we plan to set up NextCloud with maybe 1000, 2000 or 3000 Users.
We now ask ourselves: How much space do Users need in average?
There is a big difference between “want” and “need”.
I know there are “power users” out there. But are there some statistics about average user space?
I guess with 1k+ Users the average would be nice to plan with.
Right now we run in a circle like:
How much will it cost per user? => Depends on the Quota per user => Depens on how many users we expect => Depends on how much the Hardware will be => Depends on how much $$$ we can ask for. (this will be almost non-profit).
Right now i have a setup with about 500 Users and 1225GB which is about 2,45GB per User.
Is this also your experience? Or does it tend to to something totally different like 5TB per User in average?
Sounds to me, that you want to offer Nextcloud as a paid service. What you need is a platform, that you can easy scale out, as you need more storage and more compute power. And normaly you offer diffrent plans with diffrent prices depending on how much storage / compute power someone wants to buy. You could have a look at the prices and storage plans of already existing providers and then figure out what you need to compete them. I’m not an expert on how to provide scalable hosting platforms and business models arround it, but I get the impression that you maybe should hire someone who is
there is no such rule of thumb. it highly depends on what data your users save, if they mostly work on same data (group folder app may be an option) or if each user has it’s own unique data set.
2.5GB per user sounds small for me today. I have 30-50GB data @work, 70GB “data” @home, additionally 700GB “photographs and videos” @home - this doesn’t include multimedia files I don’t store in NC. this numbers don’t count as average and majority of user will have less but depending on the use case this is an important decision - a company which apply too tight quota and loose data or working time - because employees save their data on some USB disk - cuts the cost on the wrong side…
Expanding storage is pretty easy if you prepare in advance (like keep some free slots in the storage unit) - I would start with realistic estimates and extend if the demand grows. If you need to calculate the budget in advance there is no other way as to build a biggest solution you can afford and limit the users at this level (or below).
And don’t forget backups this multiplies your storage requirements… take a look at this discussion (German!) (completely different use case: few users with huge storage requirements, but relevant parameters are discussed)
