I do IT support for a few working architectural photographers. Over the years I've thought about this too (at least, I've worked the numbers a few times). It's hard to make it work; they need a minimum of 8TB of storage for existing material, then growth by about 2.5TB yearly (to date, but most are about to start time-lapse video). Though, your cold storage approach is intriguing.<p>Napkin calculations:<p><pre><code> 0.04 /GB * 1000 = 40.00 /month (curr) = 480.00/yr
* 2000 = = 960.00/yr
* 3000 = = 1440.00/yr
0.004 /GB * 8000 = 32.00 /month (cold) = 344.00/yr + 48.00/yr/TB
+ 100.00/yr/2TB
+ 175.00/yr/3.5TB
1 shoot = 25GB (stills only) or 50GB w a 30 sec TL (add 25GB)
~100 shoots /yr ==> 2.5TB/yr @ 25GB, 5TB/yr @ 50GB
</code></pre>
[Aside, that's 5-12 mins to upload (25Mbp/s - 10Mbp/s, only 3 mins @ 50Mbp/s). So consider additional internet cost.]<p>Without frequently juggling current to cold, or doing yearly compounding calculations, I'd eyeball this at ~$1300/yr, with growth of $150/yr, each year.<p>One way to make this more attractive is to leverage the online storage to build other recurring-revenue generating services, but most photographers don't go for that type of thing. (In my experience, stock image sites, etc. are primarily the realm of hobbyists.)<p>You also have the trust/confidence problem. I suspect every photographer will want to maintain their own backup as well. So, they won't "save" money (even if online storage was less expensive, but I suspect it's not) because they still need to pay for local storage. Of course, for apples to apples, you need to factor in time to maintain those backups, either my hourly rate or their own; things like disk-testing, data juggling (downsizing 1TB -> 3TB drives, etc.). But again, it's still 'extra' cost, because they won't (IMO) switch to solely online storage.<p>A question:<p>Are you providing tools to allow photographers to leverage their online storage? E.g. Dropbox-like sharing with clients (even just contact sheets?), integration against online print services, store-fronts for image sales, etc.?<p>All that said, I'm interested in seeing your private beta though. I think this can work, one day. :)