Today, Microsoft Azure released a new incremental backup option for Azure Managed Disks, giving users a new option that decreases cost and shortens the time required for a backup to be completed. Unlike traditional backups that take a full snapshot each time a backup is initiated, incremental snapshots work by taking one full snapshot at the beginning and once that’s completed only backup the data that has changed.
While backup services have been available for many years now, more and more companies have come to rely on the backup as their businesses scale and operate across regions and/or countries. With that in mind, many businesses and ISVs now require some type of business continuity and disaster recovery plan. Incremental snapshots for Azure Managed Disks give these customers the ability to significantly decrease their overall cost of backups, shorten the time required for backups to be completed, and only pay for the changes in their data. One partner in the preview program, Rubrik, indicated that customers saw an 18x reduction in overall costs by reducing their overall network traffic, lower storage costs and improved recovery times.
In Microsoft’s post, they provide a range of examples, program partners and use cases that anyone can review. With the new snapshots, customers are charged per GB of data and users can select from a range of storage options excluding Azure’s premium storage. Microsoft continues to make inroads with businesses and ISVs as Amazon attempts to combat Azure’s continued growth, but with incremental snapshots, Azure is giving customers another option to support their customers.
