Back up data in schedules which best suit the organizational needs.
Make Azure a part of their long-term retention needs (instead of tape).
This article explains how customers can enable backup and retention policies. Customers who use tapes to address their long-term-retention needs now have a powerful and viable alternative with the availability of this feature. The feature is enabled in the latest release of the Azure Backup (which is available here). System Center DPM customers must update to, at least, DPM 2012 R2 UR5 before using DPM with the Azure Backup service.
What is the Backup Schedule?
The backup schedule indicates the frequency of the backup operation. For example, the settings in the following screen indicate that backups are taken daily at 6pm and at midnight.
Customers can also schedule a weekly backup. For example, the settings in the following screen indicate that backups are taken every alternate Sunday & Wednesday at 9:30AM and 1:00AM.
The retention policy specifies the duration for which the backup must be stored. Rather than just specifying a “flat policy” for all backup points, customers can specify different retention policies based on when the backup is taken. For example, the backup point taken daily, which serves as an operational recovery point, is preserved for 90 days. The backup point taken at the end of each quarter for audit purposes is preserved for a longer duration.
The total number of “retention points” specified in this policy is 90 (daily points) + 40 (one each quarter for 10 years) = 130.
Daily retention policy: Backups taken daily are stored for seven days.
The total number of recovery points is 56.
Azure backup doesn't have a restriction on number of recovery points.
By clicking Modify in the preceding screen, customers have further flexibility in specifying retention schedules.