Datadog launches cloud storage tool to tackle rising AI costs

Datadog has introduced a new product designed to help companies manage rising cloud storage costs driven by the growth of data-intensive and artificial intelligence workloads.

The new offering, Storage Management, is now available for Amazon S3 customers and is being previewed for Google Cloud Storage and Azure Blob Storage.

Cost pressures

Growing adoption of AI and the large datasets associated with its training and deployment have pushed cloud storage expenses higher.

IT and operations teams frequently face challenges in identifying the specific sources of these costs within sprawling data stores. Inadequate tools for analysing usage patterns at a granular level make it difficult to enforce effective data lifecycle and tiering policies, leading to unnecessary spending and manual intervention.

Product capabilities

Datadog's Storage Management provides teams with detailed analytics on cloud storage usage, down to the bucket and prefix levels.

This enables identification of spending caused by infrequently accessed, temporary or duplicate data, allowing users to see precisely which teams or workloads are driving costs.

With visibility into usage, metadata, and access patterns, the system offers unified context to improve the enforcement of retention, lifecycle, and tiering policies.

The product supports proactive monitoring, alerting users to unexpected growth or anomalies in cloud storage use, such as cost spikes or unusual access events. Automated recommendations further accelerate cost saving, suggesting areas where data can be archived, re-tiered, or deleted to optimise expenses.

Targeted optimisation

By offering a comprehensive view of object storage, Datadog hopes organisations will accelerate the process of reducing waste and keeping cloud storage use aligned with operational needs. Teams can quickly address anomalies and uncover specific opportunities for savings, such as transitioning cold data away from more expensive storage classes or removing redundant objects.

"For companies building AI products, data storage and processing is consistently the third-highest contributor to cost - greater than expenses for AI model training and inferencing. With Datadog Storage Management, teams are empowered to optimise cloud storage costs and prevent unexpected spend. By rightsizing these costs, companies can keep their focus on building better products and bringing them to market," said Yrieix Garnier, VP of Product, Datadog.

Integration and analysis

Storage Management works alongside Datadog's Cloud Cost Management product, offering additional metrics and insights specific to object storage.

This allows operations and finance teams to more confidently track trends, analyse cost drivers, and launch targeted cost control initiatives as part of broader cloud governance programmes.

With the initial release focused on Amazon S3 and previews for major rival platforms, Datadog is aiming to address a common source of unpredictable and growing expenditure for enterprise cloud users. The company's focus on cloud observability and cost optimisation comes as cloud infrastructure spending continues to expand globally.