Storage Accounts - High Standard Data Transfer Out Costs across region (where no resource exists)

Question

Hello,

    We use Azure Table Storage extensively in our platform. Of late, we have been noticing surging Data Transfer Out Costs from our region (Meter Region: AU EAST), while we do not have any resources in that region. All our storage accounts and APIs (Different cloud provider) are in (South India).

After working with Azure support team, we have undertaken multiple configuration changes with no luck. Summary of changes are as below:
1 ) Originally we might have enabled Geo-Redundant Storage (GRS) for couple of storage accounts but after that we switched back to Local Redundant Storage (LRS). It's been more then 60 days that change has occured.

2) We have ensured to enable firewall restrictions to provide acccess to specific IPs.

3)  Changed "Network Routing" from "Microsoft" to "Internet" and also "Internet" for "end points".

Please suggest any solution to  find the root cause for this cost and how to minimize the same.

Answer 1

Hi @Vidyanath Vemula

Thanks for using Microsoft Q&A Forum and posting your query here!

We see you have already taken several steps to address the issue of surging Data Transfer Out Costs from AU East region. This could be related to data egress charges from Azure Table Storage. Data egress charges are incurred when data is transferred out of Azure data centers to other regions or networks.

Since you have already taken some steps to minimize data egress charges when no resource exists. Here we are few additional steps we can find the root cause for this cost.

• You can use Azure Monitor (Costs associated with monitoring, Monitoring data collected in Azure, configuring data collection, Standard tools in Azure for analyzing and alerting on monitoring data), For Usage details please refer Analyze-metrics and to the image below.
• Cost Analysis Preview provides detailed information of cost for each service in Azure Storage.
• You may also refer to the suggestion mentioned in azure-monitor-tools.

Additional Information:

1. Check your data access patterns: Review your application's data access patterns to ensure that you are not unnecessarily transferring data out of Azure data centers. For example, you can consider caching frequently accessed data closer to your application to reduce the need for frequent data transfers.
2. Use Azure CDN: Consider using Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN) to cache and deliver frequently accessed data closer to your users. This can help reduce data egress charges and improve performance for your users.
3. Use Azure ExpressRoute: Consider using Azure ExpressRoute to establish a dedicated, private connection between your on-premises infrastructure and Azure data centers. This can help reduce data egress charges and improve network performance.
4. Monitor your usage: Monitor your usage of Azure Table Storage and other Azure services to identify any unexpected spikes in data egress charges. You can use Azure Cost Management and Billing to monitor your usage and costs.

For details, see Bandwidth pricing Apart from this, there are costs associated with Azure Storge account too which again depends on the storage type, region and performance SKUs etc, which is available in the pricing calculator.

Hope this helps.

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