{"id":129625,"date":"2025-06-09T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/power-platform\/blog\/?p=129625"},"modified":"2025-06-08T22:56:46","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T05:56:46","slug":"long-term-retention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/power-platform\/blog\/2025\/06\/09\/long-term-retention\/","title":{"rendered":"Long-Term Retention (LTR): Cost Effective Strategy for Managing Storage and Compliance\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Long-Term Retention (LTR) is one of data management tools that helps enterprises effectively manage their growing data estates while ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. By archiving less frequently accessed data, LTR optimizes Dataverse storage usage and reduces costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Long-Term Retention (LTR) in Dataverse helps organizations retain data that\u2019s no longer actively used but still required for regulatory or business purposes. Whether it\u2019s for archiving operational records or meeting audit requirements like 5-year retention mandates, LTR ensures data remains secure, immutable, and compliant\u2014at a fraction of the storage cost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But LTR isn\u2019t just about storage\u2014it\u2019s also built for analytics. Retained data is treated as a first-class citizen in Dataverse, seamlessly integrated into the real-time data warehouse. With Microsoft Fabric\u2019s OneLake Shortcuts<\/a>, you can analyze both live and archived data without copying or duplicating it. For customers preferring their own data lake, Synapse Link offers a flexible alternative for reporting and analytics on business and retained data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This blog will focus on how implementing LTR can significantly reduce storage costs for enterprises, providing practical insights and strategies for leveraging LTR to achieve cost efficiency. We will also discuss how you can get deep insights from the retained data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Long-Term Data Retention (LTR) streamlines your data strategy by automatically moving historical records from Microsoft Dataverse and Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations (F&O) into a managed data lake (MDL). This approach ensures efficient, scalable storage\u2014freeing up space in your transactional databases while keeping retained data accessible for analytics and compliance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You can enable the LTR for Dataverse using this article Dataverse long term data retention overview – Power Apps | Microsoft Learn<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n To enable LTR for F&O, you can follow this article Archive data in Dynamics 365 finance and operations apps with Dataverse – Finance & Operations | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Long-Term Retention (LTR) is a powerful tool for managing storage in Dataverse and Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations (F&O), but its value is maximized when applied to the right scenarios. LTR allows organizations to move inactive, compliance-bound, or infrequently accessed data to a cost-optimized, read-only storage tier\u2014freeing up space in the primary database while maintaining access for reporting and audits. <\/p>\n\n\n Here\u2019s when LTR is especially relevant: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2705<\/strong> 1.\u202fCompliance-Driven Data Retention<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n If your organization operates in a regulated industry (e.g., finance, healthcare, public sector), you likely need to retain data for 5\u201310 years or more. LTR ensures that this data remains immutable and accessible for audits, without bloating your operational database. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Example<\/em>: Financial records, customer invoices, and customer contracts that must be retained for legal or regulatory reasons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2705<\/strong> 2.\u202fAnalytics on Historical Data<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n LTR doesn\u2019t mean your data is locked away. Retained data can still be queried for trend analysis, forecasting, and AI workloads\u2014especially when integrated with tools like Azure Synapse Link or OneLake shortcuts. This enables long-term insights without compromising performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Example<\/em>: Analysing 7 years of sales data to forecast seasonal demand patterns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2705<\/strong> 3.\u202fData Relevancy and Lifecycle Management<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Not all data needs to be live forever. LTR helps you separate high-value, frequently accessed data from historical records that are still important but rarely used. This improves system responsiveness and reduces noise in day-to-day operations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Example<\/em>: Archiving closed cases, completed orders, or inactive customer records. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u26a0\ufe0f<\/strong> What LTR Does\u202f<\/strong>Not<\/em><\/strong>\u202fDo<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n While LTR reduces your\u202foperational storage footprint<\/strong>, it does\u202fnot<\/strong>\u202freduce the size of your\u202fanalytics store<\/strong>. If you\u2019re exporting data to Synapse, OneLake, or other analytical platforms, you\u2019ll still need to manage retention and tiering strategies there separately. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the most impactful benefits of implementing Long-Term Retention (LTR) in Dynamics 365 is the significant reduction in storage costs. On average, LTR compresses archived data by up to\u202f80% <\/strong>and in some cases up to 90%<\/strong>, which can translate into substantial savings. For instance, archiving 1,000 GB of database data could reduce storage expenses from\u202f$80,000 to $10,000<\/strong>\u2014a game-changer for data-heavy organizations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are a few real-world examples of how customers are reaping the rewards: <\/p>\n\n\n\n With Long-Term Retention (LTR), your historical data is securely stored in a Managed Data Lake\u2014keeping storage costs low. But that doesn\u2019t mean you lose visibility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Thanks to OneLake shortcuts and Synapse Link, you can seamlessly analyze both live and retained data together. This means you get a complete picture of your business\u2014past and present\u2014without sacrificing performance or budget. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether you’re running reports, building dashboards, or training models, your insights stay connected, and your costs stay optimized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ll explore further in this blog, how to unlock seamless insights by combining live and retained data using OneLake shortcuts and Synapse Link. These tools allow you to query both retained and real-time data effortlessly\u2014without compromising on performance or cost efficiency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n LTR integrates seamlessly with Quick find in the Dataverse, Bring Your Own Lake (BYOL) for Synapse Link and OneLake for both Dataverse and Finance & Operations (F&O) scenarios. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In this section, we will discuss how each strategy helps manage the storage, cost and meet the compliance requirements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Quick Find allows users to search across Dataverse tables using indexed columns. Even when data is archived via LTR, it remains within the Dataverse boundary and is still queryable through Quick Find\u2014provided the relevant columns are indexed and the data is not purged. This means: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Enterprises adopting new technologies like OneLake shortcut can continue to use Long-Term Retention (LTR) to manage data storage, costs, and compliance by archiving historical data into Managed Lake storage. Archiving data in Managed Lake preserves cost savings for the scenario that involves accessing historical data while allowing enterprises to perform analytics by moving the data out to reporting and analytical databases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If your enterprise has already invested in\u202fOneLake<\/strong><\/a>, you can further optimize your data strategy by leveraging\u202fOneLake shortcut<\/strong><\/a>. Unlike the full OneLake, which syncs data into OneLake, the Shortcut creates a\u202fpointer<\/strong>\u202fto your data\u2014allowing Fabric to\u202fquery it in place<\/strong>\u202fwithout duplicating storage or compromising data security. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This means you can continue to run analytics on both\u202flive and retained data<\/strong>\u202fwhile preserving the\u202fcost benefits of Long-Term Retention (LTR)<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \ud83d\udcca In the diagram below, we illustrate how an enterprise can reduce storage costs by up to\u202f80%<\/strong>\u2014for example, compressing a 400GB business data down to less than 32GB using LTR\u2014while still enabling seamless insights without incurring additional costs or compromising data security. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since no data is physically moved, it also helps preserve\u202fLTR savings<\/strong>\u202fby avoiding duplication. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Without LTR:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n With LTR:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n Enterprises that have invested in Bring Your Own Lake (BYOL) with Synapse Link can continue to leverage this setup for their data archival scenarios to manage storage, costs, and compliance. However, note that if the Synapse Link is created after the Long-Term Retention (LTR) process has already occurred, it will not include previously retained data. This approach allows enterprises to utilize LTR with their existing Synapse Link investment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If your enterprise is already invested in Synapse Link, there\u2019s an opportunity to take your data strategy even further. By pairing it with Long-Term Retention (LTR), you can maintain seamless access to both live and retained data\u2014without duplicating storage or compromising security. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \ud83d\udcca In the diagram below, we illustrate how an enterprise can utilize their existing investment in synapse link while using LTR. For example, business data is retained in Managed Data Lake \u2014 while still enabling powerful analytics through Synapse Link, without incurring additional costs. This approach ensures your insights stay rich, your data stays secure, and your budget stays intact. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Without LTR:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n With LTR:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n Throughout this blog, we have explored how Long-Term Retention (LTR) can significantly reduce storage costs for enterprises. By archiving less frequently accessed data, LTR optimizes storage usage, leading to substantial cost savings. Additionally, LTR ensures compliance with regulatory requirements, making it a crucial strategy for effective data management. Whether using Synapse Link or OneLake, LTR provides a seamless and efficient way to manage data storage and compliance needs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We encourage you to consider implementing LTR in your organization to take advantage of these benefits. For further assistance or more information on how to get started with LTR, please visit our LTR article<\/a>. Implementing LTR can help you achieve cost efficiency and compliance, ensuring your data management strategy is both effective and sustainable.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Introduction Long-Term Retention (LTR) is one of data management tools that helps enterprises effectively manage their growing data estates while ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. By archiving less frequently accessed data, LTR optimizes Dataverse storage usage and reduces costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":271,"featured_media":129635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ms_queue_id":[],"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","_classifai_text_to_speech_error":"","_alt_title":"","ms-ems-related-posts":[],"footnotes":""},"audience":[3378],"content-type":[3424],"job-role":[],"product":[3472],"property":[],"topic":[],"coauthors":[3055],"class_list":["post-129625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","audience-it-professional","content-type-news","product-power-platform","review-flag-1593580415-902","review-flag-1593580771-307","review-flag-1-1593580433-195","review-flag-2-1593580438-256","review-flag-3-1593580443-447","review-flag-5-1593580453-993","review-flag-7-1593580464-676","review-flag-lever-1593580265-723","review-flag-new-1593580248-627"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat is LTR and how can you enable <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
When LTR is the Right Fit <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nCost savings with LTR <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Seamless insights with combined data <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Strategy to use LTR to manage the storage <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nQuick find <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nUse OneLake shortcut with LTR for Data Warehousing <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nSynapse link works seamlessly with LTR <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nSummary of Benefits<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Call to Action<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n