Azure file sync will provide customers secure, centralized file share management in the cloud. Customers that install the File Sync agent on their Windows Servers will be able to store less frequently accessed files in the cloud, while keeping more frequently accessed data on local file shares, and will be able to deliver consistent file share performance with no configuration or code changes. Centralizing file share management with File Sync could also lower the IT support requirements for branch or remote office locations including centralized backup and multi-site replication.
Note:- Availability for the public preview will be limited to specific regions , Find details here
Azure File Sync replicates files from your on-premises Windows Server to an Azure file share. With Azure File Sync, you don’t have to choose between the benefits of cloud and the benefits of your on-premises file server – you can have both! Azure File Sync enables you to centralize your file services in Azure while maintaining local access to your data.
We are creating Windows file server and using file shares from long period in different Windows versions and it is useful for every organization , now Microsoft is came with new option Azure File Sync with the goal of making it easy for you to reap the benefits of cloud storage. With Azure Files, Microsoft focused on building general purpose file shares that can replace all the file servers and NAS devices on the organization.
Azure File Sync replicates files from your on-premises Windows Server to an Azure file share, just like how you might have used DFS-R to replicate data between Windows Servers. Once you have a copy of your data in Azure, you can enable cloud tiering—the real magic of Azure File Sync—to store only the hottest and most recently accessed data on-premises. And since the cloud has a full copy of your data, you can connect as many servers to your Azure file share as you want, allowing you to establish quick caches of your data wherever your users happen to be. In simple terms Azure File Sync enables you to centralize your file services in Azure while maintaining local access to your data.
Having a copy of the data in the cloud enables you to do more. For example, you can nearly instantly recover from the loss of server with our fast disaster recovery feature. No matter what happens to your local server – a bad update, damaged physical disks, or something worse, you can rest easy knowing the cloud has a fully resilient copy of your data. Simply connect your new Windows Server to your existing sync group, and your namespace will be pulled down right away for use.
Top innovations and enhancements in Azure File Sync initial preview
For general availability Microsoft has increased the performance of Azure File Sync upload by 2X and fast disaster recovery by 4X to 18X (depending on hardware). Also modification on the architect of the cloud tiering backend to support faster and more reliable tiering, enabling us to support tiering as soon as azure detect that the used volume space exceeds your volume free space percentage threshold.
By revamping portal experience that more clearly displays the progress of sync uploads and surfaces only actionable error messages to you – keeping you focused on your day to day jog and it helps customers understand the state of the system.
Microsoft now integrate end-to-end with the geo-redundant storage (GRS) resiliency setting and this enables you to fearlessly adopt Azure File Sync to protect against disasters for your organization’s most valuable data. And by this we have solution for disaster affecting one of the datacenters serving an Azure region .
Azure File Sync Overview
General availability of Azure File Sync is just the start of the innovations of Microsoft plan to bring to Azure Files and Azure File Sync. Microsoft working on proving new features and incremental improvements to deliver throughout the summer and fall, including support for and tighter integration with Windows Server 2019 .
Refer the Planning-guide to learn about Azure File Sync.
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