AZ-104 Practice Question 54: Data Box Offline Transfer
Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) · Test 6 · question 4 of 10
A company must move 60 TB of archive data from its data center to Azure Blob Storage. The site has a 100 Mbps internet connection that is shared with production traffic, and uploading over the network would take about two months. The company does not want to buy, format or ship its own drives.
Which solution should the administrator use?
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Answer:
Azure Data Box is a Microsoft-supplied, encrypted storage appliance for offline transfer. Microsoft ships it to the site, the company copies the data over the local network, and after the device is returned the data is uploaded into the storage account. A classic Data Box holds about 80 TB of usable capacity (the newer Data Box Next-gen devices are larger, and the 80 TB device is being retired where Next-gen is available), so 60 TB fits on one device, and the slow, shared internet link is not used.
Options A and B both send the data over the 100 Mbps link. At that speed 60 TB takes roughly two months and competes with production traffic, which is the problem to avoid. The tool used does not change the available bandwidth.
Option C is an offline method too, but the company would have to buy suitable drives, prepare them with the import tooling, and ship them. The requirement is to avoid supplying drives, and Data Box provides the hardware.
Reference: What is Azure Data Box?