How to Save 70% on File Data Costs

In Part 2 of our series, @DarrenKomprise, reviewed the options and alternatives to drive down file storage costs. In this final post in the series, we focus on how Komprise's solution, optimized for Azure customers, can help lower file storage costs on-premises and in-Azure.

 

Part 1 - The True Cost of File Storage: Why is File Data Expensive?

Part 2 - Leverage the Cloud to Cut File Data Costs: Comparison of Alternatives

 

Komprise Intelligent Tiering for Azure offers a great solution that you will learn more about in our this post.

 

Disclaimer: This post includes content from a Microsoft Partner and links to external content.

 

How to Save 70% on File Data Costs

 

Cost Analysis of Komprise Intelligent Tiering for Azure in Hybrid Cloud and All-Cloud Scenarios

In the first post in this series we reviewed the high costs of file data storage and the need to take action in the face of growing unstructured data volumes and shrinking enterprise IT budgets. In the second post we reviewed data storage tiering options and the benefits of transparent file tiering with Komprise Intelligent Tiering for Azure. In this final post we’ll review a storage tiering TCO comparison. Komprise Intelligent Tiering for Azure analyzes data across your file and object storage to identify cold data, and tiers cold files based on the policies you set to the appropriate Azure Blob tier. This file tiering approach maximizes savings on storage, backup and DR costs and can be used in two scenarios:

 

1. Hybrid Cloud Tiering from On-Premises File Storage to the Cloud: Many enterprises already have on-premises file-storage Network Attached Storage (NAS) environments want to optimize costs by tiering cold data to the cloud. You can use Komprise Intelligent Tiering for Azure to analyze across any vendor NAS including NetApp, Dell, Windows Server, Nutanix, Pure Storage and others. This allows you to identify cold data and transparently tier it based on your custom policies to the appropriate Azure Blob and Azure File tiers.

 

2. Cloud File Data Lifecycle Management: Most enterprise IT organizations are in the midst of a digital transformation journey and are now moving file data workloads to the cloud, often to cloud file storage options such as Azure Files and Azure NetApp Files. Cloud file storage is highly performant and desirable for active, hot data. By transparently tiering cold files in the cloud to cost-effective Azure Blob tiers, you can save 70% of total costs.

 

TCO Analysis of Azure and Komprise for Hybrid Cloud Tiering

A comparison of the costs of file data on-premises before and after Komprise Intelligent Tiering for Azure to Azure Blob shows a 70% savings:

 

Assumptions
Amount of Data on NAS (TB)	1024
% Cold Data	80%
Annual Data Growth Rate	30%
On-Prem NAS Cost/GB/Mo	$0.07
Backup Cost/GB/Mo	$0.04
Azure Blob Cool Cost/GB/Mo	$0.02
Komprise Data Management/GB/Mo	$0.008
	On-Prem NAS	On-Prem NAS + Hybrid Cloud Tiering w/Komprise to Azure
Data in On-Premises NAS	1024	205
Snapshots	30%	30%
Cost of On-Prem NAS Primary Site	$1,064,960	$212,992
Cost of On-Prem NAS DR Site	$1,064,960	$212,992
Backup Cost	$460,800	$42,598
Data on Azure Blob Cool	$0	819
Cost of Azure Blob Cool	$0	$201,327
Cost of Komprise		$100,000
Total Cost for 1PB per Year	$2,590,720	$769,909
SAVINGS/PB/Yr		$1,820,811	70%

On 1PB of data, by tiering the cold files to Azure Blob, you can save 70% of costs.

 

In addition to cost savings, the benefits of using Komprise Intelligent Tiering for Azure are:

 

• Leverage Existing Storage Investment: You can continue to use your existing NAS storage and Komprise transparently tiers cold files to Azure. Users and applications always see and access the files as if they were still on-premises.
• Leverage Azure Data Services: Komprise maintains file-object duality with its patented Transparent Move Technology (TMT), which means the tiered files can be viewed in Azure as objects. This means you can use all Azure data services natively. This enables you to leverage the full power of Azure.
• Works Across Heterogeneous Vendor Storage: Komprise works across file and object storage to analyze and transparently tier data to Azure file and object tiers.
• Ongoing Lifecycle Management in Azure: Komprise continues to manage data lifecycle in Azure, so as data gets colder, it can move from Azure Blob Cool to Azure Blob Archive based on policies you set.

 

TCO Analysis of Cloud File Data Lifecycle Management

The table shows the cost comparison of using Azure Files Transaction Optimized to store 1PB of data and then using Komprise to keep hot data on Azure Files Tx Optimized for hot data and cold data on Azure Blob. The tiered files can still be accessed exactly as before from Azure Files as Komprise maintains file-object duality through the patented Komprise Transparent Move Technology (TMT), while you save 52% of cloud file storage costs. This also extends Azure Files beyond the 100TB limit so you can virtually extend the Azure Files storage without requiring multiple accounts. The cost of Azure Files with Komprise is 88% less than Azure NetApp Files and 46% less than storage gateways which are good for use cases that require global collaboration but can become expensive for traditional NAS workloads.

 

The cost of Azure Files with Komprise is 88% less than Azure NetApp Files and 46% less than gateway options.

 

In addition to cost savings, the benefits of cloud file data lifecycle management using Komprise Intelligent Tiering for Azure are:

 

• Eliminate Cloud File Storage Sprawl: You can continue to use your existing NAS storage and Komprise transparently tiers cold files to Azure. Users and applications continue to see and access the files as if they were still on-premises.
• Leverage Azure Data Services: Komprise maintains file-object duality with its patented Transparent Move Technology (TMT), which means the tiered files can be viewed in Azure as objects and can use all Azure Data Services natively. This enables you to leverage the full power of Azure.
• Works Across Heterogeneous Vendor Storage: Komprise works across all your file and object storage to analyze and transparently tier data to Azure file and object tiers.

Komprise provides a dashboard view into file and object data storage across your hybrid IT infrastructure.

 

Summary: Save More with Analytics-Driven Data Management for Azure

File storage can get expensive because you not only need to deal with the rapid growth of file data, but also contend with its active management and associated storage, backup, data protection and DR costs. However, your cost of storing file data can be cut by 50% to 78% by using analytics-driven data management to systematically identify and transparently tier cold files not only from the storage but also from the actively managed backup and DR footprints. Using Komprise Intelligent Tiering for Azure, customers can save 70% on average over existing NAS costs for hybrid cloud tiering and 52% over Azure Files Transaction Optimized in a cloud file storage scenario. To learn more and get a customized assessment of your savings, visit Komprise Intelligent Tiering for Azure.

 

@DarrenKomprise 

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