Introduction

  • 5 minutes

There are four key areas of Azure NetApp Files data protection:

Snapshots

An Azure NetApp Files snapshot is a point-in-time file system (volume) image. Snapshots are ideal to serve as an online backup. Azure NetApp Files snapshot technology delivers stability, scalability, and swift recoverability without impacting performance.

Benefits

  • Snapshots are efficient and frequent primary data protection for fast recovery from data corruption or loss.
  • With snapshots, you can revert a complete volume to a point-in-time snapshot in seconds.
  • You can restore a snapshot to new volume (clone) in seconds to test or develop with current data.
  • Create application-consistent snapshots with the AzAcSnap integration and third-party backup tools.

Backups

Azure NetApp Files supports a fully managed backup solution for long-term recovery, archive, and compliance. Backups can be restored to new volumes in the same region as the backup.

Highlights

  • Backups created by Azure NetApp Files are stored in Azure storage.
  • Backups are independent of volume snapshots that are available for near-term recovery or cloning.
  • You can retain daily, weekly, monthly backups for extended periods of time on cost-efficient cloud storage without media management,

Cross-region replication

Using snapshot technology, you can replicate your Azure NetApp Files across designated Azure regions to protect your data from unforeseeable regional failures.

Primary benefits

  • Disaster recovery across regions.
  • Data availability and redundancy for remote data processing and user access.
  • Cross-region replication provides efficient storage-based data replication without load on compute infrastructure.

Cross-zone replication

Cross-zone replication uses availability zones and same replication engine as cross-region replication.

Key attributes

  • Data availability and redundancy across zones within regions.
  • Bring data into same zone as compute for lowest latency-envelope.
  • Efficient storage-based data replication without load on compute infrastructure.
  • Lower TCO due to absence of data transfer fees.

To learn which data protection option is best for you, see Understand data protection and disaster recovery options in Azure NetApp Files.