# Why Enterprises Are Moving Petabytes Off The Cloud Qstar Explains

An episode of [Smarter, Strategic Thinking](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1844816026), 7 Jan 2026, 20 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2536826/episodes/18364341-why-enterprises-are-moving-petabytes-off-the-cloud-qstar-explains.mp3

Send us Fan Mail Enterprise data is exploding but most organisations are still paying premium storage prices for information they rarely access. In this episode of Smarter Strategic Thinking, Ray Quattromini sits down with Dave Thompson from QSTAR to unpack how modern organisations can regain control of unstructured data, reduce storage costs, and build archive environments that actually scale. QSTAR has been operating in the archive space since 1997 and works across tape, cloud, object and disk environments giving IT leaders the ability to move cold and inactive data to lower-cost tiers without disrupting access, workflows or compliance. You’ll hear how QSTAR’s Archive Manager and Network Migrate platforms help organisations: • Consolidate unstructured data across environments • Tier inactive files to tape, cloud or lower-cost disk • Support SMB, NFS and S3 access across Windows and Linux • Maintain long-term archive integrity without third-party backup tools • Reduce pressure on expensive NVMe and primary storage tiers • Build scalable, policy-driven archive strategies that grow over time The conversation also explores how AI, metadata and classification will shape the next generation of archive platforms and why organisations that don’t understand what data they own will struggle to manage future storage growth. If your infrastructure team is battling storage sprawl, escalating costs, or long-term retention challenges, this episode gives a practical, modern blueprint for sustainable archive strategy. Continue the conversation Explore archive strategies and full podcast resources: https://www.fortunadata.com/podcast/ Follow Fortuna Data on LinkedIn for weekly infrastructure insights: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fortuna-data Chapters 00:00 Welcome to Smarter Strategic Thinking 01:42 A career built in archive technology 03:17 What QSTAR actually does 04:24 Tape, cloud and object — how modern archives are built 05:12 SMB, NFS & S3 explained 06:08 Archive Manager & Network Migrate 07:32 Managing data sprawl & migration 09:44 Policy-driven archive environments 10:02 Capacity-based licensing model 11:20 Reducing storage cost pressure 12:26 Why QSTAR focuses on unstructured data 13:12 Archive without third-party backup tools 14:14 How archive capacity is evolving 15:45 The future: AI, metadata & classification 17:08 Governance, ownership & data responsibility 19:53 Universities, research & long-term retention 20:54 Closing remarks

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