Why is the Azure Archive tier the best way to store cold data?
Growing at a rate of 40% year-over year, Microsoft Azure cloud storage adoption is challenging AWS as it continues to differentiate itself. 95% of Fortune 500 companies use Azure to store, retrieve, and process their data. The Azure Archive tier is secure, cost-effective, and customizable to your needs. It’s ever-changing to meet the demands of your company. If you aren’t currently using this system – you are missing out on an effective storage solution. Let’s take a look at what Azure storage can do for you and the different features it offers.
Why you Need Azure Storage Accounts
Microsoft’s Azure storage offers tiers to find the most cost-effective solution for storing and accessing your data. If you need long-term storage that is not accessed very often, the lowest tier is a good option.
Hot, cool, and cold storage options are available so you can decide what data is you want to access fast. You can also decide what information to put away for long-term storage, which saves your company money by only paying for the amount of data you store.
You don’t have to be a large enterprise to use Microsoft’s Azure. Both small and medium-sized businesses benefit from the Azure cloud. The system integrates easily into your existing IT environment with a few easy steps – no matter what size storage your company needs.
Do you have internal or customer applications that people need periodically or for use on a regular basis? Azure storage allows employees to access these applications quickly without taking up precious in-house storage space. Storing the data and information in Azure storage reduces maintenance and hardware costs for the company.
Your business can have now powerful processing and storage to compete with larger companies with the cloud storage system. Both employees and customers will be happy with the data processing speed and application retrieval times.
What are Blob Storage Accounts?
Blob (Binary Large Object) storage accounts allow you to store unstructured data in Microsoft’s Azure storage cloud. Azure storage gives you a choice between hot, cold, or an archival tier depending on how you access the data.
The different storage designs are broken down further so you can choose the best package for your company. Best of all, each one comes with various price options to fit your budget.
Hot Storage Accounts
Hot storage accounts are for data that you frequently use or that is active in the background. If you are staging data for processing and plan on moving it to cold storage post-processing, the data is kept here until the move is complete.
Cold Storage Accounts
Cold storage is for disaster recovery or short-term backup. Information or media that is not viewed or in use very often is put into cold storage. While in cold storage, the data or information is available when you need it, the process just takes more time to retrieve.
For a cost-effective solution, large data sets are put into cold storage where they can be accessed in the future. This scenario is commonly used in manufacturing facilities or is a good option for scientific data.
Archive Access Tier
The Azure archive tier is the lowest-cost storage option that provides higher data retrieval when compared to the hot and cold storage accounts.
Once a blob is in storage, it cannot be modified, copied, or overwritten. Yet, existing operations grab metadata from or can change the tier on which the blob resides. Therefore, to read the data you have in the archive access tier, you need to change its tier. This process is called rehydration.
Rehydration can take some time depending on the amount of data you want to retrieve. For example, if you have less than 50 GB of data, it may take up to 15 hours to read it. Once the data is ready, it will be moved into the hot or cold storage tier.
Some examples of uses for the Azure archive tier storage include raw data that must be preserved, long-term backup, and compliance data that is not needed on a regular basis.
Benefits of Azure
Storing data on Microsoft Azure can decrease costs while freeing up resources and time. No longer will your company need to keep buying different types of storage in different areas when the need arises. Data will all be conveniently stored in one place and expanded as needed.
Monitoring your data is much easier with the Azure archive tier since it is all in one place. By using Azure, you will be able to access data in-house at your office or on the go during a business trip. All you will need is a solid internet connection to get the information you need.
The tiers allow you to pick the right storage and pricing for your company. When you need more or want to archive it, just simply switch it to cold storage or archive.
Do you already use Microsoft tools, such as OneDrive, SharePoint, etc.? If so, it is much easier to add Azure and integrate these tools together.
Azure allows for open architecture such as REST API and open-source client libraries like Android, Python, Java, etc.
Azure has automatic data checks are built in along with multiple redundancies. Furthermore, Microsoft is serious about security, so you can be sure your information will be safe.
These are just a few of the benefits you get once you start using Microsoft’s Azure.
They’re also some of the reasons why we chose to build Veritas Alta™ SaaS Protection, our backup and recovery solution for SaaS applications like Microsoft 365, on Azure. Veritas Alta SaaS Protection takes advantage of many Azure features automatically, so you can get the benefits of them without effort or worry.
Move Your Data with Ease
If you have data stored in different places and are unsure of how to get started with Azure archive tier, let us help you. Our team of experts will configure your data for a seamless integration.
Once your data is securely stored, you can get real-time analytics, so you know exactly what is happening in your cloud storage.
To learn more about Veritas Alta SaaS Protection and how it provides all the advantages Azure has to offer, contact us today to discuss and schedule a demo!
