Octobits Blog – If you’re using Microsoft Azure for cloud storage, chances are you’ve come across Azure Blob Storage.
It’s a popular option for storing unstructured data like documents, images and videos. But one question often comes up: “How much will this cost me?”
Microsoft Azure Blob Storage pricing is a big deal for businesses using cloud storage solutions.
But it’s not just about the cost. The benefit is really impressive.
Azure Blob Storage is a scalable, secure, and cost-effective object storage solution that can support a wide range of data workloads, from archives to data lakes and high-performance computing.
What is Azure Blob Storage?
Azure Blob Storage is Microsoft’s cloud-based object storage solution for storing massive amounts of unstructured data.
This encompasses a wide range of data types, including text files, images, videos, and even application data.
The service is engineered to be highly scalable, secure, and accessible.
This makes Blob a versatile choice for various use cases, from data lakes and high-performance computing to machine learning and mobile app development.
The true power of Azure Blob Storage lies in its ability to seamlessly scale to accommodate your growing data needs.
Whether you’re dealing with terabytes or petabytes of information, you can expand or reduce your storage capacity without the hassle of managing underlying infrastructure.
The service also boasts impressive durability, ensuring your data remains safe and accessible even in the face of hardware failures.
This is achieved through geo-replication, where your data is automatically copied across multiple locations.
For some background on Databricks, let’s take a look at “Microsoft Azure Databricks Pricing Optimisation to Keep Your Wallet Happy.”
Azure Blob Storage Tiers
This tiered approach gives you the flexibility to optimise your storage strategy, so you only pay for what you need.
Hot Tier
If you’re working with data that’s constantly in use, the Hot tier is your best bet.
It’s perfect for active application data or files that are frequently accessed because it guarantees lightning-fast access.
However, this premium performance does mean a slightly higher storage cost.
Cool Tier
If you’ve got data that isn’t used much but you still need to be able to get to it easily, the Cool tier is a good option.
It’s a great option for those looking to balance cost and access speed, making it a popular choice for data retention and backup scenarios.
Archive Tier
At the other end of the spectrum, the Archive tier is the champion of cost-efficiency. It’s designed for storing data you don’t need to access very often.
While it might take a little longer to retrieve data, the lower storage costs make it a great choice for keeping data safe for a long time, like compliance records or historical archives.
And there’s more flexibility to come. With the Hot and Cool tiers, you can choose between two different types of storage: Block blobs and page blobs.
Block blobs are great for streaming data and handling large files, so they’re perfect for video platforms or massive datasets.
On the other hand, page blobs are great for random read/write operations.
Page blobs are the go-to for virtual hard drives and apps that need to tweak specific parts of their data on the fly.
Azure Blob Storage Pricing
As outlined in the Azure page blobs pricing web page, Azure Blob Storage pricing is influenced by a multitude of factors.
The storage tier you select, the type of blobs you use, the sheer volume of data you store, the amount of data you transfer out, the operations you perform, and even the optional features you enable all play a role in determining your final bill.
For sure, the storage tier acts as a major cost lever. The type of blob you choose also matters. Then, the volume of data you store directly impacts your costs.
As your data grows, so does your bill. Similarly, transferring data out of Azure Blob Storage isn’t free. You’ll incur additional charges based on the volume of outbound data transfer.
Even the actions you perform on your data, such as creating, reading, or deleting blobs, contribute to your overall costs.
The frequency and type of operations you carry out can influence your final bill.
To illustrate this further, let’s take a closer look at Standard Page Blobs.
These blobs, which are stored on traditional hard disk drives (HDDs), are a good fit for development, testing, and workloads that aren’t overly sensitive to performance fluctuations.
The cost of Standard Page Blobs is determined by how much data you store, how often you interact with it (reads, writes, deletes), how much data you transfer out, and the level of redundancy you choose for your data.
For example, if you were to store 1 TB of data in a Standard Page Blob with Locally Redundant Storage (LRS), you’d be looking at a monthly storage cost of roughly AU$45.
On top of that, you’d pay a small fee for each operation you perform on the blob, like reading or writing data.
How to Calculate Microsoft Azure Blob Storage Costs
The precise cost of Azure Blob Storage can be a bit of a puzzle due to the many factors at play. Therefore, the Azure pricing calculator is your first port of call for getting a ballpark figure.
It’s like a virtual cost estimator where you plug in your specific storage needs:
- The tier you want
- The type of blobs you’ll use
- How much data you’ll store
- How much you expect to transfer out
- Any extra features you might need.
The calculator then crunches the numbers and gives you a cost projection.
Let’s break it down with a simple example. Imagine you’re a startup archiving 500 GB of old project files that you don’t access often.
The Cool tier, designed for infrequently accessed data, seems like a good fit. Let’s also assume you’ll be using block blobs and won’t be transferring much data out.
In this scenario, your estimated monthly cost might look a bit like this:
- Storage cost for the Cool tier: 500 GB x AU$0.0133/GB/month = AU$6.65
- Costs for operations (like creating or reading the blobs): Since you won’t be accessing the data much, this cost will be negligible.
- Data transfer costs: Again, assuming minimal outbound data transfer, this cost will also be negligible.
So, your total estimated cost for the month comes out to around AU$6.65. Not bad for storing half a terabyte of data, right?!
But remember, this is just a simplified illustration.
Your actual costs might vary depending on other factors like the level of data redundancy you choose (which affects how many copies of your data are stored) and the specific types of operations you perform on your blobs.
For info on the virtual desktop, have a read of “The Good and the Bad (But Mostly Good) of Microsoft Azure VDI Pricing.”
Best Practices for Optimising Azure Blob Storage Costs
The first thing you need to do is make sure you’re using the right tier for the right data.
The Hot tier is great for data that you use all the time. But for files you don’t access often, the Cool or Archive tiers can save you a lot of money.
Obviously, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on your spending. Azure Cost Management tools let you set budgets and get alerts, so you’re always in control and can avoid any nasty surprises on your bill.
It’s also worth thinking about data redundancy. Azure has a range of redundancy options, each with their own price tag.
If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the options for optimising Azure Blob Storage, why not try a SaaS management platform like Octobits?
Octobits lets you keep an eye on how much you’re spending on blob storage, find ways to cut costs, and get tips on how to spend your money more wisely.
But at Octobits, we don’t just keep an eye on costs. We take a close look at them, come up with custom solutions and are there for you every step of the way.
We know that transparency is important to you, just as much as it’s important to us.
That’s why we’re happy to offer you a free trial of Octobits until December 2024, so you can see the difference for yourself.
Or if you’re in the mood for coffee, let’s grab a time to catch up and talk through some ideas. We’d love to look at your particular Blob issues in more detail.
In Closing
The best way to keep costs down is to understand your pricing structure, choose the right storage tiers for how you use your data, and follow best practices for optimisation.
A more advanced approach is to use Octobits as a SaaS management platform.
These methods will really help you get to grips with the ins and outs of Microsoft Azure Blob Storage pricing and optimisation.
