NEW Feature - Azure Cool Blob Storage

Have you heard about the new Azure Cool Blob Storage?

If you haven’t heard about it, this is Microsoft's low-cost storage for Cool object data. “Example use cases for cool storage include backups, media content, scientific data, compliance and archival data. In general, any data which lives for a longer period of time and is accessed less than once a month is a perfect candidate for cool storage.” It is similar to what Glacier storage tier provides in Amazon Web Services.

• Pricing: Its cost is as low as $0.01/GB.
• Availability: 99% (as compared to 99.9% for Hot Storage). With Read-access geo-redundant storage (or RA-GRS) the SLA is 99.9% (as compared to 99.99% for Hot).
• Deciding which AccessTier to use: If the objects in the storage account will be more frequently accessed, then go with Hot Tier. Select the Cold Tier for infrequently accessed data.

Now when you go to New -> "Data + Storage" -> Storage Account, and try to create a Blob Storage account then you can select from one of the options for Access Tier from Cold or Hot tier.

Also, note that at the time of this writing, Blob storage account is only available in these locations: Central US, East US 2, North Central US, North Europe, West Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan East, Japan West, Central India, South India, West India.

Resources to know more:

• Official Announcement
• Getting started guide