Three times a week (Monday/Wednesday/Friday), John Savill tackles your most pressing IT questions.

Read through the FAQ archives, or send him your questions via email.

A mixed bag of FAQs about data copy and backup in Azure plus will we ever see another Service Pack?

Q. If I perform a server-side asynchronous copy of data between Azure regions is it done via the Internet or does it stay on the Azure backbone?

Dept - Azure

A. When using the server-side asynchronous copy, the data copy is performed storage account to storage account via Azure rather than the data copying via the client requesting the copy. This account-to-account copy method avoids huge latency, as the data would have to be read by the client then sent back to Azure. If you perform a copy between Azure regions that data copy will stay on the Azure backbone and will not traverse via the Internet.

Q. What is the largest data source size I can backup to Azure Backup vaults?

Dept - Azure

A. The Azure Backup vaults themselves have no practical limit however the source of data has a size limit. These are documented at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/backup-azure-backup-faq#what-can-i-back-up and are basically:

54.4 TB Windows Server 2012/Windows 8 and above

1.7 TB Windows Server 2008 R2/Windows 7 and older

Q. Will there be Service Packs for Windows Server 2016/Windows 10?

Dept - Service Packs

A. No. Microsoft have moved to a monthly Cumulative Update (quality update). Additionally there is the 6-monthly Semi-Annual Channel that delivers new functionality (or customers can use the Long-Term Servicing Channel for the standard 5 year + 5 year extended support). There are no plans for Service Packs going forwards.