Having a look at your cloud storage from an administrator point of view can often be confusing, especially when it comes to identifying how much data you actually have across your platform and within folders. Google not counting Google Docs size doesn't help and having file versions can often add extra data where you don't expect it. 

The easy way to find out how much data your business has -- Movebot Explorer

By far the easiest way to see how much data your business has is with Movebot's Explorer feature. Explorer can scan any connected data source so you can quickly find out more about it. And it can connect to over 30 cloud platforms, allowing you to see associated data for each in a glance. Explorer functionality is included with any Movebot subscription.

Challenges when searching for how much data you have

Without Explorer, your best choice is to look directly in the cloud platform itself. However, this isn't as straightforward as it sounds. We will run through a couple of challenges users have when it comes to identifying how much data they have. We'll also go over scan tools that will run through your data source and identify how much data you have and break it down to last modified, types, etc. 

Google Docs

As already mentioned, Google Drive does not count the size of their own proprietary document formats. As you can see from the below a Google Doc that shows no file size in Drive, once downloaded shows 6KB. 

File Versions 

When looking through your file structure, you may notice some folders show different data totals than what is in inside the folder. This is because of file versions. This can be seen in Box as an example.

Google Docs in Box

Much like having Google Docs in Google Drive, having Google file types in Box also show as 0 bytes, this is because the files are stored in Google and behave the same way as above. However, to get the file size, click on the file and hit details to the right and it will give you a total file size.

Different file sizes 

Most of the storage platforms use different calculations, compression, and algorithms to count how much data you have, it's often not until you move the data out or scan your storage you can get the "real" tangible data size.

Although the below image (right click and open image in new tab' for a bigger image) is only .2KBs smaller, if you get larger files or if you have millions of files then this soon adds up.

See a true picture of your data at a glance with Movebot Explorer

Managing multiple clouds and want to see how much data you have at a glance in one place? Movebot's Explorer feature can make that happen. Explorer gives you deep insights into your data, including not only how much data is in the platform, but who's using it too. You can break down the data by user, file type, modification date, and much more. 

Explorer also gives you long-term data trends so you can make sure data usage is matching up to your expectations. The risk analyzer notices potential risks like files shared with users outside of your organization so you can always know who has access to your important files. 

Explorer is included as part of any Movebot subscription. Subscription plans give lower data rates, faster support, and access to new features like Explorer. And you can try out Explorer and other features without a credit card for 14 days. Simply register for an account and start your free trial today.