Q: How do I work out how much Usage I’ll need?

Usage has two components - file storage and traffic.

It’s easy to work out how much file storage you need, by looking at your the files you want to manage in the DAM (high res versions only) and how much space those files occupy on your computer or on your network storage devices, and in online storage services like Dropbox, etc, and adding up the storage space those files are using.

The traffic component is a little harder to predict, as traffic tends to fluctuate month to month. Most customers can get by with a 1:1 ratio of storage to traffic. However your traffic may be a higher in some circumstances.

Such as when you have a lot of users, or have a lot of video content combined with a lot of users, etc. And if you have a lot of files archived but limited traffic (common with customers on the Team Edition with fewer users) you might find a 1:1 ratio of storage to traffic works for you.

Traffic is driven by a few factors:

• Number of Users
• Average file size
• Popularity of your Brand/Content
• How many Videos you have
• Whether you are using the Embed feature (where every view counts towards CDN traffic). This is particularly important to consider if you are embedding videos on highly trafficked websites.

If you have have a lot of users, or your content is popular, or you have many videos (which are relatively large), or are using the Embed feature, then it’s likely your Traffic will be higher (greater than a 1:1 ratio).

In this case you should consider an Expansion Pack or an Edition with more capacity (even if you don’t need the Storage), because you’ll need the Traffic. This will save you approx 50% of any overage costs should they occur.

One strategy is to start small, pay the overage costs, and see how it goes, and then upgrade later.