Commvault Cloud SaaS licensing is how Commvault meters its hosted backup and recovery services. Commvault runs the control plane and the backup storage, and the customer buys a subscription for each workload. The Master Terms apply to the SaaS Solution as well as the software. Under them the customer receives a revocable licence to the SaaS agent that is co-terminous with its SaaS access.[12] The Guide sells SaaS by subscription only, unless a product is listed in a cloud marketplace. SaaS tenants cannot mix licence modes.[6] This article also covers Clumio, Commvault’s backup service for AWS and Google Cloud, which is metered in credits.[13]
Editions
| Workload | Packages named by Commvault | Metric |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 | Standard, Enterprise, Enterprise with Compliance; additional Capacity; Premium Microsoft 365 Backup Storage[1][11] | Per user with pooled capacity; per GB per month (Premium storage) |
| Google Workspace | Standard, Enterprise, Capacity[2] | Per user with pooled capacity |
| Salesforce, Dynamics 365 | Commvault Cloud Backup & Recovery for Salesforce; for MS Dynamics 365[6] | Per user |
| Endpoint | Commvault Cloud Endpoint Backup; Endpoint Compliance Edition[6] | Per user (three devices) |
| Databases; File & Object | Commvault Cloud Backup & Recovery for Databases; for File & Object[6] | Per TB (peak front-end) |
| Virtual machines | Commvault Cloud Backup & Recovery for Virtual Environments[6] | Per 10 virtual machines |
| Active Directory / Entra ID | Active Directory Standard and Enterprise; per heartbeat or per enabled user[7][8] | Heartbeat (direct); enabled user (MSP, utility) |
| AirGap storage | Hot and Cool; Frequent, Infrequent and Archive tiers[6] | Per stored TB |
For Microsoft 365, the Standard package covers Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams backup with one-year retention. Enterprise adds archive mailboxes, recoverable items, SharePoint versioning, multi-geo support and self-service, with retention of 3 years by default and up to 10 years.[1] Compliance cannot be mixed with other M365 licence types. Enabling it commits the whole tenant to the Compliance level.[6] The VM subscription previously had Standard, Advanced and Enterprise tiers. Existing customers keep those tiers until their next renewal and then move to a single subscription.[9] Catalog SKUs: M365 Standard, M365 Enterprise, Endpoint Backup, Databases, File & Object, AirGap Hot, AirGap Cool.
Metrics
- Microsoft 365 user. Each Standard user includes 5 GB of front-end capacity and each Enterprise user 50 GB. The capacity is pooled across all M365 applications in the company, and the limits include inactive data. The documentation gives the formula as allotted capacity × users / 1024. For example, 3,500 Enterprise users give 170.89 TB.[1] Google Workspace uses the same scheme for Gmail and Google Drive.[2]
- Front-End Terabyte at monthly peak. For databases, files, objects and Kubernetes, usage is the peak front-end size protected in the month. Front-end size is measured before compression and deduplication.[4]
- Endpoint User. Users are counted from the user profiles discovered on backed-up computers.[10] A SaaS licence allows three devices per user.[6]
- Heartbeat and enabled user. For Active Directory protection, direct, channel and marketplace private offer customers are licensed by heartbeat, meaning all employees, including part-time and contract workers. MSP and marketplace utility customers are licensed per enabled user account.[7][8]
- Clumio credit. For each asset type and operation, the Clumio rate card lists the unit metered, the credits per unit and the dollars per unit.[13]
Counting / floors
Every entity protected in the period counts. Commvault defines total usage as “the total cumulative count of unique entities (as defined by a globally unique identifier) protected, in any capacity and for any duration, at any point during the billing period of measurement”.[3] Data or users protected on even one day of a month count for that month, even if they are later removed from the schedule or their backups are deleted. They drop out only in later months in which they are not backed up.[4][10] A short-lived test or migration therefore counts for the full month. Catalog: SaaS total usage counts every unique entity protected in the period; SaaS file and object data counts at monthly peak front-end size.
Microsoft 365 users. Exchange and OneDrive are counted together, so each person counts once. A mailbox with a Microsoft 365 (Exchange) licence counts as a user. Group, shared and unlicensed mailboxes consume capacity only. A OneDrive user counts only if it has both a OneDrive quota and a licence. SharePoint and Teams consume capacity only.[1] Capacity is calculated from client statistics, which update after every backup job. User and site statistics update weekly, so adding them up does not reproduce the client-level total.[1] For Google Workspace, educational institutions license staff only and need no licences for students.[2] Catalog: M365 packages include 5 GB or 50 GB per user, pooled; Shared and unlicensed mailboxes consume capacity only; Google Workspace education licensing counts staff only.
Salesforce. Only users whose Salesforce licence type is “Salesforce” count. Partner Community, Chatter, Experience Cloud, portal, site and authenticated website licences are excluded.[5] Catalog: Only Salesforce-type user licences count for Salesforce SaaS.
Workload overlaps. File data on virtual machines counts under the VM & Kubernetes subscription, not under File & Object. A physical server protected by both file system and database agents appears in both reports.[4] Databases on VMs count under the VM subscription. On the older tiered VM subscription, SQL Server and standalone Oracle moved a VM into the Advanced tier, while SAP HANA and Oracle RAC moved it into Enterprise.[9] Bundled AirGap storage for VMs and containers is measured on primary copies only. Snapshot and secondary copies are excluded.[16]
Fair use. For SaaS offerings sold with “unlimited” storage, the Guide publishes upper bounds of fair use. These are 100 GB per user for Microsoft 365, Google Workspace Enterprise, Salesforce and Dynamics 365, and 500 GB and three devices per Endpoint user. Total Active Directory accounts may be up to five times the heartbeats purchased. AirGap recovery may reach 5% (Infrequent) or 1% (Archive) of purchased capacity per month, averaged over a rolling 12 months. Above these levels Commvault Customer Success may contact the customer.[6] Catalog: SaaS fair-use ceilings: 100 GB per user and limited AirGap recovery.
Floors. The documentation names no minimum quantity. Premium Microsoft 365 Backup Storage is charged per GB per month, may incur overage charges and has no free trial.[11]
Enforcement and reducing usage
A Commvault Cloud tenant is in overage when the purchased user count or allocated capacity exceeds 100%. Alerts go to tenant administrators at 70%, 80%, 90% and 100% of capacity. At 100% a 60-day grace period begins. If the overage persists after it ends, backups stop.[1] For Active Directory, enforcement applies only to fixed purchases, not to utility subscriptions.[8] Under heartbeat licensing no usage is enforced: the Used column shows N/A and overage workflows do not trigger. The customer remains responsible for licensing the entire organisation.[7] Customers can reduce Microsoft 365 usage in several ways: remove mailboxes or OneDrive users from backup, exclude SharePoint sites or Teams items, lower retention, or delete backed-up data. Compliance lock blocks deletion and retention reduction.[1] Catalog: SaaS overage triggers a 60-day grace period before backups stop; AD user licences for MSP and utility customers are metered with overage enforcement; Heartbeat licensing must cover every employee.
Virtualization & partitioning
SaaS VM licensing counts virtual machines, in packs of ten.[6] Hypervisor sockets and cores are not counted. The mixing and VM detection rules described for customer-managed software apply at the tenant level. The Guide says that unauthorised mixes of licences “are not possible” in SaaS.[6]
Cloud / BYOL
SaaS fees do not include replication or egress fees charged by a cloud provider, and the customer is responsible for those fees. Some SaaS Solutions support only certain cloud storage tiers.[12] The customer must use the most current version of the SaaS Solution unless otherwise agreed.[12] Customer data is backed up to a data center in the customer’s country or in a region the customer selects, where available.[12]
Clumio
Clumio can be bought through AWS Marketplace, where it is billed through the customer’s AWS account, or invoiced directly by Clumio. A direct sign-up creates only a free trial.[17] Customers in Japan buy through a private offer in which Amazon Web Services Japan is the seller of record.[15] Prepaid-credit customers can see their available credits, their average daily usage and the days until credits run out or expire. Pay-as-you-go customers see only their average daily credit usage.[13] Long-retention tiers have minimum retention periods: one year for RDS SecureVault Archive, 180 days for S3 SecureVault Archive and 30 days for S3 SecureVault Standard. Deleting data early is charged for the full minimum period.[14] Catalog: Clumio charges the full minimum period on early deletion; program Cloud marketplace offerings.
Programs
- Subscription. Existing Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace customers were automatically enrolled in Enterprise with unlimited storage until their next renewal. At renewal they must buy a current package.[1] The Master Terms renew the Solution Term automatically unless either party gives notice 60 days before renewal.[12]
- Trial. A 30-day non-production trial. Commvault need not retain data during the trial.[12]
- Service Provider program. For MSPs, tenant administrators assign users to the Standard or Enterprise plan.[1]
Termination. When the Terms end, Commvault may delete customer data it has access to after 30 days. During those 30 days the customer has read-only and restore access to data backed up by the SaaS Solution.[12] Catalog: After termination only a limited recovery version may be used.
Out of scope
- Prices and the Clumio rate card values, which appear only in the customer portal and marketplace listings.
- ThreatWise, Cleanroom and Cloud Rewind service terms.
- Okta, Power BI, DevOps and AI application SaaS usage reports, which follow the same peak-usage model but were not analysed here.