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A financial services company stores highly sensitive customer data, including transaction records and personal identifiable information (PII), in Azure Blob Storage. Regulatory compliance dictates that this data must be immutable for a period of 7 years and cannot be deleted or modified by anyone, including administrators, during this time. After 7 years, the data can be deleted. Which Azure Blob Storage feature should be implemented?
- ABlob versioning
- BTime-based retention policy with legal hold
- CSoft delete for blobs
- DImmutable storage with a time-based retention policy
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: D. Immutable storage with a time-based retention policy
Immutable storage for Azure Blob Storage with a time-based retention policy allows users to store business-critical data in a WORM (Write Once, Read Many) state for a specified duration. This prevents any modifications or deletions, even by account administrators, until the retention period expires, meeting the strict regulatory compliance requirements.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Blob versioning keeps multiple versions of a blob, but it doesn't prevent deletion or modification of the latest version or previous versions by authorized users.
- B. A time-based retention policy with legal hold is a feature of immutable storage but 'legal hold' alone implies indefinite retention until the hold is lifted, which is not exactly 7 years and then deleted. The full 'immutable storage with time-based retention policy' is the correct and most precise answer.
- C. Soft delete protects against accidental deletion but allows data to be permanently deleted after the soft delete retention period, and doesn't prevent modification.
Azure Blob Immutable Storage
A feature of Azure Blob Storage that stores data in a WORM (Write Once, Read Many) state, preventing modification or deletion for a specified retention period or until a legal hold is removed.
- Supports time-based retention policies and legal holds.
- Prevents data modification or deletion, even by administrators.
- Essential for regulatory compliance (e.g., FINRA, SEC, HIPAA).
Memory trick: Immutable storage locks your data like a vault for a set time.