When reviewing Azure Blob Storage for your exam, focus on understanding the different access tiers and how they balance cost, performance, and data usage patterns.
You’ll want to start with the Premium tier which is designed for high performance needs for workloads that have a lot of I/O operations. Keep in mind that if you get any questions related to costs, this is the most expensive type of storage that we have.
The second type we have is the Hot tier, and this is used for data that’s accessed frequently. It has a moderate storage cost and low retrieval cost.
And then the third tier we have is the Cool tier, which is more cost-effective for data access that’s infrequently accessed within your environment.
The final tier you’ll want to focus on is the Archive tier. Keep in mind that this is going to be the cheapest type of storage that you have, but there is a high cost for retrieval.
Also, study how lifecycle management rules can automatically move data between these different tiers or even delete it if you need to; this is key for any cost-related questions or optimization-related questions that you will see on your exam.
| Tier | Storage Cost | Retrieval Costs | Storage Duration | Usage cases |
| Premium | High | Lowest | N/A | – High throughput and large numbers of I/O operations per second |
| Hot | Medium | Low | N/A | – Active and frequent use – Data staged for processing |
| Cool | Low | Medium | >30 days | – Short-term backup – Older media infrequently viewed – Large data sets |
| Cold | **MISSING** | **MISSING** | > 90 days | – Short-term backup – Older media infrequently viewed – Large data sets |
| Archive | Lowest | High | >180 days | – Long-term backup – Original (raw) data – Compliance or archival data |
Use lifecycle rules to transition blob data to the appropriate access tiers.