy, no offsite). This calculator quantifies the cost of each tier so you can design a defensible backup budget and justify it to finance.