Design data storage solutions

A multinational company stores large amounts of unstructured data (documents, images) that must be read with low latency from multiple global regions. Data is written primarily in one region but read globally. Cost optimization is a key requirement. Which Azure storage replication option should they use?

A startup is building a social media analytics platform that processes streaming data. They need a data store for time-series events with high write throughput and fast timestamp-based range queries. Which Azure data store is most suitable for this workload?

A company ingests millions of IoT events per second from sensors around the world. Each event is a JSON message with timestamp, device ID, and readings. They need to support real-time analytics dashboards and also store all raw data for long-term historical analysis. They want to minimize operational overhead. Which Azure data storage solution should they recommend?

A company runs a legacy application on Azure Virtual Machines. The application uses a SQL Server database that requires 50,000 IOPS consistently. It also uses a shared file system for storing documents. They plan to migrate from on-premises where they used a SAN for block storage and NAS for file shares. Which combination of Azure storage should they use to meet performance requirements?

A company needs a fully managed NoSQL database for a JSON document-oriented application that requires low latency (single-digit milliseconds) for reads and writes at any scale. The application will run globally and needs multi-region writes with automatic failover. Which Azure data store should they use?

A company needs to store and analyze petabytes of semi-structured data from IoT devices. The data is append-only and written in time order. They need to support fast queries on time ranges and also aggregate data in real-time. Which Azure data service should they use?

A company is building a big data analytics platform that will process structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data using Azure Synapse Analytics and other tools. They need a storage layer that supports hierarchical namespaces and fine-grained access control at the directory level. Which Azure storage solution should they use?

A company wants to store raw data from IoT devices, social media feeds, and transactional databases for analytics. They need a storage solution that supports a hierarchical namespace for organizing data into directories and allows fine-grained access control at the directory and file level. They also need to query the data using Azure Synapse Analytics in-place. Which Azure storage solution should they use?

A company runs a line-of-business application on Azure VMs that requires a highly available, low-latency SMB file share with support for active-active access from multiple VMs. The application requires high IOPS and throughput, and the file share must be mountable on both Linux and Windows VMs. Which Azure file storage solution should they recommend?

A global e-commerce company needs a database solution that can handle high-velocity writes from user transactions across multiple regions. They require multi-region writes with automatic conflict resolution and single-digit millisecond latency for reads and writes. Which Azure data store should they use?

A media company stores large video files that are accessed once a month for audits. When needed, they must be available for download immediately (within seconds). The company wants to minimize storage costs. Which Azure Blob Storage access tier should they use?

A startup is building a new mobile app backend. They need a fully managed relational database service with built-in high availability, automatic backups, and built-in intelligence to optimize performance. They want to minimize administrative overhead for tasks like patching and scaling. Which Azure service should they use?

A company needs a data storage solution for a global application that frequently accesses recent data and less frequently older data. Data is unstructured blobs. They want to automatically move blobs to cool storage after 30 days and to archive storage after 90 days. Additionally, blobs must be retained for 7 years and cannot be deleted or modified during that period. Which Azure Blob Storage features should they combine?

A company needs a fully managed NoSQL database for a new application with a key-value and document data model. They require single-digit millisecond latency at any scale, multi-region writes with automatic conflict resolution, and a serverless capacity option to handle unpredictable traffic. Which Azure data service should they use?

A financial company must store customer transaction records in Azure Blob Storage. Regulatory requirements mandate that the records must not be modified or deleted for 7 years. Even administrators must be unable to alter or remove the blobs during this period. Which Azure Blob Storage feature should they enable?

A company has 10 branch offices, each with Windows file servers. They want to centralize file storage in Azure and allow each branch office to cache files locally for fast access. The solution must support cloud tiering so that only frequently accessed files are kept locally. Which Azure service should they implement?

A SaaS company uses Azure SQL Database for a multi-tenant application. They have 80 tenant databases, each with varying and unpredictable usage patterns. The company wants to optimize costs without sacrificing performance and wants the ability to easily add new tenant databases without over-provisioning. Which deployment option should they use?

A company needs to store large amounts of unstructured data (log files) for analytics. The data is accessed frequently for the first 30 days, then occasionally for the next 90 days, and rarely after that but must be retained for 7 years for compliance. The data must not be modified or deleted during the retention period, and administrative access must not be able to bypass this restriction. They want to minimize storage costs. Which combination of Azure Blob Storage features should they configure?

A global e-commerce platform requires a database that supports multi-region writes with automatic conflict resolution and single-digit millisecond latency for reads and writes from any region. The application uses a flexible schema with JSON documents. They also need to enforce strong consistency for critical operations (e.g., order placement) while allowing eventual consistency for less critical reads. Which Azure data service and configuration should they choose?

A company stores website static assets in Azure Blob Storage. The assets are updated weekly and must be available for immediate access for 30 days. After 30 days, older versions can be moved to the Cool tier to save costs but must still be accessible within seconds. They want an automated solution. What should they configure?

A company wants to cache frequently accessed session state and product data for their e-commerce website. They need the cache to be highly available with a 99.9% SLA and provide fast read and write access. The solution must be fully managed. Which Azure Cache tier should they choose?

A company runs large-scale analytics workloads using Apache Hadoop and Spark. They need a cloud storage solution that is fully compatible with the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) and provides unlimited storage with high throughput for parallel processing. They also want to take advantage of tiered storage to reduce costs for older data. Which Azure data service should they use?

A company is building a new application that requires a fully managed relational database. The application has varying workloads across different databases. The company wants to pool resources to optimize cost and allow each database to scale as needed. They also need automated backups with point-in-time restore and geo-replication for disaster recovery. Which Azure data service should they use?

A company is building a petabyte-scale data lake for analytics. They need a storage solution that supports a hierarchical namespace, POSIX-like permissions (ACLs), and is optimized for big data analytics workloads using Apache Spark and Hive. The data must be accessible over the Azure Blob Storage API. Which Azure data service should they use?

A software company runs 50 small Azure SQL databases for different clients. Each database has low average usage but unpredictable spikes. The company wants to minimize cost while providing resources for peak loads and easily adding new databases without manual sizing. Which Azure data service should they use?

A global IoT platform ingests telemetry data from millions of devices. The application requires multi-region writes to support low-latency ingestion from any location. The schema uses JSON documents and fields often vary. The team needs automatic conflict resolution when the same document is updated concurrently from different regions. Additionally, read operations for device commands must use strong consistency, while user-facing dashboard queries can use eventual consistency. Which Azure Cosmos DB configuration should they choose?

A company runs a custom analytics application that reads data using the NFS 3.0 protocol. The data consists of large files organized in a directory structure. The application also requires POSIX-like access control lists (ACLs) for fine-grained permissions. The solution must be fully managed and support high throughput for parallel reads. Which Azure data service should they use?

A company uses Azure SQL Database (Premium tier) for their application. They need to offload reporting queries to a read-only copy of the database to reduce load on the primary. The read-only copy must be kept in sync synchronously within the same Azure region. They also need automated failover to the read-only copy if the primary fails. Which Azure SQL Database feature should they enable?

A company needs to store massive amounts of unstructured data, such as images and videos, for a media processing application. The data must be accessible via REST APIs and support tiered storage for cost optimization. Which Azure storage solution should they use?

A company deploys a web application on Azure VMs. The application stores session state and frequently accessed product data. They need a low-latency, in-memory cache to reduce database load and improve response times. The cache must be managed and support data persistence with replication across availability zones within the region. Which Azure service and tier should they choose?

A software company hosts multiple small databases for different clients on Azure SQL Database. Each database has low average usage but experiences unpredictable spikes. The company wants to minimize cost by pooling resources across databases while allowing each database to consume resources up to a set limit during spikes. They also need the ability to easily add new databases without manual sizing. Which Azure SQL Database deployment option should they choose?

A company is building a petabyte-scale data lake for analytics. The workload includes Apache Spark and Hive jobs that read and write large files. The storage solution must support a hierarchical namespace for efficient directory operations, POSIX-like access control lists (ACLs) for fine-grained permissions, and must be accessible via the Azure Blob Storage API for compatibility with existing tools. Furthermore, the solution should be optimized for analytics workloads with high throughput. Which Azure data service should they choose?

A media company needs to store large volumes of video files that are processed by an application. The files are accessed via REST APIs and are rarely accessed after the first few days. The company wants to minimize storage costs by automatically moving older files to a cheaper storage tier without any manual intervention. Which Azure storage solution should they use, and which feature should they configure?

A media company stores raw video files and processed output in Azure. These files are accessed via REST APIs by a processing application. After processing, the files are rarely accessed but must be retained. To minimize costs, the company wants to automatically move files to a cheaper storage tier after 30 days and archive them after 90 days. Which Azure storage solution and feature should they use?

A global e-commerce platform uses Azure Cosmos DB for its product catalog. The application requires multi-region writes to provide low-latency updates from any geographic location. Two users may update the same product item concurrently, so the solution must automatically resolve conflicts. For real-time inventory checks, reads must be strongly consistent, while product description reads can be eventually consistent. Which Cosmos DB configuration should they choose?

A software company hosts 100 small Azure SQL databases for different clients. Each database has low average usage but experiences unpredictable spikes. The company wants to minimize costs while allowing each database to burst up to a maximum resource limit during spikes. They also need to easily add new databases without manual sizing. Which Azure SQL Database deployment option should they use?

A company wants to migrate its on-premises file server to Azure with minimal application changes. The application accesses files over the SMB protocol and requires identity-based access using the existing on-premises Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS). They need the solution to be fully managed with low latency. Which Azure storage solution should they choose?

A company stores log data in Azure Blob Storage. Logs are accessed frequently for the first 30 days, then rarely accessed but must be retained for 7 years for compliance. They want to minimize storage costs. Which storage tier and lifecycle management rule should they use?

A company runs a global e-commerce application that needs to store product catalog data. The data is JSON documents with variable schemas. The application requires single-digit millisecond read and write latencies at any scale and must support automatic synchronous replication across multiple Azure regions for high availability and low latency reads from any region. Which Azure data service should they choose?

A company stores large amounts of log data in Azure Blob Storage. Logs are accessed frequently for the first 30 days, then rarely accessed afterward, but must be retained for 7 years for compliance. The company wants to minimize storage costs. They need to configure automatic data movement and retention policies. Which combination of Azure Blob Storage access tiers and lifecycle management policy should they use?

A company runs a SQL Server database on an Azure virtual machine in a single region. They need to increase storage capacity and improve I/O performance for their transaction-intensive workload. They also want to ensure high availability within the same datacenter (99.99% SLA). What should they do?

A company wants to migrate its on-premises file server to Azure. The application accesses files using the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol and requires identity-based access integrated with on-premises Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS). The solution must be fully managed and provide low latency for users within the same region. Which Azure solution should they choose?

A company ingests IoT sensor data into Azure Blob Storage. Data is written frequently and accessed rarely after the first 24 hours. The company must retain the data for exactly 90 days for compliance. They want to minimize storage costs by automatically moving data to cheaper tiers as soon as possible. Which lifecycle management policy should they implement?

A company is migrating a MongoDB-compatible application to Azure. The application requires low-latency reads and writes globally. It needs to support multi-region writes so that updates can be made from any region with automatic conflict resolution. The data is JSON documents that can vary in schema. The company wants a fully managed database service with native support for MongoDB APIs. Which Azure data service should they choose?

A company runs a global e-commerce application that stores customer order data. The data must be highly available and durable. The application requires strong consistency for all reads and writes. The company needs to store relational data (orders, customers) and handle complex queries with joins. They want a fully managed database service that supports active geo-replication for disaster recovery across two Azure regions with automatic failover. Which Azure database service should they choose?

A company stores terabytes of archival data that must be retained for 10 years per regulatory requirements. The data is accessed infrequently (once or twice per year) and retrieval latency of up to 5 hours is acceptable. The company wants the lowest storage cost. They also need to ensure data is encrypted at rest and immutability to prevent deletion or modification during the retention period. Which Azure storage solution should they choose?

A company runs a SQL Server database on an Azure virtual machine. They need to increase the storage capacity and improve I/O performance for their transaction log. The current data disk is a standard HDD. They want to achieve higher IOPS and throughput without increasing the size of the VM (the VM size supports up to 8 data disks). The database workload is write-intensive on the transaction log. Which configuration should they implement?

A company ingests IoT sensor data into Azure Blob Storage. Data is written frequently and is accessed rarely after the first 24 hours. The company must retain the data for exactly 90 days for compliance. They want to minimize storage costs by automatically moving data to the cheapest possible storage tier as soon as possible. Which Azure Blob Storage lifecycle management policy should they implement?

A company stores log data in Azure Blob Storage. The logs are accessed frequently for the first 30 days, then only occasionally for up to 1 year, and after that must be retained for 7 years for compliance purposes. The company wants to minimize storage costs by automatically moving data to cheaper tiers. Which Azure Blob Storage lifecycle management policy should they implement?

A company is building a global real-time collaboration platform. The application data is stored as JSON documents and needs to be available for low-latency reads and writes from multiple geographic regions. The application must support multi-region writes so that users can update data from any region with automatic conflict resolution. The company wants a fully managed database service with a guaranteed SLA for availability and throughput. Which Azure data service should they choose?

A company stores JSON documents for a mobile app backend. The data needs to be accessible from multiple global regions with low latency writes from any region. The app uses a client-side library that supports automatic conflict resolution for concurrent updates. Which Azure data service should they choose?

A company is migrating a large on-premises SQL Server database to Azure SQL Managed Instance. They need to minimize downtime during migration. The database is 500 GB and the network link is 1 Gbps. Which migration approach should they recommend?

A company stores petabytes of image files for a content delivery network. The images are accessed frequently for the first week, then rarely afterward. They must be retained for 5 years for compliance. The company wants to minimize storage costs while maintaining performance for frequently accessed data. Which storage solution and tier strategy should they recommend?

A company ingests millions of IoT sensor data points per second. They need a fully managed analytics service optimized for time-series data that can ingest high-velocity data, perform real-time analytics, and store data for historical analysis. The solution must integrate with Azure Stream Analytics for stream processing. Which Azure data service should they choose?

A company needs to store large amounts of unstructured file data (documents, images) that is accessed concurrently from hundreds of Azure VMs. The data must be accessible via the SMB protocol and provide low-latency, high-throughput performance. The solution must be fully managed and support up to 1000 simultaneous connections. Which Azure storage solution should they choose?

A company runs a large-scale write-intensive application that requires a horizontally scalable relational database. They need to distribute data across multiple nodes to handle high write throughput while supporting SQL queries, including joins and transactions. The solution must be fully managed and provide elastic scaling. Which Azure database service should they choose?

A global e-commerce company runs a product catalog application that requires low-latency reads and writes from multiple geographic regions. The data is key-value structured and must be replicated with multi-region write capability. The company needs a fully managed NoSQL database service with guaranteed 99th percentile latency and automatic conflict resolution. Which Azure data service should they choose?

A company stores unstructured data such as documents and images in Azure Blob Storage. The data is accessed frequently for the first month, then only rarely for the next year, and after that must be retained for 10 years for compliance. The company wants to minimize storage costs by automatically moving data to the most cost-effective storage tiers. Which Azure Blob Storage feature should they implement?

A company runs a high-performance computing (HPC) workload that requires low-latency access to large files (hundreds of GB) from thousands of Azure VMs concurrently. The files must be accessible via the NFS protocol and the solution must be a fully managed, POSIX-compliant file system that can scale throughput linearly with capacity. Which Azure storage solution should they choose?

A company needs to store audit logs for 7 years to meet compliance requirements. The logs are generated at a high volume and must be cost-effective. They need to run occasional queries on recent logs (less than 30 days old) but rarely on older ones. Which Azure storage solution should they recommend?

A company needs to store and retrieve large binary files (e.g., images and videos) for a web application. The data must be accessible via HTTPS URLs and support both public read access for anonymous users and private access for administrators. The solution must be highly durable and cost-effective for storing terabytes of data. Which Azure storage solution should they recommend?

A global e-commerce company stores product catalog data in a JSON document format. The application requires low-latency reads and writes from multiple geographic regions. The solution must support multi-region writes with automatic conflict resolution and provide a guaranteed 99th percentile latency. Which Azure Cosmos DB API and consistency level should they choose?

A company runs a data analytics application that stores large volumes of structured data in a relational format. The data is write-intensive and the application needs to scale horizontally for high throughput. The solution must support SQL queries, including joins and ACID transactions. Which Azure database service should they choose?

A company runs a data analytics workload that processes large amounts of unstructured data (images and videos). The data is accessed frequently for the first month, then rarely. They need to store the data cost-effectively for 7 years to meet compliance. The solution must support fast retrieval of data within the first month. Which Azure storage solution should they recommend?

A company needs to store sensor data from IoT devices. Each device sends a message every second. The data is time-series and will be queried for real-time dashboards and historical analysis. The solution must support high ingestion rates and low-latency queries on recent data. Which Azure service should they use?

A company stores large video files for a media streaming application. The files are accessed infrequently but need to be available instantly when requested. The company wants to minimize storage costs while ensuring high durability. Which Azure Blob Storage access tier should they use?

A company runs a high-throughput time-series workload that stores sensor data from IoT devices. Data is ingested at a rate of millions of events per second. The application requires low-latency queries (under 100 ms) on recent data (less than 30 days old) and the ability to run occasional analytical queries on historical data older than 30 days. The solution must automatically move cold data to a cost-optimized tier and provide built-in analytics. Which Azure service should they use?

A company manages a fleet of millions of IoT devices that send telemetry data every minute. The data must be stored for 10 years to meet compliance requirements. For the first 30 days, data is accessed frequently for real-time dashboards and alerting. After 30 days, data is only accessed occasionally for historical analysis and reporting. The solution must be cost-effective and support high ingestion rates. Which Azure service should the company use to store and query this data?

A global e-commerce company uses Azure Cosmos DB to store its product catalog. The catalog is read-heavy, with users worldwide expecting consistent reads with a 99th percentile latency under 10 ms. Writes to the catalog are performed by a central admin team in one region. The company needs to minimize write latency and cost while ensuring that users always see the same data within a single session. Which Cosmos DB configuration should the company choose?

A data platform must support analytical queries over petabytes of files in a data lake, while preserving hierarchical namespaces and fine-grained ACLs. Which storage service should you design around?

A global company stores customer profile data in JSON format. The application requires low-latency writes and reads from multiple regions. The solution must support multi-region writes with automatic conflict resolution and provide high availability. Which Azure Cosmos DB configuration should they choose?

A company wants to store application configuration settings and secrets (e.g., database connection strings, API keys) securely with automatic rotation. Access must be controlled and audited. Which Azure service should they use?

A healthcare analytics platform stores semi-structured JSON documents and requires globally distributed low-latency reads with tunable consistency. Which Azure data platform should be recommended?

An enterprise data platform must store petabytes of raw files for analytics and support fine-grained access control through Microsoft Entra ID. Which storage solution should be selected?

A globally distributed application requires multi-region writes to a NoSQL database and must tolerate regional write outages. Which Azure service capability should be selected?