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Clean up perf, billing, and WS articles.
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articles/storage/files/understand-performance.md

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Azure Files can satisfy performance requirements for most applications and use cases. This article explains the different factors that can affect file share performance and how to optimize the performance of Azure file shares for your workload.
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## Applies to
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| File share type | SMB | NFS |
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|-|:-:|:-:|
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| Standard file shares (GPv2), LRS/ZRS | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![No](../media/icons/no-icon.png) |
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| Standard file shares (GPv2), GRS/GZRS | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![No](../media/icons/no-icon.png) |
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| Premium file shares (FileStorage), LRS/ZRS | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) |
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| Management model | Billing model | Media tier | Redundancy | SMB | NFS |
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|-|-|-|-|:-:|:-:|
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| Microsoft.Storage | Provisioned v2 | HDD (standard) | Local (LRS) | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![No](../media/icons/no-icon.png) |
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| Microsoft.Storage | Provisioned v2 | HDD (standard) | Zone (ZRS) | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![No](../media/icons/no-icon.png) |
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| Microsoft.Storage | Provisioned v2 | HDD (standard) | Geo (GRS) | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![No](../media/icons/no-icon.png) |
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| Microsoft.Storage | Provisioned v2 | HDD (standard) | GeoZone (GZRS) | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![No](../media/icons/no-icon.png) |
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| Microsoft.Storage | Provisioned v1 | SSD (premium) | Local (LRS) | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) |
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| Microsoft.Storage | Provisioned v1 | SSD (premium) | Zone (ZRS) | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png)|
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| Microsoft.Storage | Pay-as-you-go | HDD (standard) | Local (LRS) | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![No](../media/icons/no-icon.png) |
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| Microsoft.Storage | Pay-as-you-go | HDD (standard) | Zone (ZRS) | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![No](../media/icons/no-icon.png) |
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| Microsoft.Storage | Pay-as-you-go | HDD (standard) | Geo (GRS) | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![No](../media/icons/no-icon.png) |
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| Microsoft.Storage | Pay-as-you-go | HDD (standard) | GeoZone (GZRS) | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![No](../media/icons/no-icon.png) |
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## Glossary
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Queue depth is the number of pending I/O requests that a storage resource can handle at any one time. For more information, see [Queue depth](#queue-depth).
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## Choosing a performance tier based on usage patterns
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Azure Files provides a range of storage tiers that help reduce costs by allowing you to store data at the appropriate level of performance and price. At the highest level, Azure Files offers two performance tiers: standard and premium. Standard file shares are hosted on a storage system backed by hard disk drives (HDD), while premium file shares are backed by solid-state drives (SSD) for better performance. Standard file shares have several storage tiers (transaction optimized, hot, and cool) that you can seamlessly move between to maximize the data at-rest storage and transaction prices. However, you can't move between standard and premium tiers without physically migrating your data between different [storage accounts](../common/storage-account-overview.md#types-of-storage-accounts).
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## Choosing a media tier based on usage patterns
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When choosing between standard and premium file shares, it's important to understand the requirements of the expected usage pattern you're planning to run on Azure Files. If you require large amounts of IOPS, extremely fast data transfer speeds, or very low latency, then you should choose premium Azure file shares.
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Azure Files provides a two storage media tiers allow you to balance performance and price: SSD and HDD. You pick the media tier of the file share at the storage account level, and once you create a storage account in a particular media tier, can't move to the other one without [manually migrating to a new file share](./migrate-files-between-shares.md).
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The following table summarizes the expected performance targets between standard and premium. For details, see [Azure Files scalability and performance targets](storage-files-scale-targets.md).
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When choosing between SSD and HDD file shares, it's important to understand the requirements of the expected usage pattern you're planning to run on Azure Files. If you require large amounts of IOPS, extremely fast data transfer speeds, or very low latency, then you should choose SSD file shares.
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| **Usage pattern requirements** | **Standard** | **Premium** |
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|-----------------------------------------------|--------------|-------------|
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| Write latency (single-digit milliseconds) | Yes | Yes |
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| Read latency (single-digit milliseconds) | No | Yes |
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The following table summarizes the expected performance targets between SSD and HDD file shares. For details, see [Azure Files scalability and performance targets](storage-files-scale-targets.md).
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Premium file shares offer a provisioning model that guarantees the following performance profile based on share size. For more information, see the [provisioned v1 model](understanding-billing.md#provisioned-v1-model). Burst credits accumulate in a burst bucket whenever traffic for your file share is below baseline IOPS. Earned credits are used later to enable bursting when operations would exceed the baseline IOPS.
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| **Usage pattern requirements** | **SSD** | **HDD** |
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|-|-|-|
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| Write latency (single-digit milliseconds) | Yes | Yes |
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| Read latency (single-digit milliseconds) | Yes | No |
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| **Capacity (GiB)** | **Baseline IOPS** | **Burst IOPS** | **Burst credits** | **Throughput (ingress + egress)** |
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|--------------------|-------------------|----------------|-------------------|---------------------------------------------|
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| 100 | 3,100 | Up to 10,000 | 24,840,000 | 110 MiB/s |
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| 500 | 3,500 | Up to 10,000 | 23,400,000 | 150 MiB/s |
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| 1,024 | 4,024 | Up to 10,000 | 21,513,600 | 203 MiB/s |
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| 5,120 | 8,120 | Up to 15,360 | 26,064,000 | 613 MiB/s |
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| 10,240 | 13,240 | Up to 30,720 | 62,928,000 | 1,125 MiB/s |
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| 33,792 | 36,792 | Up to 100,000 | 227,548,800 | 3,480 MiB/s |
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| 51,200 | 54,200 | Up to 100,000 | 164,880,000 | 5,220 MiB/s |
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| 102,400 | 100,000 | Up to 100,000 | 0 | 10,340 MiB/s |
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SSD file shares offer a provisioning model that guarantees the following performance profile based on share size. For more information, see the [provisioned v1 model](understanding-billing.md#provisioned-v1-model).
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### Performance checklist
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Whether you're assessing performance requirements for a new or existing workload, understanding your usage patterns will help you achieve predictable performance. Consult with your storage admin or application developer to determine the following usage patterns.
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- **Latency sensitivity:** Are users opening files or interacting with virtual desktops that run on Azure Files? These are examples of workloads that are sensitive to read latency and also have high visibility to end users. These types of workloads are more suitable for premium Azure file shares, which can provide single-millisecond latency for both read and write operations (< 2 ms for small I/O size).
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- **Latency sensitivity:** Are users opening files or interacting with virtual desktops that run on Azure Files? These are examples of workloads that are sensitive to read latency and also have high visibility to end users. These types of workloads are more suitable for SSD file shares, which can provide single-millisecond latency for both read and write operations (< 2 ms for small I/O size).
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- **IOPS and throughput requirements:** Premium file shares support larger IOPS and throughput limits than standard file shares. See [file share scale targets](./storage-files-scale-targets.md#azure-file-share-scale-targets) for more information.
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- **IOPS and throughput requirements:** SSD file shares support larger IOPS and throughput limits than HDD file shares. See [file share scale targets](./storage-files-scale-targets.md#azure-file-share-scale-targets) for more information.
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- **Workload duration and frequency:** Short (minutes) and infrequent (hourly) workloads will be less likely to achieve the upper performance limits of standard file shares compared to long-running, frequently occurring workloads. On premium file shares, workload duration is helpful when determining the correct performance profile to use based on the provisioning size. Depending on how long the workload needs to [burst](understanding-billing.md#provisioned-v1-bursting) for and how long it spends below the baseline IOPS, you can determine if you're accumulating enough bursting credits to consistently satisfy your workload at peak times. Finding the right balance will reduce costs compared to over-provisioning the file share. A common mistake is to run performance tests for only a few minutes, which is often misleading. To get a realistic view of performance, be sure to test at a sufficiently high frequency and duration.
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- **Workload duration and frequency:** Short (minutes) and infrequent (hourly) workloads will be less likely to achieve the upper performance limits of HDD file shares compared to long-running, frequently occurring workloads. On SSD file shares, workload duration is helpful when determining the correct performance profile to use based on the provisioning size. Depending on how long the workload needs to [burst](understanding-billing.md#provisioned-v1-bursting) for and how long it spends below the baseline IOPS, you can determine if you're accumulating enough bursting credits to consistently satisfy your workload at peak times. Finding the right balance will reduce costs compared to over-provisioning the file share. A common mistake is to run performance tests for only a few minutes, which is often misleading. To get a realistic view of performance, be sure to test at a sufficiently high frequency and duration.
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- **Workload parallelization:** For workloads that perform operations in parallel, such as through multiple threads, processes, or application instances on the same client, premium file shares provide a clear advantage over standard file shares: SMB Multichannel. See [Improve SMB Azure file share performance](smb-performance.md) for more information.
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- **Workload parallelization:** For workloads that perform operations in parallel, such as through multiple threads, processes, or application instances on the same client, SSD file shares provide a clear advantage over HDD file shares: SMB Multichannel. See [Improve SMB Azure file share performance](smb-performance.md) for more information.
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- **API operation distribution**: Is the workload metadata heavy with file open/close operations? This is common for workloads that are performing read operations against a large number of files. See [Metadata or namespace heavy workload](/troubleshoot/azure/azure-storage/files-troubleshoot-performance?toc=/azure/storage/files/toc.json#cause-2-metadata-or-namespace-heavy-workload).
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articles/storage/files/understanding-billing.md

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- **Provisioned billing models**: In a provisioned billing model, the primary costs of the file share are based on the amount of storage, IOPS (input and output operations per second), and throughput you provision when you create or update your file share, regardless of how much you use. Azure Files has two different provisioned models *provisioned v2* and *provisioned v1*.
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- **Provisioned v2**: In the provisioned v2 model, you have the ability to separately provision storage, IOPS, and throughput, although we provide a recommendation for you to help you with first time provisioning.
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- **Provisioned v1**: In the provisioned v1 model, you provision the amount of storage you need for the share while IOPS and throughput are determined based on how much storage you provision. The provisioned v1 model for Azure Files is only available for SSD (premium) file shares.
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- **Provisioned v1**: In the provisioned v1 model, you provision the amount of storage you need for the share while IOPS and throughput are determined based on how much storage you provision. The provisioned v1 model for Azure Files is only available for SSD file shares.
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- **Pay-as-you-go billing model**: In a pay-as-you-go model, the cost of the file share is based on how much you use the share, in the form of used storage, transaction, and data transfer costs. The pay-as-you-go model for Azure Files is only available for HDD file shares. We recommend using the provisioned v2 model for new HDD file share deployments.
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- **Capacity size**: Reservations can be for either 10 TiB or 100 TiB, with more significant discounts for purchasing a higher capacity Reservation. You can purchase multiple Reservations, including Reservations of different capacity sizes to meet your workload requirements. For example, if your production deployment has 120 TiB of file shares, you could purchase one 100 TiB Reservation and two 10 TiB Reservations to meet the total storage capacity requirements.
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- **Term**: You can purchase reservations for either a one-year or three-year term, with more significant discounts for purchasing a longer Reservation term.
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- **Tier**: The tier of Azure Files for the Reservation. Reservations currently are available for the premium (SSD), hot (HDD), and cool (HDD) tiers.
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- **Tier**: The tier of Azure Files for the Reservation. Reservations currently are available for the SSD provisioned v1 (as "premium") and HDD pay-as-you-go (hot and cool access tiers only) billing models.
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- **Location**: The Azure region for the Reservation. Reservations are available in a subset of Azure regions.
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- **Redundancy**: The storage redundancy for the Reservation. Reservations are supported for all redundancies Azure Files supports, including LRS, ZRS, GRS, and GZRS.
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- **Billing frequency**: Indicates how often the account is billed for the Reservation. Options include *Monthly* or *Upfront*.

articles/storage/files/windows-server-to-azure-files.md

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- **Hybrid deployment:** Use [Azure File Sync](../file-sync/file-sync-introduction.md) to synchronize existing Windows file servers with an SMB Azure file share. Optionally use cloud tiering to scale file data in the cloud while turning on-premises servers into local caches for hot files.
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## Applies to
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| File share type | SMB | NFS |
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| Standard file shares (GPv2), LRS/ZRS | ![Yes, this article applies to standard SMB Azure file shares LRS/ZRS.](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![No, this article doesn't apply to NFS Azure file shares.](../media/icons/no-icon.png) |
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| Standard file shares (GPv2), GRS/GZRS | ![Yes, this article applies to standard SMB Azure file shares GRS/GZRS.](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![No this article doesn't apply to NFS Azure file shares.](../media/icons/no-icon.png) |
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| Premium file shares (FileStorage), LRS/ZRS | ![Yes, this article applies to premium SMB Azure file shares.](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![No, this article doesn't apply to premium NFS Azure file shares.](../media/icons/no-icon.png) |
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| Management model | Billing model | Media tier | Redundancy | SMB | NFS |
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| Microsoft.Storage | Provisioned v2 | HDD (standard) | Local (LRS) | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![No](../media/icons/no-icon.png) |
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| Microsoft.Storage | Provisioned v2 | HDD (standard) | Zone (ZRS) | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![No](../media/icons/no-icon.png) |
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| Microsoft.Storage | Provisioned v2 | HDD (standard) | Geo (GRS) | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![No](../media/icons/no-icon.png) |
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| Microsoft.Storage | Provisioned v2 | HDD (standard) | GeoZone (GZRS) | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![No](../media/icons/no-icon.png) |
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| Microsoft.Storage | Provisioned v1 | SSD (premium) | Local (LRS) | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![No](../media/icons/no-icon.png) |
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| Microsoft.Storage | Provisioned v1 | SSD (premium) | Zone (ZRS) | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![No](../media/icons/no-icon.png) |
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| Microsoft.Storage | Pay-as-you-go | HDD (standard) | Local (LRS) | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![No](../media/icons/no-icon.png) |
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| Microsoft.Storage | Pay-as-you-go | HDD (standard) | Zone (ZRS) | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![No](../media/icons/no-icon.png) |
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| Microsoft.Storage | Pay-as-you-go | HDD (standard) | Geo (GRS) | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![No](../media/icons/no-icon.png) |
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| Microsoft.Storage | Pay-as-you-go | HDD (standard) | GeoZone (GZRS) | ![Yes](../media/icons/yes-icon.png) | ![No](../media/icons/no-icon.png) |
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## Reduce TCO with fully managed file shares
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- Differential snapshots and integration with Azure Backup offer economical data protection.
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- Choose between multiple storage tiers, from premium low latency SSD to cost-effective cool storage, allowing you to choose the tier that best fits your workload.
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- Choose between multiple storage tiers, from low latency SSD to cost-effective HDD storage, allowing you to choose the tier that best fits your workload.
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- Azure Files Reservations discounts enable up to 36% savings for pre-committed storage.
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