Azure Storage

Modernise Your Storage

What is Azure Storage?

With more and more organisations moving towards work from home (WFH) models, the need for secure ways to access data remotely and collaborate virtually has skyrocketed. This has inspired Microsoft to introduce Azure Storage. It’s a modern solution for all your storage needs!

Features of Azure Storage

What makes Azure Storage the perfect solution for remote work is its availability, durability, security, and scalability.

Available and Durable

Azure Storage types utilise four replications to ensure that your data is always available, and safe from failure and disaster:

  • Locally Redundant Storage (LRS) keeps three copies of your data at a local datacentre.
  • Zero Redundant Storage (ZRS) stores multiple copies of your data asynchronously within datacentres spread across one or two regions.
  • Geo-Redundant Storage (GRS)keeps a copy of your data in a region far away from your original location.
  • Read Access Geo-Redundant Storage (RA-GRS) takes GRS one step further, storing your data in up to two locations, and keeping a read-only copy of your data in the secondary region to prevent contamination.

Secure

When you use Azure Storage, you can rest assured that your data is secure. With Azure Storage Service Encryption’s 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), data is automatically encrypted before it’s stored and decrypted as soon as you try to retrieve the data. Plus  SMB 3 (Server Message Block) and Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) integration take your data’s security up a notch.

Microsoft Azure supports both server-side and client-side encryption. Server-side encryption gives you a range of options according to your needs:

  • Service-managed keys
  • Customer-managed keys
  • Service-managed keys in customer-controlled hardware

Client-side encryption takes place outside of Azure. It includes data that has already been encrypted or is being encrypted by an application that is running in the datacentre.

Scalable

Microsoft Azure has been designed to cater to a wide range of users, from those who have minimal storage requirements, to those who use modern applications that consume loads of data and require huge amounts of storage. It even caters to those users whose needs change over time, thanks to programmatic controls and efficient handling, which can adjust to extending or shrinking scalability effortlessly. It also gives users an option to auto-scale, provided they have the right resources.

Compliance

When using Microsoft Azure file storage, you know your data is in good hands as they boast over 90 regional, national, and industry-specific compliance

A modern workplace needs flexibility from all its solutions, including its storage.

Invest in world-class cloud storage solutions today.

Azure Services that We Provide

Azure Storage & their Features

Azure Files

Looking to replace or supplement your current slow storage options? Azure Files, a mountable storage option with “lift and shift” functionality could be the upgrade that you need. It is a fully managed service without any dedicated hardware or software and offers a whole range of familiar functionality tweaked to suit your needs.

We could talk all day about the reasons you should choose Azure Files, but here are just a few examples. With Azure Files, you can:

  • Move data to the cloud without any coding
  • Use “lift and shift” migration for a simple file storage mechanism
  • Use a relatively inexpensive option with cross-platform support

Disk Storage

Azure-managed disks are compatible with its VMs. These allow users to select how much disk size they need, the kind of disk that they’d prefer (HDDs, SSDs, Premium SSDs or Ultra Disks), and provision them for future use. These are excellent for scalable VM deployment and have the following characteristics:

  • Enterprise-grade security
  • Cost-effectiveness
  • Industry-leading, single-instance service level agreement (SLA)
  • Persistent, high-performance disk storage for managing your workload efficiently
Azure Cloud Storage Services

Azure Blob Storage

Azure Blob Storage is dedicated to storing unstructured data with no particular form, such as images, videos and audio, backups, and data for analysis. The three different types of blobs — Block, Append, and Page — each caters to different customers with similar needs.

Here is what makes Azure Blob Storage special:

  • It provides a global database reach.
  • Its storage options are fragmented across several tiers.
  • It is comparatively cost-effective for massive databases

Azure Storage Pricing

Azure storage pricing follows a pay-as-you-go model, ensuring that you never pay for more storage than you need. It even allows you to choose where you want your data to be stored. You can choose to keep your data within South Africa, and governed by South African law, or internationally. You get to choose the payment model, and the package, that suits your needs.

You have two options when choosing an Azure Storage package for your business: Standard or Premium. Standard Storage uses HDD disks and includes Blob, Table, Queue, and File storage types. While the Premium Storage plan only allows for Page Blob storage, it provides more flexibility, using SSD disks and VMs for better input, output and throughput.

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ABOUT SOLID SYSTEMS

As a Microsoft Gold Certified organisation, Solid Systems is perfectly placed to help you choose the best Azure Storage solution for your business. We’re just a click away, so don’t hesitate to contact us.

Since 2003, we have specialised in delivering leading technology solutions and offering guidance to organisations in South Africa and abroad, in the most human way possible.

We love technology and the exciting ways that it evolves, and are constantly improving the tools that we use. But humans are at the heart of our business. That’s why we value each relationship and prioritise a personal approach, finding solutions that deliver results for your company in the best way possible.

With our highly skilled and passionate professionals behind us, and the latest and most sophisticated tools at their disposal, we ensure that the businesses we work with are constantly evolving, and can step into the future with confidence.

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