AZ-305 Question 89
Select 2A retailer collects large volumes of transaction logs daily and needs to retain them for 90 days for regulatory compliance. The logs are queried for analytics mostly in the first 30 days. The retailer also needs to store thousands of product images that are frequently accessed by the website. The solution must remain cost-effective while ensuring fast access to images and adequate retrieval performance for the logs. Which two solutions should you recommend to optimize cost without sacrificing necessary performance? (Choose two.)
- A
Use Azure Files with a Premium share for storing both logs and images.
- B
Use Azure Blob Storage in the Hot tier for frequently accessed product images to ensure low latency and high availability.
- C
Implement a lifecycle management policy on Azure Blob Storage that transitions transaction logs from the Hot tier to the Cool tier after 30 days.
- D
Use Azure NetApp Files for storing all logs to balance capacity costs and performance for the entire retention period.
- E
Leverage Azure Disk Storage (Standard SSD) to store both logs and images for consistent IOPS.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answers: B, C
Explanation
Azure Blob Storage is generally the most cost-effective solution for large volumes of unstructured data, such as transaction logs and product images. By placing frequently accessed data (product images) in the Hot tier and using lifecycle management policies to move logs to cheaper tiers over time, you reduce costs without compromising performance when it matters most. For more information, see Microsoft’s documentation on Azure Blob Storage tiers (https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/storage/blobs/storage-blob-storage-tiers).
- A. Incorrect.
Option 1: Incorrect. Azure Files Premium can provide high performance, but it is typically more expensive for large volumes of data that don’t need continuous high throughput, making it less cost-effective for archived logs. Product images could be served from Azure Files, but this would not be as cost-efficient or straightforward as Blob Storage for web-facing content.
- B. Correct.
Option 2: Correct. Product images that are accessed frequently benefit from residing in Azure Blob Storage’s Hot tier. The Hot tier offers fast availability and is specifically designed for data with frequent reads, making it the most suitable choice for serving images on a public website.
- C. Correct.
Option 3: Correct. For transaction logs that are frequently accessed during the first 30 days, a Hot tier provides acceptable performance. Transitioning them to the Cool tier after 30 days significantly reduces storage costs while preserving relatively quick retrieval capabilities for occasional analytics queries or regulatory checks until the data expires.
- D. Incorrect.
Option 4: Incorrect. Azure NetApp Files is an excellent choice for workloads requiring high performance and shared file system capabilities, especially for certain databases or HPC use cases. However, for storing large volumes of semi-archival logs, this service can be cost-prohibitive and overly complex compared to leveraging Blob Storage lifecycle policies.
- E. Incorrect.
Option 5: Incorrect. Azure Disk Storage (Standard SSD) is ideal for persistent disks attached to virtual machines, but not for large-scale archival or website image delivery. It lacks the scalable object storage benefits and cost model that Blob Storage offers for large volumes of data.