Start with one business, one pool
In the GridOnBoard product model, a business starts with a 250 GB storage pool. Mail, files, websites and eligible customer backups share that allowance. Purchased storage add-ons increase the same pool; adding another website does not create a second 250 GB allowance.
Keep each client business separate when you work through an agency. Space left over by one client is not spare capacity for another. Within a business, sharing storage capacity also does not give employees access to each other’s private files or mail.
This guide explains how to plan. GridOnBoard remains in private preview; the full paid storage, hosting and backup journey is still being qualified. The example below does not provision capacity, create a reservation or describe a real customer.
Measure what you have before dividing it up
Make a small inventory from your existing services. Record the measurement date, the owner and the current used space for each category. Use the same GB unit throughout so the totals are comparable.
- Mail: include message bodies and stored attachments, not just the number of mailboxes.
- Files: include active team folders, employee files and stored versions where those versions count toward the allowance.
- Websites: include media, uploads and any other site data covered by the storage policy. Count all websites belonging to this business.
- Eligible customer backups: use the copies and retention that the service actually stores and counts. Do not assume a backup is the same size as the live data or that it deduplicates it.
A worked 250 GB example
Suppose a small business chooses the following planning targets. These are illustrative numbers, not automatic quotas imposed on each product. The 40 GB headroom is unused capacity that the business chooses to leave available.
| Category | Target | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| 60 GB | Messages and stored attachments | |
| Files | 90 GB | Shared and employee file storage |
| Websites | 20 GB | Combined storage for this business’s sites |
| Eligible customer backups | 40 GB | Retained copies counted by the storage policy |
| Free headroom | 40 GB | Unallocated space for changes and growth |
| Total pool | 250 GB | One business |
If the business adds a second website needing 5 GB, that site uses 5 GB from this same pool. It does not come with a new 250 GB. If the original website allocation was already fully used, the example’s free headroom would fall from 40 GB to 35 GB.
Look at growth, not only today’s total
Compare two measurements taken a month apart. If used space rose from 200 GB to 210 GB, the observed net growth was 10 GB that month. In a 250 GB pool you then have 40 GB free, so that rate suggests roughly four months of headroom. This is a planning estimate, not a forecast: a large upload or a new backup schedule can change it immediately.
Before a website launch, migration or team expansion, estimate the temporary peak as well as the final size. Old and new copies may coexist during a migration. A safe plan leaves space for that overlap instead of relying on deleting the old copy before the new one has been checked.
Review the cause before choosing an add-on
Check whether growth comes from useful new work, accidental duplicates, unexpectedly large website media or retention settings. Confirm ownership and recovery needs before removing data. A backup is valuable only if it contains the right material and can be restored.
If the additional space is needed, size the add-on for the expected work and leave sensible headroom. The confirmed GridOnBoard additional-storage catalog is +250 GB at $7.50/month, +500 GB at $15/month and +1 TB at $25/month. These are storage add-ons, not the price of the whole platform. Checkout and verified capacity activation remain in development.
Storage size is only one part of website planning. CPU, memory and traffic limits are separate from stored bytes; extra disk allowance alone does not establish how many visitors a website can handle.
A monthly review you can actually use
Assign one person to keep the inventory current, then review these questions before the next storage decision:
- How much is used by mail, files, all websites and eligible backups today?
- How much did each category grow since the last measurement?
- Which launch, upload or migration could create a short-term peak?
- Do the retained backups still match the recovery needs, and when was a restore last checked?
- How much free space should remain after the next planned change, and who can authorize additional storage?
Keep the answers with the figures. A short explanation of why space changed is often more useful than a total with no context.