Windows Azure Read-Access Geo Redundant Storage preview

Dear Customer,

Windows Azure Read-Access Geo Redundant Storage is now in preview.

Windows Azure Read-Access Geo Redundant Storage (RA-GRS) provides read access of your secondary storage replica, when the storage account on the primary location is unavailable.

The new read-access service is now available as an option with geo-replication for a storage account. The stored content is replicated to a secondary location, as before, and now you have read access to the secondary location in case of a major disaster in the primary location. The secondary location is in the same region but is hundreds of miles from the primary location.

To use this service, visit the Preview Services webpage to sign up. Once you are signed up, go to the Windows Azure Management Portal where you can enable RA-GRS for your storage account. You can also do this through the Windows Azure Service Management API. Once your account is enabled, you will get the endpoint name for your secondary endpoint. You can send read requests to that secondary endpoint to read your data. In addition, you can query the endpoint to find out the replication lag time for your account. For more information, please visit the Storage website.

The Read-Access Geo Redundant Storage service is currently in preview. From now until February 2014, we will charge for Read-Access Geo Redundant Storage at the same rate and on the same meter as Geo Redundant Storage prices. In February 2014, we will begin charging for Read-Access Geo Redundant Storage at a discounted preview price. The pricing for this service is shown in the table below.

Storage capacity

Geo Redundant Storage (used as Preview Price for RA-GRS until
February 2014)

Read-Access
Geo Redundant Storage (preview priced starting February 2014)

Read-Access
Geo Redundant Storage (general availability*)

First 1 TB per month

$0.095 per GB

$0.105 per GB

$0.120 per GB

Next 49 TB per month

$0.080 per GB

$0.090 per GB

$0.100 per GB

Next 450 TB per month

$0.070 per GB

$0.080 per GB

$0.090 per GB

Next 500 TB per month

$0.065 per GB

$0.075 per GB

$0.080 per GB

Next 4,000 TB per month

$0.060 per GB

$0.070 per GB

$0.075 per GB

More than 5,000 TB per month

$0.055 per GB

$0.065 per GB

$0.070 per GB

* The general availability date has not yet been announced

For more pricing information, please refer to the Storage Pricing Details webpage.


Cheers,

Windows Azure Team