Microsoft has long made the point that the future of the cloud is to combine, extending on-premises systems into its super. Microsoft Azure. It’s probably best to think of this as a development process, using the cloud first to add to your existing resources, on-premises first and the cloud as a fallback and failover. Over time, you’ll move to the cloud first, bringing cloud resources into your data center when needed for legal or privacy reasons.
The hybrid cloud is an attractive idea, but it needs ways to migrate older services to Azure and deeply integrate it into existing systems and processes. That includes providing support for common services, including old favorites: Files and printing.
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Cloud data
When it comes to files Azure has come up with a variety of solutions over the years, with technologies like StorSimple, Azure Data Box, and Azure Stack providing on-premises file sharing that extends into the cloud, using devices based hardware to provide the necessary endpoints in your data center. But with Azure now supporting VPN connections, making its virtual network part of your network, you’ll be able to connect to Azure storage without any middleman, other than a secure network connection. fit.
That’s where Azure Files and Azure File Sync are closely related. Azure Files uses Azure’s storage service and puts a familiar file protocol on it, which is SMB or NFS. You can work directly with those new shares from your PC anywhere you have a network connection to Azure. Additionally, Azure File Sync allows you to continue to use local shares as caching with Windows Servers transferring data to and from Azure.
Using Azure for storage makes a lot of sense. The underlying Azure storage engines are designed to work on a distributed, global service, so your data is replicated across data centers and regions. Unlike on-premises file servers, this method can help protect data without requiring additional hardware. That approach allows it to act as a central hub for data that needs to be shared across multiple sites around the world, leveraging Azure’s global scale to ensure data is replicated across regions. . At the same time, built-in data protection tools allow you to prevent accidental deletion, with all user deletions possibly being “soft erase” with a defined retention period. Snapshots back up your data and can be kept for up to 10 years, while Microsoft Defender for Storage protects it from malware and monitors it for attacks can happen.
Working with Azure files
Azure Files gives you an easy way to lift and move applications to the cloud, giving them the same shares wherever they are running. The code does not need to be updated and the migrations can be handled in stages, migrating data ahead of applications. No need to even change your authentication method, with existing Active Directory permissions managed through Azure Files AD Authentication along with Azure support for modern authentication through Azure Active Directory.
Once data is stored in Azure Files, you have the option to use Azure’s native storage APIs for cloud-native apps, along with familiar SMB block-based access to virtual or local infrastructure. place. Azure Files can be used with Microsoft’s new virtual desktop cloud computing, ensuring access to data from users’ regular computers as well as virtual desktops so they can work safely at home without company data touching their personal computers. All data is encrypted in transit by default, although you can disable this feature. When stored in Azure, it is encrypted using the same process as Windows’ BitLocker. Microsoft owns the default keys and manages their rotation. If you want to bring your own keys for managed data, you can, but that means you have to manage them yourself and also restrict access from some protocols.
With Azure Files, you don’t need to manage the underlying operating system to keep your file servers up to date and secure. As part of Azure, they are automatically patched and updated as needed, using only computing power while files are being written or read. Azure will fix hardware failures, using replicas to populate new disks if needed. As an added bonus, your files will be protected by Azure datacenter resiliency, with multiple power and network connections.
Yes, it costs more to run than on-premises hosting, but any savings in time will allow you to work on new projects and services. Azure hosted storage can scale automatically, so you no longer have to wait for new hardware to increase your quota, although you do have the option to set a pool size limit to help control your budget by avoiding users suddenly storing terabytes of personal data on your company stock.
Manage and use Azure files in your network
On the management side, you can continue to use your existing Windows storage management tools with Azure Files, while converting to Azure native APIs using PowerShell or the Azure CLI. You’ll also need to be able to manage your Azure virtual networks to ensure that you have the right endpoints on-premises, for remote access, and in Azure access (last important thing if you’re using Files Azure with Windows 365 cloud computing). Modern Windows clients can take advantage of SMB on QUICoffers you a file-only VPN for approved users.
Getting started with an Azure file is simple enough. You should start by choosing the file sharing protocol that you intend to use. SMB is best for Windows systems, with support for SMB 2.1 and above, while NFS is used by UNIX systems. You’ll need to choose the type of underlying storage account you’re using: Microsoft recommends a V2 general purpose Azure account that uses a hard disk-based storage account, or a FileStorage account that uses an SSD. FileStorage accounts can only be used by Azure Files and cannot be used to store other types of Azure storage. There are other Azure storage options, some of which can store Azure Files data, but they don’t support all Azure Files features.
It’s important to get the right performance for your memory, with four levels that help manage how data is accessed. Premium is fast and uses SSDs for minimal latency, while transaction optimization is best for centrally storing low-latency access-free application data. Hot data is for most file sharing purposes, while cool data is the cheaper, slower option, best used for storages.
With Microsoft’s wide range of StorSimple storage devices approaching their end of life in December 2022, it’s a good time to start thinking about leveraging Azure Files. The platform is more flexible than StorSimple, but if you prefer to use Azure to extend your on-premises shares, you can use Azure File Sync to provide a local share that acts as a read-write cache for Azure Files .
Microsoft’s hybrid cloud vision is much bigger than your apps and data; it’s about combining cloud and on-premises so they’re part of a larger platform that works the way you want it to, not the way Microsoft thinks you should. Azure Files is part of that vision, helping to bridge the gap between personal, work, and cloud data. With Windows 365 cloud computers planned as just another virtual desktop in Windows 11, having a file system like Azure Files shared between your PC and those cloud computers would be necessity.
