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Immutable cloud storage for Commvault: which vendors its WORM lock supports, and the year's bill

Prices checked · Commvault's documentation read

Commvault's own list of storage its WORM lock supports names 5 of the 18 vendors we price. For 10 TB of Commvault backups kept 30 days with WORM storage lock on, Oracle OCI Object Storage Infrequent Access costs least over a year with one full restore: $3,007.23, that is $242.58 a normal month and $338.85 the month you restore everything.

The lock makes the bucket hold your backups twice. With WORM storage lock on, Commvault seals its deduplication database every 30 days (the retention, never less than 7), and the next backups write every block again as a new baseline. Each object stays locked for the retention plus that seal period, 60 days. So 10 TB of backups fills about 26 TB of bucket: two full copies and 60 days of changes, what Commvault calls "more than 2x the protected front-end data size". Commvault, Configuring WORM Storage Lock · Sealing the Deduplication Database · WORM Storage and Retention

Storage Commvault can lock, cheapest year first

One row per vendor on Commvault's list: its cheapest class Commvault names for that vendor and can read at once. Ranked on 11 normal months and one month you restore all 10 TB, with each class's minimum storage period counted on the data that leaves the bucket at 60 days.

#OfferWhereYear with one restoreNormal monthMonth you restoreHow Commvault locks itChecked
1 Oracle OCI Object Storage Infrequent Access United States (Ashburn) $3,007.23 $242.58 $338.85 A retention rule on the bucket
2 Azure Blob Storage Cold LRS Bills each object for at least 90 days: data leaving at 60 days adds $43.59 a month United States (East US) $3,176.79 $160.01 $1,416.68 Each blob version locked
3 Amazon S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval Bills each object for at least 90 days: data leaving at 60 days adds $48.43 a month United States (Northern Virginia) $3,337.43 $177.79 $1,381.74 Each object locked, compliance mode
4 Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage Bills each object for at least 90 days: data leaving at 60 days adds $94.47 a month United States (US East 1) $3,400.92 $283.41 $283.41 Each object locked, compliance mode
5 Google Cloud Storage Coldline Bills each object for at least 90 days: data leaving at 60 days adds $48.43 a month Archive costs less per TB, but its 365-day minimum makes it $257.77 a month here United States (South Carolina) $3,519.00 $177.69 $1,564.41 Each object locked

The list is Commvault's: Supported Vendors for WORM storage lock, read 25 October 2026. Oracle is on it with a retention rule set on the bucket rather than a lock on each object; the others lock each object as Commvault writes it, in compliance mode on S3 storage.

Cheaper, but not on Commvault's list: OVHcloud Object Storage ($1,306.96), IDrive e2 ($1,872.00), Backblaze B2 ($2,167.56) and Storj ($2,254.00) would each cost less over the year than Oracle OCI Object Storage. They offer S3 Object Lock in compliance mode, the lock Commvault uses on S3-compatible storage, but Commvault's list does not name them, so ask Commvault before you build a WORM copy on one.

Price your own Commvault copy Open it on the restore bill

The calculator opens on this workload with Object Lock required, ranked on a year with one restore. It does not know Commvault's vendor list, the minimum-stay charge on data leaving at 60 days or Commvault's smaller restore reads, so its order and amounts can differ: check a vendor against the table above.

Every seal sends the whole backup again

After each seal, the next backups upload every block as a new baseline: all 10 TB every 30 days, on top of the day's changes. At a full 1 Gbit/s that is about 22 h of uploading, so schedule the first backups after a seal for a window that can take it, and check that your line, not only the bucket, can carry 13 TB a month. Commvault writes deduplicated data as 8 MB objects, so that is 1.63 million uploads a month, each one a billed request at Oracle OCI Object Storage, Azure Blob Storage, Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage; Wasabi charges nothing for them. A restore reads the data back in pieces of up to 1 MB, at least 9.54 million reads for 10 TB. Commvault, Sealing the Deduplication Database · Cloud Storage Building Block Guide

After a seal, check that the old copy leaves

Commvault deletes a sealed deduplication database, and the blocks it wrote to the bucket, only once all its backups have aged and their volumes are deleted. Until then the bucket keeps that whole copy, and you pay for it. Here each sealed database should be gone about 60 days after it was sealed. To see when it will go, run the Data Retention Forecast and Compliance Report in the CommCell Console: for each storage policy copy it gives the deduplication database's estimated recycle date and, for any backup kept past its retention, the reason it was not aged. A sealed database whose date keeps moving, or a backup held for a reason you did not expect, is a copy you are still paying to store. Commvault, Default Data Views for the Data Retention Forecast and Compliance Report · Report overview

Keep backups longer or shorter, and the bucket changes

Commvault seals the database at the retention you set, so the retention decides how often the whole backup goes up again and how long each object stays locked. The same 10 TB, with 100 GB of new blocks a day, at other retentions:

Backups keptSealed everyEach object lockedBucket holdsUploaded a monthCheapest on Commvault's listYear with one restore
7 days 7 days 14 days 21.4 TB 45.9 TB Oracle OCI Object Storage Infrequent Access $5,414.07
14 days 14 days 28 days 22.8 TB 24.4 TB Oracle OCI Object Storage Infrequent Access $2,928.40
30 days (this page) 30 days 60 days 26 TB 13 TB Oracle OCI Object Storage Infrequent Access $3,007.23
45 days 45 days 90 days 29 TB 9.7 TB Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage $2,528.88
90 days 90 days 180 days 38 TB 6.3 TB Azure Blob Storage Cold LRS $2,956.47

A shorter retention seals more often, so it uploads more: at 7 days the whole 10 TB goes up every 7 days. From 45 days kept, each object stays locked at least 90 days, so a class that bills every object for 90 days costs nothing extra. Of these, 45 days gives the cheapest year: $2,528.88 at Wasabi, against $3,007.23 at 30 days. Each year is ranked as the table above ranks it: 11 normal months and one month you restore all 10 TB.

Vendors not on the list, and why

  • Akamai Cloud Object Storage, Hetzner Object Storage, IDrive e2, OVHcloud Object Storage, Scaleway Object Storage, Storj and Telnyx Cloud Storage: not confirmed. Not on Commvault's list of WORM storage, though each offers S3 Object Lock in compliance mode, the lock Commvault uses on S3-compatible storage. If Commvault's lock works there, OVHcloud Object Storage ($1,306.96 a year), IDrive e2 ($1,872.00) and Storj ($2,254.00) would each rank first.
  • Backblaze B2: not confirmed. Commvault lists Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage as storage it can write to, but not as storage its WORM lock supports, though it offers S3 Object Lock in compliance mode, the lock Commvault uses on S3-compatible storage. If Commvault's lock works there, it would rank first, at $2,167.56 a year.
  • DigitalOcean Spaces and Tigris: not confirmed. Their documentation names no Object Lock, and they are not on Commvault's list of WORM vendors.
  • Vultr Object Storage: not confirmed. Its pages leave Object Lock support unclear, and it is not on Commvault's list of WORM vendors.
  • Cloudflare R2: has its own bucket retention rules, not S3 Object Lock, and is not on Commvault's list of WORM vendors.
  • Filebase: documents no Object Lock, and is not on Commvault's list of WORM vendors.

An unconfirmed vendor is not ruled out: Commvault's pages do not say enough to rank it. Ask Commvault, and the vendor, before you build an immutable copy on one.

Before you turn on the lock

What Commvault's documentation asks for, in the order you meet it:

  1. Create the bucket with Object Lock on and its default retention off, or set to 0 days: Commvault sets the retention on every object itself. On Azure, create a container with version-level immutability support; on Google Cloud, Commvault locks objects only in a bucket created for it. Configuring WORM Storage Lock
  2. Give Commvault's credentials the right to set retention: the PutObjectRetention permission on Amazon S3, storage.objects.setRetention on Google Cloud, the Storage Blob Data Owner role on Azure. Configuring WORM Storage Lock
  3. On S3-compatible storage such as Wasabi, add a lifecycle rule that removes delete markers; it can run as early as 1 day after they are created. Configuring WORM Storage Lock
  4. Set the retention before you switch the lock on. Switching it on cannot be undone and the retention cannot be lowered afterwards; if it was switched on by mistake, Commvault's advice is a new storage pool on a new bucket. Configuring WORM Storage Lock
  5. Keep extended retention off the WORM storage pool, and send the deduplication database and index backups somewhere else. Configuring WORM Storage Lock

How the bills are worked out

10 TB of backups as Commvault stores them after compression, 100 GB of new blocks a day, kept 30 days in a deduplicated storage pool with WORM storage lock on. Commvault then seals the deduplication database every 30 days and the next backups write every block again, and each object is locked 60 days, so the bucket holds about 26 TB, two full copies and 60 days of changes, in 8 MB objects: 3.25 million objects, 13 TB uploaded a month as 1.63 million uploads, and 13 TB deleted a month at 60 days old. Nothing is downloaded in a normal month; the month you restore, all 10 TB is downloaded over the internet, read back in pieces of up to 1 MB, which is at least 9.54 million reads.

Each bill comes from the vendor's own published rates through the same engine as the calculator, checked on the date beside it. Every month, the 13 TB written 60 days earlier leaves the bucket, and a class whose minimum storage period is longer bills the days left at its storage rate, as the vendor's own early-deletion rule says. The month you restore adds reading the 10 TB back in pieces of up to 1 MB and downloading it. Commvault removes a sealed database's data only once all its backups have aged and its locks have run out, so data can stay longer than 60 days: the storage here is the least these settings keep. Listing, metadata and retention calls are left out.

Related: immutable storage for Veeam · immutable backup storage for any tool · what Object Lock is · minimum storage periods · what a full restore costs

Commvault's pages behind this list