Microsoft Azure Storage Classes

Azure storage offers different access tiers so that you can store your blob data in the most cost-effective manner based on how it is being used. Azure Storage access tiers include:

• Hot tier - An online tier optimized for storing data that is accessed or modified frequently. The Hot tier has the highest storage costs, but the lowest access costs.
  • Data that is in active use or is expected to be read from and written to frequently.
  • Data that's staged for processing and eventual migration to the Cool access tier.
• Cool tier - An online tier optimized for storing data that is infrequently accessed or modified. Data in the Cool tier should be stored for a minimum of 30 days. The Cool tier has lower storage costs and higher access costs compared to the Hot tier.
  • Short-term data backup and disaster recovery
  • Older data sets that are not used frequently, but are expected to be available for immediate access
  • Large data sets that need to be stored in a cost-effective way while additional data is being gathered for processing
• Archive tier - An offline tier optimized for storing data that is rarely accessed, and that has flexible latency requirements, on the order of hours. Data in the Archive tier should be stored for a minimum of 180 days.
  • Long-term backup, secondary backup, and archival datasets
  • Original (raw) data that must be preserved, even after it has been processed into final usable form
  • Compliance and archival data that needs to be stored for a long time and is hardly ever accessed