On database system of a hospital maintains rarely-accessed patients' data such as medical records including...

Data Characteristics: The hospital’s database system contains rarely-accessed, sensitive medical records, including high-resolution images, which require secure and cost-effective long-term storage1.

Azure Archive Storage: Azure Archive Storage is designed for data that is rarely accessed and has flexible latency requirements. It offers a cost-effective solution for storing large volumes of data that does not need to be accessed frequently1.

Security and Compliance: Azure Archive Storage provides secure storage for sensitive medical data, ensuring compliance with healthcare regulations such as HIPAA and GDPR1.

Cost Efficiency: By using Azure Archive Storage, the hospital can significantly reduce storage costs compared to storing data on higher-performance tiers that are intended for frequently accessed data1.

Exclusion of Other Options: Azure Backup and Azure Recovery Services Vault are primarily used for backup and disaster recovery, not for archiving. Azure File Sync is used for syncing files across multiple locations and is not optimized for archival purposes1.

References:

Microsoft Azure’s official page on Azure Archive Storage1.