CTERA has launched a new AI-assisted data archiving solution after company research found just 4.4% of enterprise storage capacity is actively used, underscoring the cost and AI-readiness challenges created by large volumes of cold data.
The new Data Archiving Solution combines CTERA InsightAI with CTERA Archive to help enterprises identify inactive data, determine what still has business value, and move appropriate files to lower-cost storage without sacrificing governance or accessibility.
For MSPs and other channel partners, CTERA sees the shift as an opportunity to turn data discovery and archival management into a recurring managed service rather than a one-time storage project.
CTERA research finds just 4.4% of storage is active
CTERA analyzed more than 16 petabytes of production data across 856 file-share discovery scans in enterprise NAS environments, finding that just 4.4% of stored capacity is actively used.
The research also found:
- 83.1% of stored capacity was in files that had not been modified in more than a year.
- 88% of individual files had not been accessed in more than a year.
- Only 9.9% of stored data was accessed during any given 90-day period.
Speaking with Channel Insider, CTERA CEO Oded Nagel said the presence of cold data itself was not surprising, but its scale was.
“When only 4.4% of capacity is actively used, and more than 88% of files haven’t been touched in over a year, you realize enterprises aren’t just keeping old data around; they’re running their most expensive storage tier as a de facto archive,” Nagel said.
According to Nagel, enterprises have historically treated data management primarily as a capacity problem rather than as a matter of deciding what information remains valuable and where it should reside.
AI readiness adds urgency to the cold data problem
Asked which aspect of the data management challenge is creating the most pressure for enterprises, Nagel said cost remains the most immediately visible consequence, but AI readiness is becoming a more urgent concern.
“Cost shows up on the invoice, so that’s where most enterprises feel it first, and it’s the easiest to quantify. But the pressure rising fastest is AI readiness. Security exposure has always been there in the background.”
“What’s new is that leadership is now asking teams to put AI to work on enterprise data, and they’re finding that feeding models years of stale, redundant information makes the results harder to trust,” Nagel said.
CTERA brings AI recommendations to data archiving
Alongside the research, CTERA announced its new Data Archiving Solution, which combines the company’s InsightAI Data Service with CTERA Archive.
InsightAI uses agentic AI to infer the likely contents and business value of files based on metadata such as filenames, paths, extensions, and directory context. It combines that information with factors including age, file type, size, and usage patterns to recommend potential candidates for archiving.
“By pairing CTERA InsightAI, which understands what data means to the business and not just how old it is, with the governance and controls of CTERA Archive, the CTERA Data Archiving Solution gives IT teams a much simpler, AI-guided way to bring discipline to the enterprise data lifecycle without sacrificing access,” said Nagel.
With this, Nagel stressed that the system recommends actions rather than automatically moving files, addressing concerns about handing data lifecycle decisions over to AI.
IT teams retain control over what is archived and can set retention policies, while archive and restore operations are logged for auditing. Archived data remains within the CTERA Intelligent Data Platform and can be stored on lower-cost hardware or cloud storage while remaining accessible to AI and analytics.
That distinction is particularly important when separating redundant, obsolete, or trivial (ROT) data from older information that still has business value.
“The mistake is letting age make the decision. Old doesn’t mean worthless, and recent doesn’t mean valuable,” Nagel said.
Cold data, he added, may still carry compliance, legal, or future analytical value even when it has not been accessed for years, making context important when determining what should be retained or archived.
“The distinction isn’t in the timestamp, it’s in what the data actually is and what it means to the business,” Nagel said.
Partners can turn data archiving into a managed service
As enterprises rethink where their growing volumes of inactive data belong, CTERA sees an opportunity for MSPs and other channel partners to turn data discovery and archiving into an ongoing managed service rather than a one-time storage project.
Nagel said partners could handle data discovery, provide InsightAI recommendations, and manage the archival lifecycle for customers that lack the time or tools to analyze large data estates themselves.
“Partners can wrap a managed service around the discovery, deliver the CTERA InsightAI recommendations, and manage the archival lifecycle as an ongoing engagement rather than a one-time project,” Nagel said.
CTERA’s platform is multi-tenant, allowing service providers to manage the process across multiple customer environments.
For Nagel, the underlying shift is away from simply retaining everything indefinitely on primary storage toward continuously evaluating what information organizations have, how valuable it remains, and where it belongs.
“Getting the data foundation right is fast becoming a prerequisite for getting real value out of AI,” Nagel said.
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