Module 2: Azure Architecture and Services

Azure Storage Tiers
& Management

Master Azure storage optimization through access tiers (Hot, Cool, Archive), redundancy options, lifecycle management, and cost control strategies. Learn to balance performance, availability, and cost for optimal storage solutions.

Access Tiers Redundancy Options Lifecycle Management Cost Optimization

Learning Objectives

After completing this session, you'll be ready for Quiz 16 and able to:

Compare Hot, Cool, and Archive access tiers
Understand storage redundancy options (LRS, ZRS, GRS, RA-GRS)
Configure lifecycle management policies
Choose appropriate storage account types and performance tiers
Implement storage security features like soft delete
Optimize storage costs with reserved capacity
Use Azure tools for storage management and analysis
Apply minimum duration requirements for access tiers

Azure Storage Access Tiers - Optimize Cost vs Access

Azure Blob Storage offers three access tiers that allow you to optimize costs based on how frequently you access your data. Think of it like organizing your closet - frequently used items up front (expensive space but easy access), seasonal items in storage (cheaper but takes time to retrieve).

Hot Tier

Most Expensive Storage

Optimized for frequent access - your data is ready when you need it!

💰 Cost Structure

  • • Storage Cost: Highest per GB
  • • Access Cost: Lowest per operation
  • • No minimum duration requirements

⚡ Performance

  • • Access Time: Immediate (milliseconds)
  • • Best for: Active data, websites, applications
  • • Availability: 99.9% (LRS) to 99.99% (RA-GRS)

🎯 Use Cases

  • • Active website content and images
  • • Application data accessed daily
  • • Content being actively modified

Cool Tier

Balanced Cost

Perfect balance for infrequently accessed data with 30-day minimum!

💰 Cost Structure

  • • Storage Cost: Lower than Hot
  • • Access Cost: Higher than Hot
  • • Minimum Duration: 30 days

⚡ Performance

  • • Access Time: Immediate (milliseconds)
  • • Best for: Short-term backup, disaster recovery
  • • Availability: Same as Hot tier

🎯 Use Cases

  • • Data accessed less than once per month
  • • Short-term backup and disaster recovery
  • • Data stored for at least 30 days

Archive Tier

Lowest Storage Cost

Ultra-low cost for rarely accessed data with 180-day commitment!

💰 Cost Structure

  • • Storage Cost: Lowest per GB
  • • Access Cost: Highest (rehydration required)
  • • Minimum Duration: 180 days

⚡ Performance

  • • Access Time: 1-15 hours (rehydration)
  • • Rehydration: Required before access
  • • Priority Options: Standard vs High priority

🎯 Use Cases

  • • Long-term backup and compliance data
  • • Media archives and historical records
  • • Data rarely accessed (less than once per year)

🧠 Quiz 16 Key Facts - Access Tiers

Early Deletion Charges
  • • Hot: No minimum duration
  • • Cool: 30-day minimum
  • • Archive: 180-day minimum
  • • Moving before minimum = penalty charges
Rehydration Process
  • • Standard Priority: Up to 15 hours
  • • High Priority: Under 1 hour (< 10GB)
  • • Data must be rehydrated before access
  • • Rehydration incurs additional costs
Cost Optimization Tips
  • • Frequent access (>1/month) = Hot
  • • Infrequent access (30+ days) = Cool
  • • Rarely accessed (180+ days) = Archive
  • • Use lifecycle policies for automation

Remember for Quiz: Archive tier has the lowest storage cost but requires 1-15 hours for rehydration and has 180-day minimum duration!

Storage Redundancy Options - Protect Your Data

Azure Storage provides multiple redundancy options to protect your data against hardware failures, datacenter outages, and regional disasters. Choose the right level of protection based on your durability and availability requirements.

Local & Zone Redundancy

LRS - Locally Redundant Storage

Durability: 99.999999999% (11 nines)

Copies: 3 within single datacenter

Cost: Lowest option

Protection: Hardware failures

Best for: Cost-sensitive workloads, data that can be easily reconstructed

ZRS - Zone Redundant Storage

Durability: 99.9999999999% (12 nines)

Copies: 3 across availability zones

Cost: Higher than LRS

Protection: Datacenter failures

Best for: High availability applications, compliance requirements

Geographic Redundancy

GRS - Geo Redundant Storage

Durability: 99.99999999999999% (16 nines)

Copies: LRS + LRS in paired region

Cost: Higher than ZRS

Protection: Regional disasters

Best for: Business-critical data, disaster recovery scenarios

RA-GRS - Read-Access GRS

Durability: Same as GRS (16 nines)

Read Access: Secondary region available

Cost: Highest geo option

Availability: 99.99% read availability

Best for: Applications needing read access during regional outages

Advanced Geo-Zone Redundant Storage (GZRS)

GZRS - Maximum Protection
  • • Primary Region: ZRS (3 availability zones)
  • • Secondary Region: LRS (3 copies)
  • • Durability: 99.99999999999999% (16 nines)
  • • Cost: Highest redundancy option

Combines ZRS protection in primary region with geo-redundancy

RA-GZRS - Read Access
  • • All GZRS Benefits: Maximum durability
  • • Read Access: Secondary region available
  • • Availability: Highest possible (99.99%)
  • • Use Case: Mission-critical applications

Ultimate protection with read access to secondary region

Quiz Tip: GZRS provides the highest level of durability and availability by combining zone redundancy with geo-redundancy!

Choosing the Right Redundancy Option

Development/Test
LRS

Cost-effective for non-critical data

Production Apps
ZRS

High availability within region

Business Critical
GRS

Regional disaster protection

Mission Critical
GZRS

Maximum protection available

Remember: Higher redundancy = Higher cost but Better protection. Balance your requirements with budget!

Storage Account Types & Performance Tiers

Storage Account Types

General-purpose v2 (Recommended)
  • • Supports all Azure Storage services
  • • All access tiers available
  • • Latest features and performance
  • • Best price/performance ratio

Use for: Most scenarios, new deployments

BlockBlobStorage (Premium)
  • • Premium performance for block blobs
  • • Low latency, high transaction rates
  • • Only Hot access tier
  • • SSD-backed storage

Use for: High-performance applications

FileStorage (Premium)
  • • Premium performance for file shares
  • • Enterprise-grade file shares
  • • High IOPS and throughput
  • • Protocol: SMB and NFS

Use for: Enterprise applications, databases

General-purpose v1 (Legacy)
  • • Older account type
  • • Limited features compared to v2
  • • No access tier support
  • • Upgrade to v2 recommended

Use for: Legacy scenarios (upgrade recommended)

Performance Tiers

Standard Tier

Storage Type: HDD-backed

Max IOPS: 20,000 per account

Max Throughput: 10 Gbps per account

Cost: Lower per GB

Latency: Higher than premium

Best for: General workloads

Premium Tier

Storage Type: SSD-backed

Max IOPS: 100,000+ per account

Max Throughput: Up to 50 Gbps

Cost: Higher per GB

Latency: Single-digit milliseconds

Best for: High-performance apps

🎯 Selection Criteria
  • • Standard: Cost-sensitive, general workloads
  • • Premium: Low latency, high IOPS requirements
  • • Consider: Application requirements vs cost

📏 Storage Capacity Limits (Quiz 16 Important)

General-purpose v2 Account
5 PB

Maximum storage account capacity

*No practical limit for most use cases

Premium File Share
100 TB

Maximum file share size

*Per individual file share

Standard File Share
100 TB

Maximum file share size

*With large file shares enabled

Quiz Fact: General-purpose v2 supports all Azure Storage services and all access tiers - it's the recommended account type for most scenarios!

Storage Lifecycle Management - Automate Tier Transitions

Azure Storage lifecycle management automatically moves your data between access tiers based on rules you define, optimizing storage costs without manual intervention. Set policies based on when data was last accessed, modified, or created.

📅 Automated Lifecycle Flow

Hot Tier

Active data accessed frequently

New data starts here

After 30 days

No access

Cool Tier

Infrequently accessed data

Lower storage cost

After 90 days

No access

Archive Tier

Rarely accessed data

Lowest storage cost

Common Lifecycle Policies

Basic Policy
  • • Move to Cool after 30 days of no access
  • • Move to Archive after 90 days of no access
  • • Delete after 7 years (compliance)
Backup Policy
  • • Move to Cool after 1 day (backups rarely accessed)
  • • Move to Archive after 30 days
  • • Keep for regulatory retention period
Log Data Policy
  • • Keep in Hot for 7 days (recent analysis)
  • • Move to Cool after 7 days
  • • Archive after 1 year, delete after 3 years

Policy Configuration

Rule Conditions
  • • Last Access: Based on when data was last accessed
  • • Last Modified: Based on when data was last modified
  • • Creation Date: Based on when blob was created
  • • Blob Type: Apply to specific blob types only
Actions Available
  • • tierToCool: Move to Cool tier
  • • tierToArchive: Move to Archive tier
  • • delete: Delete the blob
  • • deleteSnapshot: Delete blob snapshots
Best Practices
  • • Test policies with small datasets first
  • • Monitor policy execution and costs
  • • Consider minimum duration requirements
  • • Use prefixes to apply policies to specific data

🚀 Benefits of Lifecycle Management

💰 Cost Optimization
  • • Automatic tier transitions reduce costs
  • • No manual intervention required
  • • Optimize for access patterns
  • • Prevent data accumulation in expensive tiers
⚡ Operational Efficiency
  • • Set once, runs automatically
  • • Reduces administrative overhead
  • • Consistent policy application
  • • Scales across all storage accounts
📋 Compliance Support
  • • Automated retention policies
  • • Consistent data governance
  • • Audit trail for data lifecycle
  • • Meet regulatory requirements

Quiz Alert: Lifecycle management helps reduce costs by automatically moving data to appropriate tiers based on access patterns and age!

Storage Cost Optimization & Management Tools

Azure Storage Analytics

  • • Monitor storage usage and costs
  • • Track access patterns and trends
  • • Identify optimization opportunities
  • • Generate detailed usage reports

Azure Advisor

  • • Personalized storage recommendations
  • • Identify underutilized storage
  • • Suggest appropriate access tiers
  • • Security and performance recommendations

Cost Management

  • • Track storage costs by tier
  • • Set budgets and alerts
  • • Analyze cost trends over time
  • • Export cost data for reporting

💡 Azure Storage Reserved Capacity

What is Reserved Capacity?
  • • Pre-purchase storage capacity for 1 or 3 years
  • • Significant discounts compared to pay-as-you-go
  • • Available for Blob Storage and Azure Files
  • • Applies to storage costs, not operations
Potential Savings
1-Year Commitment: Up to 20% savings
3-Year Commitment: Up to 38% savings
*Savings vary by region and storage type

Best for: Predictable storage workloads with consistent capacity requirements over time

Security Features

Soft Delete
  • • Protects against accidental deletion
  • • Configurable retention period (1-365 days)
  • • Available for blobs and containers
  • • Can be restored within retention period
Point-in-Time Restore
  • • Restore block blobs to previous state
  • • Protect against accidental modification
  • • Configurable restore window
  • • Works with blob versioning

Encryption Options

Storage Service Encryption (SSE)
  • • Enabled by default for all storage accounts
  • • AES-256 encryption for data at rest
  • • Microsoft-managed keys (default)
  • • Customer-managed keys (optional)
Encryption in Transit
  • • HTTPS required by default
  • • TLS 1.2+ for all connections
  • • SMB 3.0 encryption for file shares
  • • Can disable HTTP (recommended)

🛠️ Storage Migration & Management Tools

AzCopy
  • • Command-line data transfer utility
  • • High-performance, resumable transfers
  • • Sync and copy operations
  • • Cross-platform support
Azure Data Box
  • • Offline data transfer service
  • • For large datasets (TBs to PBs)
  • • Physical device shipped to you
  • • Secure and tracked transfer
Azure Import/Export
  • • Ship your own drives to Azure
  • • Import data to Blob/Files
  • • Export data from Azure
  • • Cost-effective for large datasets

Quiz Tip: Use lifecycle management, reserved capacity, and appropriate access tiers to optimize storage costs!

🧠 Get Ready for Quiz 16 - Sample Questions

Test your understanding of storage tiers, redundancy, and management concepts with these sample questions similar to Quiz 16!

Sample Question 1:

"What are the three primary access tiers available in Azure Blob Storage?"

  • A) Basic, Standard, Premium
  • B) Hot, Warm, Cold
  • C) Hot, Cool, Archive ✅
  • D) Frequent, Infrequent, Rare

Sample Question 2:

"What is the minimum storage duration for data in the Archive access tier?"

  • A) 30 days
  • B) 90 days
  • C) 180 days ✅
  • D) 365 days

Sample Question 3:

"Which storage redundancy option provides the highest availability SLA?"

  • A) LRS (99.999999999%)
  • B) ZRS (99.9999999999%)
  • C) GRS (99.99999999999999%) ✅
  • D) All have same SLA

Sample Question 4:

"Which storage account type supports all Azure Storage services and performance tiers?"

  • A) General-purpose v1
  • B) General-purpose v2 ✅
  • C) BlobStorage
  • D) Premium

📝 Quiz 16 Topics: Access Tiers, Redundancy Options, Lifecycle Management, Cost Optimization, Storage Account Types

Take Quiz 16 Now

Session 16 Summary

🎯 Key Takeaways - Everything You Need for Quiz 16

🔥 Access Tiers & Duration:

  • Hot Tier: Most expensive storage, cheapest access, no minimum duration
  • Cool Tier: Lower storage cost, higher access cost, 30-day minimum
  • Archive Tier: Lowest storage cost, requires rehydration (1-15hrs), 180-day minimum

📊 Storage Account Types:

  • General-purpose v2: Recommended, supports all services & tiers
  • BlockBlobStorage: Premium performance for block blobs
  • FileStorage: Premium performance for file shares

🔒 Redundancy & Durability:

  • LRS: 3 copies, 1 datacenter, 11 nines durability
  • ZRS: 3 availability zones, 12 nines durability
  • GRS/RA-GRS: Cross-region, 16 nines durability
  • GZRS: Highest protection, ZRS + geo-redundancy

⚙️ Management Features:

  • Lifecycle Management: Automate tier transitions based on age/access
  • Soft Delete: Protect against accidental deletion (1-365 days)
  • Reserved Capacity: Up to 38% savings with 3-year commitment

🎉 Azure Storage Optimization Mastered!

You now understand how to optimize Azure storage costs through access tiers, redundancy selection, lifecycle management, and appropriate storage account types. You can balance performance, availability, and cost for optimal storage solutions that meet business requirements!

Access Tiers ✓ Redundancy Options ✓ Lifecycle Management ✓ Cost Optimization ✓ Storage Account Types ✓ Security Features ✓

🚀 Ready for Quiz 16?

Excellent! You've mastered Azure Storage Tiers and Management, understanding how to optimize costs through appropriate tier selection, redundancy options, and lifecycle policies. Now test your knowledge with Quiz 16, which covers access tiers, minimum durations, redundancy options, and cost optimization strategies.

Take Quiz 16 - Storage Tiers & Management Continue to Session 17: Azure Identity & Access