Introduction

This guide explains how to set up Backup Gateway on Microsoft Azure to store backups in the Azure cloud.

Typically, you will only need to create a virtual machine (VM) with Acronis Cyber Infrastructure on Azure, specifying the required details like VM user name and password, credentials for a partner account in Acronis Cyber Backup Cloud, and such. Once the virtual machine is running, you should be able to store backups in the Azure cloud, without having to log in to Acronis Cyber Infrastructure.

Backups are cold data with a specific access pattern: the data is not accessed frequently but is expected to be available immediately when accessed. For this use case, it is cost-efficient to choose storage classes intended for long-term storage with infrequently accessed data. The recommended storage class for Microsoft Azure is Cool Blob Storage. Archive storage classes like Azure Archive Blob cannot be used for backup because they do not provide instant access to data. High access latency (several hours) makes it technically impossible to browse archives, restore data fast, and create incremental backups. Even though the archive storage is usually very cost-efficient, keep in mind that there are a number of different cost factors. In fact, the total cost of public cloud storage consists of payments for storing data, operations, traffic, data retrieval, early deletion, and so on. For example, an archive storage service can charge six months’ storage payment for just one data recall operation. If the storage data is expected to be accessed more frequently, the added costs increase significantly the total cost of data storage. In order to avoid the low data retrieval rate and to cut expenses, we recommend using Acronis Cyber Cloud for storing backup data.