Backups are retained for seven years for compliance and are almost never read. Which Blob Storage access tier minimizes storage cost for this data?
A.Hot tier
Hot = highest storage cost, optimized for frequent access — opposite of this use case.
B.Cool tier
Cool is for infrequent but online access (~30-day minimum) — still pricier than Archive.
C.Archive tier
Archive = cheapest storage, offline, hours to rehydrate. Correct for long-retention backups.
D.Premium tier
Premium is high-performance SSD-backed block storage — most expensive.
Why this answer
Access tiers trade storage cost for access cost/latency: Hot (frequent access), Cool (infrequent, ≥30 days), Cold (rare, ≥90 days), Archive (rarely accessed, hours of rehydration latency, cheapest storage). Seven-year compliance backups almost never read = Archive.
Correct answer: C · Last reviewed 2026-02-13
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