AZ-305 Design data storage solutions Practice Question
A large enterprise is designing a data lake solution for its analytics platform. The data lake will store petabytes of structured and unstructured data from various sources, including IoT devices, logs, and transactional databases. The solution must support: - Multi-protocol access (ABFS, REST, and NFS 3.0) - Hierarchical namespace for folder-level permissions - Optimized for analytical workloads (Parquet format) - Cost-effective storage for cold data that is accessed less than once a year. Which Azure storage solution should the enterprise recommend for the data lake?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers choose Option D (Azure Blob Storage with hierarchical namespace) thinking it is sufficient, but they overlook the explicit requirement for cost-effective cold data storage, which requires the Archive tier—a feature that is not automatically enabled with hierarchical namespace and must be selected as part of the ADLS Gen2 solution.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 with Archive tier for cold data
Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 (ADLS Gen2) is the correct foundation because it natively supports the required multi-protocol access (ABFS, REST, and NFS 3.0), a hierarchical namespace for folder-level permissions, and is optimized for analytical workloads using Parquet format. The Archive tier for cold data provides the lowest storage cost for data accessed less than once a year, meeting the cost-effectiveness requirement while retaining the ADLS Gen2 capabilities.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Azure NetApp Files Ultra tier
Why it's wrong here
Expensive and does not support ABFS.
- ✗
Azure Files Premium tier
Why it's wrong here
Does not support ABFS or hierarchical namespace.
- ✓
Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 with Archive tier for cold data
Why this is correct
Supports all required protocols and hierarchical namespace.
- ✗
Azure Blob Storage with hierarchical namespace enabled
Why it's wrong here
Does not support NFS 3.0.
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Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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