Just 4.4% of Enterprise NAS Capacity Is Active, CTERA Cold Data Storage Report Finds

CTERA analyzed 16 PB of data from 856 enterprise NAS scans: only 4.4% of capacity is actively used (modified in 90 days), and 83.1% of data hasn't changed in over a year. The company proposes moving cold data off expensive primary storage.

• 4.4% of NAS capacity is actively used — modified in 90 days
• 83.1% of data unchanged for over a year, 88% not read in a year
• 97.5% of individual files unchanged for over a year
• Cold data inflates backup, security, and AI retrieval costs