Azure Data Box: Physical Data Transfer at Scale

Azure Data Box enables offline data transfer to Azure. When network bandwidth isn’t enough—ship drives instead of sending bytes.

When to Use Data Box

Scenario	Recommended
< 40 TB	Online transfer (AzCopy, Storage Explorer)
40 TB - 500 TB	Data Box
> 500 TB	Data Box Heavy
Continuous	Data Box Edge

Data Box Family

Data Box Disk

• Up to 35 TB (5 x 8TB SSDs)
• USB/SATA connected
• Self-service copy

Data Box

• 100 TB usable capacity
• Rugged appliance
• 1-2 Gbps network transfer

Data Box Heavy

• 1 PB capacity
• Wheeled appliance
• 40 Gbps network transfer

Ordering Data Box

# Order via CLI
az databox job create \
    --resource-group myRG \
    --name my-databox-order \
    --location eastus \
    --sku DataBox \
    --contact-name "John Doe" \
    --phone "555-1234" \
    --email-list "john@company.com" \
    --street-address-1 "123 Main St" \
    --city "Seattle" \
    --state-or-province "WA" \
    --postal-code "98101" \
    --country "US" \
    --storage-account mystorageaccount

Data Copy Process

1. Receive device
2. Connect to network
3. Copy data via SMB/NFS
4. Verify data
5. Ship back to Microsoft

# Connect via SMB
net use X: \\<device-ip>\<share-name> /u:<username>

# Copy data
robocopy D:\SourceData X:\DestFolder /E /MT:16 /R:3 /W:10

# Or use AzCopy
azcopy copy "D:\SourceData" "\\<device-ip>\<share-name>" --recursive

Share Structure

Data Box
├── storageaccount1_BlockBlob/
│   └── container1/
│       └── files...
├── storageaccount1_PageBlob/
├── storageaccount1_AzFile/
└── storageaccount2_BlockBlob/

Data Validation

# Validate data integrity
# Data Box creates BOM files with checksums

# View Bill of Materials
type X:\DataBoxLogs\<timestamp>_bom.xml

Monitoring Order

# Check order status
az databox job show \
    --resource-group myRG \
    --name my-databox-order \
    --query "status"

# Stages: DeviceOrdered → Shipped → Delivered →
#         DataCopyInProgress → DataCopyCompleted →
#         VerificationComplete → DataSanitized → Complete

Security Features

• AES 256-bit encryption
• Tamper-evident seals
• Secure chain of custody
• Data wipe after transfer (NIST 800-88)

Data Box Edge

For ongoing data transfer with edge compute:

On-Premises                         Azure
┌──────────────┐                   ┌──────────────┐
│ Data Sources │ → Data Box Edge → │ Blob Storage │
│              │   (Continuous)    │ Data Lake    │
└──────────────┘                   └──────────────┘

Pricing Estimate

Device	Per-device fee	Additional charges
Disk	$50/disk	Shipping
Data Box	$500	$50/day after 10 days
Data Box Heavy	$2,000	$100/day after 10 days

Data Box: when the network isn’t fast enough, ship it.