Microsoft Azure users can now rest a little more peacefully when they worry about restoring their data from a cyberattack.

The company announced an update that allows Azure users to restore an older backup version of their data for 15 days, not just 72 hours, as was previously the case.

Microsoft says the change should prove useful for organizations concerned about ransomware that might have gone unnoticed by antivirus solutions for a few days before being deployed.

The announcement also further explains Azure’s retention governance. For the first two hours, Azure will create data snapshots every five minutes. After those two hours, the service will start pruning snapshots, leaving fewer instances.

For the past two days, Azure will keep a snapshot every hour, and for the past 8-15 days, the service will take a snapshot every four hours.

All of this, however, comes at a cost. Deciding to keep 15 days of backups means choosing the Managed disks option (unmanaged disks only offer three days). For each instance protected, a price must be paid, US Central users will pay $16 per month for instances at customer-owned sites, or $25 for Azure.

Azure storage, as well as data transfers, also comes at a price.

The good news is that application-consistent recovery points, which are disabled by default, can be enabled. Plus, the first 31 days are free.

Microsoft has worked hard to improve the resiliency of its Azure offering. In November 2021, the company announced that it was bringing its “failure mode” in Azure to web and desktop applications.

And in May 2021, it also announced a whole host of Azure upgrades, aimed at helping developers streamline and modernize business processes.

The cloud hosting battle is heating up, but Amazon’s AWS remains the defending champion with 32% market share, according to figures from Statista. Azure, second, holds 21%, while Google rounds out the top three with an 8% share.

Via: The Register