What are the Challenges with Azure Files and File Sync?

Understanding these 5 challenges in more detail:

1. Understanding Microsoft storage account redundancy options like LRS (Local Redundant Storage) vs. GRS  (Geo-Redundant Storage) and what impact they have on your data. LRS only has 99.9% durability, so you will definitely need backups. 

2. 5 TB limit per share on GRS & ZRS Storage. If you want large file shares, then you can only use LRS storage. This creates some challenges since you will want to use GRS storage for proper data protection in most cases. Storcom has gotten around this by using mount points, but if you need a single share greater than 5TB, then it will not work without enabling large file shares. 

3. You will need to create a snapshot policy for data recoverability as well as you should be using ZRS or GRS to storage if you want to have your data protected outside of one data center. LRS and will only provide up to  99.9% data durability, respectively. ZRS is Zone redundant and GRS is for geo-redundancy. 

4. You can only set permissions at the share level without Azure File Sync Server and o file-level permissions.  You can set local permissions with File Sync Server, but they still do not exist in Azure Cloud.  

5. Azure File Shares can use both standard and premium-level storage. You need to consider what IO profile your data will need. Premium SSD is considerably more expensive than Standard HDD and Azure files can use both types in their storage accounts.