Migrating your on-premises workloads to the cloud provides many benefits, including easier optimisation of resources, centralised security and governance and the ability to replace IaaS hosted applications with cheaper and more agile PaaS services.
Microsoft provide a number of tools to help you migrate your applications and data to their cloud computing service, Azure, as seamlessly as possible. Azure Migrate is used to migrate physical and virtual machines from a variety of sources to Azure, and Azure Database Migration Service (DMS) is used to migrate data and resources from a range of popular database management systems. Often these migrations are performed over a suitable network connection (internet or ExpressRoute), but what if you have a large volume of data to transfer? Once you reach the tens or hundreds of terabyte volumes it would take too long to move across the network in a reasonable timeframe. This is where Azure Data Box can help you.
What is Azure Data Box?
Azure Data Box is a service provided by Microsoft that involves sending a physical device to your datacentre for you to copy the data on to, which is then shipped back to Microsoft’s datacenter and directly imported to the defined storage locations. This enables large volumes of data to be securely transferred to your Azure Storage Account containers much faster than transferring over network links.
There are three levels of physical data box, all support importing or exporting data to or from Azure Blobs, Files, Managed Disks and ADLS Gen2 accounts. Data is encrypted with an AES 256-bit encryption key:
- Data Box Disk – A single disk with a 35TB usable capacity. It has a 1 x USB 3.1 and 1 x SATA interface. It is limited to 1 storage account. Up to 5 disks can be requested per order.
- Data Box – A NAS type device with an 80TB usable capacity. It has 1 x 1Gbps ethernet and 2 x 10Gbps SFP+ interfaces. Ten days of usage are provided in the cost and up to 10 storage accounts can be specified as destinations.
- Data Box Heavy – A large enclosure on wheels with an 800TB usable capacity. It has 2 x 1Gbps ethernet and 4 x 40Gbps QSFP+ interfaces. Twenty days of usage are provided in the cost and up to 10 storage accounts can be specified as destinations. This option is not currently available in the UK, only the US and EU.
Microsoft also provide two additional features:
- Import/Export Job – Send your own compatible SATA/SSD disk to import or export data to or from a single Azure Blob or Fiels container.
- Azure Data Box Gateway – A virtual appliance that provides continuous or incremental import or export of data to or from Azure across your network. It supports SMB and NFS protocols.
Ordering and using Azure Data Box
Azure Data Box is ordered through the Azure portal and is a resource deployed to a Resource Group in an Azure Subscription. When you order a Data Box the destination Storage Accounts or Managed Disks are selected (so there is a requirement to create these first). Next, the security options are selected, these are:
- Encryption type – Microsoft or customer managed key.
- Bring your own password – System generated or customer specified.
- Double encryption – A second layer of software encryption, useful for high-security workloads.
Following this the contact details are entered. These include the shipping address and email addresses to send progress updates to. Next, Azure resource tags can be added, such as cost centre, and then the order button is pressed to start the process in motion and schedule the delivery.
Once the Data Box arrives a few days later it is connected to a server (physical or VM) and content is copied to it using tools such as Robocopy. Once the copy is complete and verified the shipping company is notified and it is collected and delivered to Microsoft, who then transfer the data to the correct Storage Accounts.
If you think this migration approach would benefit you, or would like more information, please get in touch and we can discuss which options would suit you best.
