What is Azure Elastic SAN?
Azure Elastic SAN is a fully managed block storage service that provides traditional SAN functionality in the cloud. The service consolidates storage resources and enables provisioning volumes for multiple compute instances via iSCSI.
Core Features
- Consolidated storage pool with shared IOPS and throughput capacity
- iSCSI access via Private Endpoints for secure connections
- Scaling from 1 TiB to 100 TiB per SAN
- Zone-redundant storage for high availability
- Integration with Azure VMs and Kubernetes
Typical Use Cases
- Migration of on-premises SAN workloads to the cloud
- Database clusters requiring shared block storage
- Applications with variable IOPS requirements that benefit from pool consolidation
Benefits
- Lower costs through consolidated performance instead of over-provisioning per volume
- Familiar iSCSI protocol for easy migration
- No SAN administration required
- GDPR-compliant in European Azure regions
Integration with innFactory
As a Microsoft Solutions Partner, innFactory supports you with Azure Elastic SAN: storage architecture, SAN migration and performance optimization.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Elastic SAN and Managed Disks?
Managed Disks are individual volumes for VMs. Elastic SAN is a shared storage pool that provides multiple volumes and consolidates IOPS/throughput. Ideal when multiple VMs share storage.
Which protocols does Elastic SAN support?
Azure Elastic SAN uses iSCSI over Private Endpoints. VMs connect to volumes over the network like a traditional SAN.
How does performance scale?
Performance scales with base capacity. Each Base Unit (1 TiB) provides 5,000 IOPS and 80 MBps. Additional capacity proportionally increases IOPS and throughput.
Can I use Elastic SAN for databases?
Yes, Elastic SAN is suitable for database workloads that require consistent, low-latency block storage. Consolidated performance enables efficient resource utilization.
