Three Reasons Enterprise IT Teams Choose Squirrel Over AvePoint for SharePoint Archiving

Your archived data lands in your own Azure Blob Storage — not ours

Squirrel connects to your Microsoft 365 tenant and processes data through SmiKar’s secure Squirrel appliance. Archived documents are written directly into your own Azure Blob Storage account in your own Azure tenant. Your data never sits in SmiKar infrastructure — it goes straight into storage you own and control.

AvePoint Opus stores archived content in AvePoint-hosted Azure storage by default. Their Bring Your Own Storage option, which puts data into your own storage account, is priced higher per user per year than their standard plan.

For organisations in financial services, healthcare, government, or any sector with data residency requirements — paying extra to keep your own data in your own storage is a difficult position to justify to a compliance team. With Squirrel your archived data lands in your own Azure tenant as standard.

A focused setup engagement, not a drawn-out provisioning process

AvePoint’s own documentation recommends professional services for initial setup and configuration of AvePoint Opus. Their onboarding process involves a planning workshop, a provisioning phase, and a follow-up check-in four to six weeks later. Professional services are priced separately on application.

Squirrel includes a professional setup engagement to configure the environment correctly from day one. Our team works with you to get everything configured, tested, and running. Most enterprises are archiving within days of starting the engagement — not weeks into a provisioning process that has barely begun.
When your SharePoint storage warning is flashing at 95% capacity, the speed of that difference matters.

Purpose-built for SharePoint, not a platform trying to do everything

AvePoint Opus is an information lifecycle management platform covering SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, file servers, social media, physical records, and more. That breadth comes with corresponding complexity — multiple modules to purchase, a pricing structure that varies by user count and data volume across several components, and a substantial minimum commitment before the platform is operational.

Squirrel is purpose-built for one thing: SharePoint Online archiving. It does that one thing exceptionally well. The product is simpler to configure, faster to deploy, and easier for IT teams to manage on an ongoing basis. If your requirement is specifically SharePoint Online storage cost reduction a specialist tool built for that exact problem will outperform a broad platform every time.

Squirrel vs AvePoint Opus: Feature Comparison

Which Solution is Right for Your Organisation?

Choose Squirrel if:

• Your primary requirement is reducing SharePoint Online storage costs
• You need archived data stored in your own Azure Blob Storage with no third-party data retention
• You want to be archiving within days not weeks
• You need departed user Microsoft 365 data archiving alongside SharePoint archiving
• Your environment is Microsoft 365 and SharePoint Online focused
• You want predictable straightforward pricing without multiple module purchases
• You need Microsoft Copilot to remain effective across archived content via Nutshell AI stub summaries

AvePoint Opus may be a better fit if:

• You need to archive email, file servers, social media, or physical records alongside SharePoint
• You need a single platform vendor that also covers backup, migration, and governance across your entire Microsoft 365 estate
• You already use AvePoint for backup or migration and want a single vendor relationship

We would rather help you make the right decision than win a deal that is not the right fit. If your requirement is specifically SharePoint Online archiving with data sovereignty, fast deployment, and straightforward pricing, request a Squirrel demo and we will show you exactly how it works and where your data goes, within 48 hours.

This is why many organisations see storage usage rise even after large clean-up projects. In some cases, deleting old files actually increases total storage usage. And once the tenant reaches its allocated limit, Microsoft begins charging monthly overage fees that grow as storage continues to increase. For companies dealing with active collaboration, heavy file churn, or large historical project archives, the financial impact can escalate quickly.

Squirrel now provides a way to prevent this completely — without disabling retention, breaking compliance, or changing how users work. But before explaining how, we need to clearly understand what the Preservation Hold Library is and why it behaves the way it does.

Why the Preservation Hold Library Exists

Microsoft 365 is designed to support regulatory, governance, and legal protection standards. Many organisations are required to retain business records for a set period — often 2, 5, or even 7+ years — even if users attempt to delete or overwrite them. To enforce this, SharePoint does not allow permanent deletion when any of the following are active:

• Retention Policies
• Retention Labels
• Litigation Hold
• eDiscovery Hold

If a file is modified or deleted, SharePoint is obligated to keep the original, unaltered copy. That preserved copy must remain accessible for audit or legal discovery for the duration of the retention period. Rather than blocking users from deleting files—which would be disruptive—SharePoint allows the deletion to appear to succeed, but quietly stores the preserved version in the Preservation Hold Library, invisible to the person who deleted it.

The result is that the organisation stays compliant, the user continues working as normal, but storage consumption increases in ways that are neither obvious nor intuitive.

Why Storage Goes Up When Files Are Deleted

 This is the part that causes the most confusion.

Let’s consider a simple real-world scenario:

A project team completes a body of work and decides to clean up hundreds of gigabytes of old documents. They delete the files from the library and even empty the recycle bin. The site now appears to be almost empty.

However, a week later the Microsoft 365 storage report shows that total SharePoint storage has gone up, not down.

This happens because every file that was deleted was automatically copied into the Preservation Hold Library. And if those files had multiple versions — which is common with documents that evolve over time — every one of those versions is also retained. So deleting 200GB of documents may easily result in 300GB+ being stored in the PHL.

The more aggressively users try to clean up data in a retention-controlled environment, the faster the PHL grows.

This is why many organisations see storage spike immediately after “data clean-up initiatives.”

Why This Becomes a Cost Problem

When your organisation exceeds its Microsoft 365 storage allocation, Microsoft charges for additional storage every month. These are not one-time charges — they accumulate indefinitely and increase as retained data accumulates.

Meanwhile, storing that same data in Azure Blob Storage costs a fraction of the price — often 20× to 100× cheaper depending on the tier.

So the problem is not just that the PHL grows — it’s that it grows in the most expensive place possible.

This is why many organisations see storage spike immediately after “data clean-up initiatives.”

Why Traditional Fixes Don’t Work

Most organisations try the obvious steps first:

• Deleting old files

• Emptying recycle bins

• Asking users to clean their sites

• Using third-party file cleanup tools

• Manually exporting content to external drives

None of these work, because retention overrides deletion. As long as retention is active, SharePoint is obligated to preserve the file — whether or not users want it deleted.

This isn’t a technical problem.
It’s a governance rule.
So the solution must respect governance.

And that’s where Squirrel’s new feature comes in.

How Squirrel Stops the PHL From Growing (Without Breaking Retention)

Squirrel has always archived inactive content into low-cost Azure Blob storage while leaving a stub file behind in SharePoint so users can still open the document as if it were still stored there.

Now, Squirrel adds the ability to intercept deletions.

Recycle Bin Monitoring (New Feature)

When enabled:

• A user deletes a file in SharePoint.
• Squirrel detects the deletion.
• Squirrel archives the file directly to your Azure Blob storage, under your retention policies.
• Squirrel leaves a stub behind in SharePoint so users can still open the file in the same way as before.

The result:

• The file is still retained (compliant)

• The file is still accessible (stub handles retrieval)

• But SharePoint never stores it in the PHL

• Storage stops growing

• Costs drop to a fraction of what they were

This does not disable retention.
This does not circumvent compliance.
This simply changes where the retained file lives.

Instead of being stored in Microsoft’s high-cost SharePoint database tiers, it is stored in your much cheaper Azure Blob storage, fully controlled by you.

Why This Is the Correct, Safe, Long-Term Strategy

This approach:

• Respects retention rules

• Preserves audit and discovery access

• Prevents storage blowouts

• Avoids manual cleanup cycles

• Does not require retraining users

• Does not change how people interact with files

Nothing about how users work changes.
Nothing about your compliance posture changes.
Only the storage location changes — and the cost of that storage drops dramatically.

Summary

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Why does SharePoint storage increase even when files are deleted?

A: If retention policies or legal holds are active, SharePoint cannot permanently remove content. Instead, deleted files are copied into the Preservation Hold Library, which still consumes storage.

Q: Where is the Preservation Hold Library and why can’t users see it?

A: The PHL is a hidden system library. It is only visible to Site Collection Administrators and does not appear in normal document library views. Microsoft hides it to prevent accidental modification or deletion of retained records.

Q: Does emptying the Recycle Bin remove the files from the Preservation Hold Library?

A: No. The Recycle Bin is only the first stage of deletion. If retention is enabled, the file is preserved in the PHL even after the recycle bin is emptied. Storage usage does not decrease.

Q: If we turn off retention policies, will the PHL empty itself automatically?

A: No. Disabling a retention policy does not purge existing retained data. The files remain until the retention period expires or they are removed using a controlled remediation process.

Q: Can we delete or purge the Preservation Hold Library to reclaim storage?

A: Not while retention applies. Purging data still under retention is a compliance violation and can expose the organisation to legal and regulatory risk.

Q: Why does deleting old project sites or folders sometimes increase storage?

A: Because deleting large amounts of data triggers large batch preservation events, which can cause the PHL to grow significantly, especially when multiple versions of files are retained.

Q: Can we still meet legal and regulatory retention requirements if we archive data outside of SharePoint?

A: Yes, as long as the archived data is stored in a compliant, tamper-resistant, and retrievable format. Squirrel preserves metadata and access integrity while storing files in your Azure Blob Storage, which meets retention requirements.

Q: How does Squirrel prevent the Preservation Hold Library from growing?

A: Squirrel’s Recycle Bin Monitoring intercepts deletion events. Instead of letting the file fall into the PHL, Squirrel archives it directly to Azure Blob Storage and leaves a lightweight stub file in SharePoint for seamless access.

Q: Do users still access archived or deleted files in the same way?

A: Yes. When users click the stub in SharePoint, Squirrel retrieves the file from Azure and opens it normally. There is no change to user workflow and no retraining required.

Q: How much can we reduce storage costs by archiving instead of using the PHL?

A: Typically 20 to 100 times less, depending on the Azure storage tier. SharePoint storage overages are costly, while Azure Blob Storage is designed for long-term, low-cost retention.

How SharePoint Storage Allocation Works

Your tenant’s storage limit is determined by Microsoft 365 licensing:

• 10 GB base storage per tenant

• + 10 GB per licensed user

Example:

This storage is shared across:

• SharePoint Online sites

• Microsoft Teams files

• OneDrive for Business accounts

• The Preservation Hold Library (if retention or legal hold is enabled)

Over time, these workloads accumulate content faster than expected, especially in organisations with:

• Project or engineering document repositories

• Large Teams channels and video call recordings

• Active retention / compliance policies

• High staff turnover (departing user OneDrives pile up)

• Multiple business units collaborating in shared libraries

What Happens When You Hit the SharePoint Storage Limit

When your storage consumption reaches 90–95%, you may see:

Overage charges are not one-off—they continue every month.

Why Deleting Files Usually Doesn’t Work

Most organisations attempt deletion first. Two problems arise:

• Retention policies prevent permanent deletion
  Files go to the Preservation Hold Library, which still consumes storage.

• Users can’t reliably determine what is safe to delete
  Deletion risks breaking collaboration context, version history, and audit trails.

So even when large folders are removed, overall tenant storage doesn’t change.

Step 1: Identify Where Storage Is Being Consumed

Check Storage Usage in Microsoft 365 Admin Center

• Go to SharePoint Admin Center

• Select Sites → Active Sites

• Sort by Storage Used

Look specifically for:

This analysis identifies where optimisation efforts provide immediate value.

Step 2: Address Departed Employee OneDrives (Fastest Storage Win)

When staff leave, their OneDrive is typically preserved for compliance reasons. Over time, this results in massive storage accumulation that provides no operational value.

Correct Approach (No Risk)

• Export or archive the user’s OneDrive

• Store it in long-term low-cost cloud storage

• Remove the original OneDrive container from the tenant

This process instantly frees capacity.

Chipmunk automates this:

• Archives departed user OneDrive, Exchange, and Teams data

• Preserves metadata and searchability

• Allows controlled, auditable access for investigation or continuity

• Safely removes the original OneDrive to reclaim storage

More info: https://www.smikar.com/chipmunk-automated-user-archiving/

Step 3: Archive Inactive SharePoint Content Without Breaking Access

For SharePoint sites that contain old project or historical content, the goal is to move inactive files to cheaper storage while keeping them accessible.

The Archive Pattern That Works

• Identify files older than X months

• Move them to Azure Blob or cold storage

• Leave a lightweight placeholder (stub) behind

• Users can still open the file normally

This allows:

• No change to user experience

• No broken links

• No permission changes

• No retraining

This is the core function of Squirrel:

• Automatically archives files from SharePoint to Azure Blob Storage

• Leaves stub files so users access archived content as usual

• Supports metadata retention, version history capture, and audit compliance

• Reduces storage consumption significantly and permanently

More info: https://www.smikar.com/squirrel

Step 4: Prevent the Storage Problem from Returning

Once storage is stabilised:

This shifts the organisation from reactive cleanup to predictable storage lifecycle management.

Summary

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What happens when you hit the SharePoint storage limit? A: File uploads fail immediately. Microsoft Teams stops provisioning new sites. SharePoint indexing slows down. Microsoft begins applying overage charges automatically at their published per GB rate. The impact is felt across your entire Microsoft 365 tenant, not just individual sites.

Q: How do I check my current SharePoint storage usage? A: Go to the Microsoft 365 admin centre, select SharePoint under Admin centres, then go to Settings and Storage limits. This shows your total allocated storage, current usage, and remaining capacity across your entire tenant.

Q: Why is my SharePoint storage growing so fast? A: The most common causes are document versioning retaining large numbers of old file versions, the Preservation Hold Library accumulating copies of modified and deleted documents under retention policies, Teams file storage growing as more channels and sites are created, and inactive content from old projects and departed users remaining in primary storage indefinitely.

Q: Can I delete the Preservation Hold Library to reclaim storage? A: No. The Preservation Hold Library cannot be deleted while retention policies are active. Attempting to delete it would be a compliance violation. The correct approach is to manage what goes into it and archive content before it becomes subject to a retention event.

Q: What is the cheapest way to get more SharePoint storage? A: Archiving inactive documents to Azure Blob Storage is significantly cheaper than purchasing additional Microsoft 365 storage. Azure Blob Cool tier costs approximately $0.01 per GB per month compared to Microsoft’s SharePoint overage rate. Squirrel automates this archiving process so storage costs reduce continuously rather than requiring manual intervention.

Q: Will archiving documents affect how users find and access them? A: No. When Squirrel archives a document it leaves a stub file in the original SharePoint location. The stub retains the file name and metadata so the document still appears in SharePoint Search results. Users can restore the full document with a single click directly from SharePoint with no IT involvement required.