A data deluge, a tiered solution and significant cost and performance gains – this is how we helped one company cut data costs with Azure tiers.

In regulated industries, data is everything, so managing it well is business-critical.

At a large, multi-site enterprise, the challenge wasn’t just about storing data securely. It was about managing millions of duplicate files across fragmented systems, rapidly escalating storage costs, and ensuring that sensitive records stayed accessible and compliant for decades.

“In highly regulated environments, you’re not just dealing with high volumes of data — you’re dealing with data that must be securely stored and instantly retrievable for 20+ years. That makes the architecture and retention strategy critical,” says Christoff Labuschagne, Technical Solutions Architect at Kohde.

Kohde stepped in with a solution that not only streamlined storage but also reduced costs from a seven-figure monthly spend to the low five figures. All while ensuring performance and security standards were met.

This is how the enterprise cut data costs with Azure tiers:

The Challenge: A Data Deluge Driving Costs

The organisation’s ecosystem included numerous applications, each producing and storing its own versions of the same documents. Over time, this redundancy inflated storage demands and backup costs. Statutory data retention requirements mandated backups for 20+ years, meaning legacy systems running on on-premise SQL servers had become both costly and hard to maintain.

The stakes were high: the platform needed to handle several million file uploads every month without duplication or downtime. At the same time, the team couldn’t risk a single compliance failure or compromise performance for critical user-facing applications.

“We had to build a system that could ingest millions of files per month — all through a single entry point and without storing a single duplicate. That’s where the real engineering challenge lies,” explains Christoff.

The question was simple but daunting: How do you modernise storage for such a complex environment while saving money and keeping operations stable?

The Solution: Smart Usage of Storage Tiers

The breakthrough came with a smart use of Azure Blob Storage tiers. Azure offers three main storage options:

1. Hot tier: Ideal for data that is accessed frequently.
2. Cool or cold tier: Cheaper for long-term storage, but retrieval costs are higher.
3. Archive tier: For rarely accessed data, with retrieval times measured in hours.

The key insight was that not all enterprise data needs to remain “hot” indefinitely. By categorising files based on their access patterns, we could move older or less frequently used data into more economical tiers without compromising availability when needed.

We implemented a 2-week access pattern rule:

• New files remained on the hot tier for only two weeks.
• After that, they were automatically transitioned to a cold tier.

This decision drove a step-change in cost efficiency, as the organisation no longer paid premium storage prices for data that was seldom accessed (even if it needed to be retained for decades).

Implementing the Right Architecture

To make this route viable, Kohde developed a solution that went beyond mere tiering and reshaped how applications accessed shared files to unlock those savings.

We built a centralised file repository to serve as the single point of truth for all applications. Every file was stored only once, with binary-level duplicate detection ensuring that multiple systems could reference the same file without wasting storage.

The architecture included:

• A single REST API gateway as the entry point for file uploads, ensuring all applications follow the same rules for authentication and validation.
• Event-driven architecture to decouple heavy tasks (like duplicate checks and retention policy enforcement) from the upload process.
• A container-orchestrated deployment, allowing horizontal scaling to handle traffic spikes without latency.
• Granular access controls and secure sharing, so files could be linked between systems or even external applications, without exposing sensitive data.

“Granular access control was a must. We had to support file-sharing via secure links between applications while still respecting each system’s specific retention and access policies,” Christoff elaborates.

Cost and Performance Gains

The results were significant: backup and storage costs were reduced from a seven-figure monthly spend to the low five figures by leveraging Azure tiers and removing duplication.

By offloading file storage from on-premise databases, we reduced the heavy load on SQL servers, greatly improving retrieval times and reducing downtime risk. The new system comfortably handles millions of uploads per month, meeting demanding operational requirements and enabling scale.

“Previously, applications stored everything in SQL Server, which added huge overhead. Offloading that to blob storage didn’t just save money — it made the whole system faster and more reliable,” says Christoff.

Why This Matters for IT Leaders

For IT Systems Managers, this case shows that modernising infrastructure doesn’t have to mean ripping and replacing everything. With the right architecture and partner, it’s possible to cut storage and backup costs by an order of magnitude, while increasing system reliability and performance and still meeting strict compliance requirements without over-engineering.

At Kohde, we believe in solutions that work with your existing stack while preparing you for the future. Whether it’s financial services, insurance, telecoms, government, or any other compliance-intensive industry, our approach is the same: design for scale, reduce complexity, and deliver cost efficiency.

“Big systems demand big thinking. It’s not just about fixing inefficiencies — it’s about building smart, scalable infrastructure that can stand the test of growth,” Christoff says.

Looking to Optimise Your Systems?

At Kohde, we help South African enterprises modernise their data infrastructure in a way that reduces costs, respects uptime and integrates seamlessly with legacy systems.

If you’re ready to explore a small-scale pilot or want to see how smart storage strategies like Azure tiers could cut your data costs, chat with Christoff and the team.