Cloud storage pricing changes constantly and varies wildly by access pattern — companies stay on expensive tiers out of inertia or because comparing options is tedious.
An agent that sits between your app and cloud storage, profiles your actual access patterns, and automatically places data on the cheapest tier (S3 Glacier, Backblaze B2, Wasabi, Hetzner, etc.), handling migration and retrieval transparently.
Percentage of savings (20-30% of cost reduction) or flat subscription ($99-999/mo based on data volume)
Cloud storage overspend is a well-documented, universal problem. Companies routinely pay 5-40x more than necessary because data sits on hot tiers indefinitely. The Backblaze blog post showing $2.8M AWS vs alternatives proves extreme price sensitivity. Finance teams actively audit cloud bills. However, for many companies it's a 'known annoyance' rather than a 'hair on fire' problem — it hurts but rarely causes existential crises. Companies tolerate it because migration risk feels higher than overpaying.
TAM is large in absolute terms. Global cloud storage spend is ~$80-100B. If CheapTier targets companies spending $1K-$100K/month, that's the mid-market SaaS and data team segment — roughly 50K-200K potential customers in the US alone. At $200-500/month average revenue, that's a $120M-$1.2B addressable market. However, the realistic serviceable market is narrower: companies must have mixed access patterns, willingness to use a third-party broker for storage, and sufficient volume to justify the tooling. Realistically serviceable market is $50-200M.
The savings-based model is compelling because it's self-funding — customers pay from money they're already saving. Companies spending $10K+/month on storage will happily pay $200-500/month to save $2K-5K. The 'percentage of savings' model is proven by Spot.io (compute), ProsperOps (reserved instances), and other FinOps tools. Risk: smaller customers ($1-5K/month storage) may not see enough absolute savings to justify the setup effort. The flat subscription model may face resistance at <$5K storage spend since ROI is unclear.
This is technically ambitious for a solo dev MVP in 4-8 weeks. Core challenges: (1) Building a reliable storage proxy that doesn't lose data is HIGH stakes — one bug means customer data loss. (2) Supporting multiple provider APIs (S3, B2, Wasabi, GCS, Azure) with their authentication, rate limits, and quirks. (3) Access pattern profiling requires instrumentation and analytics infrastructure. (4) Automated migration needs careful handling of consistency, partial failures, and retrieval latency (Glacier has 3-12 hour retrieval). (5) Transparent retrieval across tiers adds complexity. A credible MVP in 8 weeks could handle S3-compatible APIs only (S3, B2, Wasabi, MinIO) with manual migration recommendations (not auto-migration), using a CLI/dashboard approach rather than a transparent proxy. Full proxy layer is more like 4-6 months.
The specific gap CheapTier targets is real and underserved. Komprise is enterprise-only and NAS-focused. CloudHealth recommends but doesn't execute. Rclone is powerful but dumb. MinIO tiers but doesn't optimize across providers. Nobody offers an intelligent, self-serve, mid-market storage broker that (a) profiles access patterns, (b) compares real-time pricing across providers including third parties like B2 and Wasabi, and (c) automatically migrates data. The 'broker that includes non-hyperscaler providers' angle is particularly unique — all enterprise tools only optimize within AWS/Azure/GCP.
Extremely strong recurring dynamics. Data volumes only grow, so the optimization surface increases every month. Access patterns change over time requiring continuous monitoring. New storage tiers and pricing changes from providers create ongoing optimization opportunities. Once a company routes storage through CheapTier, switching cost is high (you'd have to re-architect data placement). The percentage-of-savings model naturally scales with customer data growth. Monthly savings are tangible and visible, reducing churn. This is a 'set it and forget it' tool that delivers value every billing cycle.
- +Massive, growing market with clear price sensitivity — the $2.8M AWS bill vs alternatives is a visceral proof point
- +No incumbent owns the 'mid-market, cross-provider storage broker' position — Komprise is enterprise, Rclone is DIY, CloudHealth is advisory-only
- +Revenue model aligned with customer value — percentage of savings means customers never pay more than they save
- +Natural moat: once data flows through CheapTier, switching costs are high and the system gets smarter with more access pattern data
- +FinOps movement creates ready buyers with allocated budgets for exactly this type of tool
- +Third-party provider inclusion (Backblaze B2, Wasabi, Hetzner) is a genuine differentiator no enterprise tool offers
- !DATA TRUST IS THE KILLER RISK: Convincing companies to route storage through an unknown startup is extremely hard. One data loss incident and the business is over. This requires extraordinary reliability engineering and likely SOC 2 certification before serious adoption.
- !AWS/GCP/Azure could build native cross-tier optimization (AWS already has S3 Intelligent-Tiering which auto-moves objects between tiers), eating the single-provider use case
- !Egress fees can negate savings — moving data between providers incurs $0.01-0.09/GB egress costs, which can exceed storage savings for frequently-accessed data or smaller datasets
- !Long sales cycles: mid-market companies with $10K+/month storage bills have procurement processes, security reviews, and change management — not a self-serve signup
- !Technical complexity is high for a solo founder — reliable storage proxying, multi-provider API support, and data migration without downtime require significant engineering depth
Enterprise data management platform that analyzes unstructured data across storage tiers, identifies cold data, and automates tiering/migration to cheaper cloud or object storage. Uses analytics-driven policies to move data based on age, access frequency, and cost targets.
Automated tiering service that moves cold data blocks from NetApp ONTAP systems to cheaper object storage
Open-source command-line tool supporting 70+ cloud storage backends. Can sync, copy, mount, and migrate data between any combination of providers. Supports S3, GCS, Azure, Backblaze B2, Wasabi, and dozens more.
High-performance S3-compatible object storage that can be self-hosted. Supports Information Lifecycle Management
Cloud cost management and optimization platform. Provides visibility into cloud spend including storage, identifies idle/unattached volumes, and recommends rightsizing and tier changes across AWS, Azure, and GCP.
Don't build the proxy layer first. Build a READ-ONLY analytics tool: connect to existing S3/GCS/Azure accounts via read-only credentials, scan object metadata and access logs (S3 server access logs, CloudTrail), profile access patterns, and generate a report showing 'You're spending $X/month. If you moved these N objects to B2/Wasabi/Glacier, you'd save $Y/month after egress costs.' Include a one-click migration script using rclone under the hood. This proves the value proposition without the terrifying 'route all your storage through us' ask. Phase 2 adds assisted migration. Phase 3 adds the transparent proxy.
Free tier: scan one storage account, generate savings report (lead gen). Paid: $99-299/month for continuous monitoring + migration recommendations across unlimited accounts. Pro: $499-999/month for automated migration execution + retrieval optimization. Enterprise: percentage-of-savings model (20-30% of documented savings) for $50K+/month storage spenders. Scale path: once you have access pattern data across many customers, you gain unique pricing leverage to negotiate bulk rates with providers like Backblaze and Wasabi, creating a marketplace dynamic.
8-12 weeks to first dollar with the analytics-first MVP approach. Week 1-4: build S3 access pattern scanner and cost comparison engine. Week 5-6: build dashboard with savings report and rclone-based migration scripts. Week 7-8: launch on HN, ProductHunt, r/devops, r/aws. Offer free scans to 20 beta companies. Week 9-12: convert beta users to paid plans. Full proxy product with automated migration is 6-9 months to meaningful revenue.
- “This system is definitely optimized for backup — not all storage needs are the same, yet people pay uniform high prices”
- “The entire premise of 'petabytes on a budget' signals that storage cost is a persistent, widespread pain point”
- “Amazon $2,806,000 vs alternatives — massive price sensitivity exists”