What is Storage Intelligence?
Storage Intelligence is a management capability for Google Cloud Storage that analyzes bucket and object metadata across large storage estates. Instead of inspecting individual buckets by hand, Storage Intelligence provides a unified platform for data exploration, cost optimization, security, and governance. You enable the capability as a subscription and configure it at the organization, folder, or project level.
The problem Storage Intelligence solves is a lack of visibility in storage landscapes that have grown over time. In environments with many buckets and billions of objects, it is hard to tell which data drives cost, which buckets use the wrong storage class, or where governance requirements are violated. Storage Intelligence answers these questions through metadata analysis at scale, supported by Gemini for natural-language queries.
Core features
- Gemini-powered insights: Query bucket and object metadata in natural language, for example “the 5 largest buckets without Autoclass enabled” or “objects in the Standard class smaller than 50 MB”.
- Storage Insights datasets: Queryable metadata indexes exported as BigQuery-linked datasets. These datasets are generally available and exclusive to the Storage Intelligence subscription.
- Bucket relocation: Serverless relocation of buckets across geographic locations with minimal downtime. Metadata, names, and storage classes are preserved.
- Storage batch operations: Act on millions to billions of objects with little or no code, for example for cleanups or bulk changes.
Typical use cases
Cost optimization across large estates: Teams identify buckets with unsuitable storage classes, unused data, and many small objects in expensive tiers. The resulting insights form the basis for targeted cleanup and lifecycle actions.
Governance and data exploration: Through Storage Insights datasets, teams query object metadata in BigQuery and join it with other analyses. This makes it possible to review estates by location, storage class, or other attributes and to evidence governance requirements.
Bulk operations and data migration: With Storage batch operations and bucket relocation, teams run actions on huge object volumes or move buckets to other regions without building their own tooling pipelines.
Benefits
- A unified view of storage estates across multiple projects
- Natural-language queries lower the barrier to analysis
- Metadata as BigQuery datasets for deeper analytics
- Activation and inheritance at the organization, folder, and project level
Integration with innFactory
As a certified Google Cloud Partner, innFactory supports you with the adoption and operation of this service.
Typical Use Cases
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Storage Intelligence?
Storage Intelligence is a management capability for Cloud Storage. It analyzes bucket and object metadata across large storage estates and delivers insights for cost optimization, security, and governance. You enable it as a subscription at the organization, folder, or project level.
When should I use Storage Intelligence?
Storage Intelligence fits when you run many buckets across multiple projects and need visibility into storage classes, unused data, and cost drivers. Typical scenarios include finding large buckets without Autoclass enabled, locating many small objects in the Standard class, and preparing cleanup or migration actions.
How much does Storage Intelligence cost?
Storage Intelligence uses a pay-per-use subscription model. The Standard edition is billed through an object management fee based on the number of managed objects, amortized monthly. The fee is waived during the 30-day trial. See the official pricing page for current rates.
Which editions and activation levels are available?
Storage Intelligence supports the configurations STANDARD, TRIAL (30 days), DISABLED, and INHERIT. You activate it at the organization, folder, or project level, and configurations can be inherited by child resources. Buckets can be included or excluded using filters by location or name regex.
