Immutability Costs in Azure

[collinp]

I did extensive research on the costs to implement 7 days of immutability in Azure.

I tested 4 scenarios in Azure:

1) 1mb backup block size, Azure Cool
2) 4mb backup block size, Azure Cool
3) 1mb backup block size, Azure Hot
4) 4mb backup block size, Azure Hot

The outcome of my tests showed that the costs would increase by 3-4x with immutability over non-immutability due to the number of API calls to Azure. This would equate to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.

Is Veeam looking at optimizing the number of API calls in the future for Immutability?

Collin

[nielsengelen]

Hi Collin,

Can you maybe share your findings in a way as we do not see differences as large as this so it is hard for us to compare/confirm any of your findings?

[Gostev]

Veeam Data Cloud Vault is based on Azure Blob storage so we have a very good idea how immutability affects our costs and it's nowhere near 3-4x.

[collinp]

I will try my best to show the data if I get time but alternatively if you IM me, I wouldn't mind getting together on a Teams meeting and showing you the results

[collinp]

Also, this is using scaleout repo's

[collinp]

I looked at Azure Cost Management went from $30 to $102 in our pilot. I don't see an option to attach screenprints to this forum. I wouldn't mind sharing via email or a teams meeting.

[Gostev]

I can only guess you're using a storage class with high API costs. As with hot storage API costs should be a fraction, not a multiple of storage costs. One can see this even just by pure math of how much storage vs. API call costs for a single object.

[collinp]

It's not just a small fraction in cost increases from non-immutable to immutable. Depending on what tier you use, the minimum increase is a 40% increase and that example used hot storage.

[nielsengelen]

@collinp did you open up a support case by any chance for better investigation? If so, can you share the case ID?

[collinp]

I can open a case. What is your experience in terms of a cost increase from non-immutable to immutable utilizing Azure hot tier?

[Gostev]

Storage costs can increase noticeably depending on immutability period but API costs which are being discussed here shouldn't increase nearly as much because Azure charges very little for immutability extensions calls (1/10th of a regular write), unlike AWS S3 for example (regular write).