Is simple file storage seemingly expensive, or am I mis-using the estimation calculator?

Question

I've got a command line app written in python that runs in a container on my local machine running in Docker Desktop. I use mounts to share my data files with the container and a volume where the container caches its own data. My current procedure is to run the image, shell into the container, run the command-line app on the mounted data, store the output data in the same place, and finally exit/kill the container.

I'd like to run this in a cloud, because I expect that will give me access to bigger faster compute resources than my late 20914 mac mini. So I started by checking out storage. Using the pricing calculator with default values, I'm told this is going to run me about $300 a month ($10/day). I find this surprisingly weird since I think I pay $10/month for 2 TB storage on iCloud.

Granted, I don't really need the default of 1 TiB. The actual data I have on hand is only about 1.5 GB. I see that isn't an option in the calculator. 100 GiB seems to be the floor. Still that comes in at about $160/month which I also find exorbitant.

What am I not understanding? Did I use some defaults for crazy-fast, high-reliability, with nuclear-winter failover? Or is that just what 100 GB of simple file storage cost on Azure for a month?

Edit: re-added all my paragraph breaks that were automatically removed upon posting. And again, but this time using markdown mode.

Answer 1

So, if I go with HDD instead of the default SSD, select Hot over Transaction Optimized, used capacity to the minimum (100 GiB) and turn off snapshots, set the region to central US — then and only then does the estimate come down to $30.

Which still seems ridiculous for access to 100 GB of storage. I feel like the hardware for that would run me like 12 bucks when bought off amazon. I expect it to cost something for care and feeding of the storage, but.... Does it really cost $30/month to babysit 100 GB of storage?

Answer 2

@ChrisMiner-5956
I understand that you are a little price shocked when looking into utilizing Azure Files with Azure Container Instances and are looking for a more cost-effective solution. Azure Files is a fully managed and redundant service which is why you are seeing higher costs when comparing it to Blob or just plain disks. You might consider utilizing a different Container service in Azure, which allows different storage options. Currently Azure Container Instances does not allow you to utilize Azure Blob Storage. See this comparison page for a list of possible services which might work for you.

AKS is one services that allows you to utilize many different storage options including mounting and using Azure Blob Storage. If you need help walking through the options please reach-out to our Sales team.

Hope this helps!

---

If you still have questions, please let us know in the "comments" and we would be happy to help you. Comment is the fastest way of notifying the experts. If the answer has been helpful, we appreciate hearing from you and would love to help others who may have the same question. Accepting answers helps increase visibility of this question for other members of the Microsoft Q&A community. Thank you for helping to improve Microsoft Q&A!