Microsoft is once again redefining the cloud storage landscape with enhancements to Azure NetApp Files, making it an even more cost-effective fully managed file storage service from Azure. By leveraging NetApp's data management expertise and Azure's extensive cloud capabilities, Azure NetApp Files has become a go-to solution for enterprises seeking efficient, scalable, and reliable file storage in the cloud. Azure NetApp Files now delivers automatic storage cost savings by leveraging automated data tiering, space-efficient snapshots, performance-based pricing, and commitment discounts. These features work together to significantly reduce the effective price of cloud storage.
Effective pricing reflects the actual cost you pay for storage after applying built-in efficiencies and discounts. These savings directly reduce the cost per GiB, enabling you to manage storage expenses more effectively without compromising data availability and performance. With Azure NetApp Files, you receive highly available, high-performance storage at prices comparable to standard cloud storage offerings, making it a cost-effective option for most workloads. Now, let’s explore the new features that are set to elevate the Azure NetApp Files service, focusing on cost optimization, reliability, security, and simplifying operations.
Microsoft Introduces Automatic Storage Cost Savings
In a significant move towards cost-efficiency, Microsoft has announced the general availability for cool access, automated storage tiering, across all Azure NetApp Files service levels (Standard, Premium, Ultra). You can now use the cool access option to have inactive data transparently moved from Azure NetApp Files (the hot tier) to an Azure storage account (the cool tier). This option frees up storage that resides within Azure NetApp Files volumes by moving data blocks to the lower cost cool tier, resulting in overall cost savings.
See the cool access diagram below:
Using Azure NetApp Files with cool access, inactive data blocks are moved to cool tiered, resulting in cost savings. Tiered data appears to be online and continues to be available to users and applications by transparent and automated retrieval from the cool tier. Metadata is never cooled and always remains in the hot tier. As such, the activities of metadata-intensive workloads (for example, high file-count environments like chip design, VCS, and home directories) aren't affected by tiering. There are network transfer fees as data moves to and from the cool tier. Maximum cost savings are reached once data tiering is complete and a steady state is achieved. To see the cost savings go to the cool access cost savings estimator.
A Flexible and predictable pricing model
Microsoft also announced Azure NetApp Files Reserved Capacity general availability, providing a discount on capacity for storage costs when you commit to a reservation for one or three years. Like other Azure reservations, Azure NetApp Files reserved capacity is automatically applied to existing Azure NetApp Files capacity pools in the same region and service level. Reserved capacity is available in increments of 100TiB and 1PiB for a one-year or three-year term. Reserved capacity can be used in a single subscription (single subscription scope), or across multiple subscriptions (shared scope) in the same tenant. This option is ideal for organizations with predictable workloads, as it provides cost certainty, and discounts compared to pay-as-you-go pricing. See Azure NetApp Files pricing.
Enhanced data protection and availability
Microsoft has also introduced cross-zone replication for Azure NetApp Files, enhancing data protection by replicating volumes across Azure availability zones. This ensures business continuity by safeguarding against zone-level failures. Like Azure NetApp Files cross-region replication (CRR), the cross-zone replication (CZR) capability provides data protection between volumes in different availability zones. You can asynchronously replicate data from an Azure NetApp Files volume (source) in one availability zone to another Azure NetApp Files volume (destination) in another availability zone. This capability enables you to fail over your critical application if a zone-wide outage or disaster were to happen. Additionally, the new availability zone volume placement feature allows customers to specify the placement of their volumes within an availability zone, providing more granular control over data locality and redundancy.
Uncompromised data safety
Security in cloud storage is paramount, and Microsoft has fortified Azure NetApp Files with double encryption-at-rest, adding an extra layer of security to protect sensitive data. Moreover, customers now have the option to manage their encryption keys or leverage Azure's managed hardware security module (HSM) for even tighter security controls. These enhancements give customers the flexibility to meet their specific security and compliance requirements while ensuring their data is safeguarded against unauthorized access.
Streamlined management and scalability
For workloads that demand high performance and capacity, Azure NetApp Files now supports larger volume sizes, enabling customers to scale their storage resources to match their growing data needs. This is complemented by improved performance scaling, ensuring that as volume sizes increase, performance remains consistent and reliable. For example, Large Volumes can now support up to 2PiB and a maximum throughput of 12.5GiB/s. This new capability is highly sought after for silicon design and oil & gas workloads.
Smaller volumes too
Additionally, Microsoft has reduced the minimum volume size to 50 GiB, making Azure NetApp Files accessible for smaller workloads and scenarios where less storage is required like Azure Kubernetes Service. These enhancements demonstrates Microsoft's commitment to providing flexible solutions that cater to a wide range of customer needs.
Overall, the new capabilities of Azure NetApp Files represent a significant leap forward in cloud storage. Azure NetApp Files now delivers automatic storage cost savings to significantly reduce the effective price of cloud storage. As organizations continue to navigate the complexities of digital transformation, the improvements to Azure NetApp Files offer a compelling proposition for those looking to optimize their cloud storage strategy. Whether you are a small business or a large enterprise, these new features are designed to provide the cost-effectiveness, high availability, performance, and peace of mind needed to succeed in today's fast-paced digital landscape.
For more information see What's new in Azure NetApp Files.
