Microsoft Supercharges Azure Elastic SAN with Game-Changing Features

In an exciting development for cloud storage, Microsoft unveiled major enhancements to its iSCSI-based Azure Elastic SAN (Storage Area Network), which has been designed from the ground up as a fully managed, cloud-native solution. With updates launched since the general availability (GA) release in early 2024, users can now take advantage of powerful new capabilities that significantly elevate their storage management experience.

Autoscaling for Capacity

Among the standout features is the public preview of autoscaling for capacity—a first in cloud block storage solutions. This innovation simplifies management, automatically increasing storage capacity as needed. Users can implement an autoscale policy, which not only mitigates the complexities of excess storage provisioning but also cuts down on operational costs. The ability to define specific increments lets businesses maintain better control over their budgets and optimize storage usage.

Imagine you have an Elastic SAN with a total capacity of 100 TiB. If you set an autoscale policy to increase storage by 5 TiB whenever your unused capacity dips below 20 TiB, your SAN will intelligently adjust its capacity without manual intervention, ensuring continuous availability and performance. For instance, if your usage rises to 80 TiB, the system will automatically provision an additional 5 TiB, bringing your total capacity to 105 TiB.

Snapshot Support

Snapshot support is another remarkable enhancement, allowing users to create instant backups of their workloads. Elastic SAN volume snapshots can easily be exported as managed disk snapshots, creating a robust disaster recovery strategy. These snapshots can be either full or incremental, enabling rapid restoration of volumes, thus ensuring business continuity in challenging scenarios.

CRC Protection for Data Integrity

The introduction of CRC protection with CRC32C checksum verification is a game-changer for data integrity. This feature performs checksum verification at the volume group level on the client side, rejecting connections that do not comply. It enhances the reliability of data communication and storage by preventing errors—an essential aspect for businesses that depend on accurate data management.

Compatibility and High Availability

Azure Elastic SAN boasts compatibility with all Azure VMware Solution SKUs, including the newly launched AV64 SKUs. This fully managed VMware Certified SAN enables users to attach iSCSI datastores as VMFS datastores within Azure VMware clusters, allowing for seamless storage expansion without the need to enhance local nodes. A standout feature is its Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS), ensuring high availability by distributing copies of data across different Azure availability zones.

User Experience

Ray Steele, a Technical Architect at Washington School Information Processing Cooperative (WSIPC), shared his enthusiasm: "Elastic SAN utilizes standard iSCSI storage similar to our existing SAN, so our team didn't have to master new technologies at the operating system level. The scripted connection process was even simpler than our local setup. Given the competitive pricing and dynamic storage assignment, it was an ideal solution for us!"

Innovative Cloud Application Development

Moreover, Azure Elastic SAN plays a crucial role in empowering organizations to develop innovative cloud applications. Integrating seamlessly with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), it simplifies persistent storage management for stateful containers that require durable data storage. Azure Container Storage, which complements Elastic SAN, allows users to provision persistent volumes using it, thus surpassing traditional Virtual Machine limitations on volume attachments. With ZRS support, workloads benefit from enhanced resiliency, paving the way for more robust cloud solutions.

Conclusion

With these advancements, Microsoft is not just keeping pace but is positioning Azure Elastic SAN as a premier solution for organizations navigating the complexities of cloud compute and storage management. Don't miss out on how these features can transform your operational efficiency—explore Azure Elastic SAN today!