When planning your subscription on the inmydata platform, it's important to consider how much data you intend to store. The subscription cost is affected by storage volume, so making efficient decisions about the data you include can help manage costs without compromising value.


How Data is Stored

Data on the inmydata platform is stored in a specialist analytics database. In general, data will occupy a similar amount of space as it would in a traditional relational database. If you're already familiar with the size of your data in other SQL-based systems, you can use that as a baseline estimate.


Scoping Data for Analytics and AI

For analytics and AI purposes, it is rarely necessary to transfer your entire operational database. Instead, consider:

  • Relevance of Data: Focus on the data that will deliver insights or support your AI models. For example, operational logs or temporary tables may not be necessary.

  • Historical Range: Most users find that a rolling 5-year dataset is sufficient for trend analysis and forecasting. Limiting the historical range reduces your storage footprint.

Managing Large String Values

Text-heavy fields such as descriptions, comments, or logs can significantly increase storage size. Carefully assess whether these are essential for your analytics or AI use cases. If your project relies heavily on unstructured text (e.g., product reviews, support tickets), we recommend:

  • Using document storage or implementing a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architecture.

  • Our AI consultancy services can help set up and optimize these solutions to ensure performance and cost-effectiveness.

Using Lookup Tables to Reduce Redundancy

The inmydata platform supports lookup tables to promote efficient data structuring. For example:

  • Instead of repeating full product details in every sales record, you can import a separate product table and reference each product using a unique ID.

  • This approach not only reduces the data volume but also makes it easy to update reference information (e.g., product names) without touching historical records.

Proof of Concept (POC) Option

If you're unsure how much storage you'll need, we offer the option to upload a sample dataset as part of a Proof of Concept (POC). This allows you to:

  • Measure actual storage usage

  • Refine your data strategy

  • Make more accurate cost projections before committing to a full deployment

See here for details on what data to share for a POC, and how to share.

If you need further guidance on optimizing your data for the platform or want to explore document-based AI use cases, our team is here to help.

Contact Support or reach out to your inmydata consultant to get started.