Azure Storage

Azure Storage is a Microsoft-managed cloud service designed to provide durable, scalable, and
redundant storage solutions. It enables secure storage and easy access to data from anywhere.
Azure Storage handles maintenance and resolves critical issues automatically, ensuring a high
level of reliability for cloud storage.

Key Features of Azure Storage

● Durable and highly available

● Secure with encryption and access control

● Scalable to meet your data growth

● Accessible from anywhere via HTTP/HTTP

● Supports REST API and SDKs in various languagesSupports different storage types under
a single account.
● Configurable redundancy options: LRS, ZRS, GRS, RA-GRS (local, zone, and geo-
redundancy).
● Secure access via Azure Active Directory (AAD), Shared Access Signatures (SAS),
and access keys.
● Integrates with Azure Monitor and Diagnostics for performance tracking.

Types of Azure Storage Accounts

Azure Storage accounts can be customized to meet specific data storage needs. They are
designed to support various types of data such as blobs, files, tables, queues and disk.

General-purpose Standard Storage Account

● Supports: Blob, File, Table, and Queue services.

● Storage Medium: Magnetic media.

● Common Use: Ideal for general-purpose storage, such as blob data and files.
General-purpose Premium Storage Account
● Supports: Block blobs, page blobs, and append blobs,optimized for high-performance
workloads.
● Storage Medium: Solid-State Drives (SSD) for high-speed access.

● Common Use: Suitable for high-performance applications,such as virtual machine

disks.

Blob Storage Account

● Specialized for: Storing block and append blobs.

● Access Tiers:

○ Hot Tier: For frequently accessed data, with higher storage costs but lower
access costs.
○ Cool Tier: For infrequently accessed data, with lower storage costs but higher
access costs.
 ○ Archive Tier: For rarely accessed data. Very low storage cost, high latency when

retrieving.

Azure Storage Services

Azure Storage provides four core services for different types of data storage needs:

Blob Storage
Blob storage is designed for storing binary large objects like images, media files, documents,
etc. It offers different types of blobs to meet specific use cases.
Supported Blob Types
● Block Blobs: Used for storing ordinary files, commonly employed for large files (up to
195GB). Ideal for video, image, or large file storage.
● Page Blobs: Optimized for random-access files, typically used for storing virtual hard
disks (VHDs). Ideal for scenarios that require frequent read/write access to large data
sets.
● Append Blobs: Designed for operations that append data, commonly used in logging
Scenarios.

Data in Blob Storage is organized within containers inside a storage account. By naming blobs
with slashes ("/") in their names, a virtual folder structure can be created, allowing for
hierarchical organization of data.

File Storage
Azure File Storage enables the creation of file shares that can be accessed via the SMB
protocol. This service is particularly useful for scenarios involving multi-VM file access.
 ● File Share Size:Up to 5TB per share.

● Throughput:Up to 60 MB/s per share.

● Protocol Support: SMB 3.0 (supports cross-region mounting).

● Common Use:Ideal for use cases like migrating on-premises file shares to the cloud, or
storing configuration files for multiple virtual machines.

Table Storage
Azure Table Storage provides a scalable, NoSQL database for storing structured, non-relational
data. It is suitable for scenarios where data is stored in entities that can be queried independently.

● Entity Structure: Tables store entities with a Partition Key and Row Key, which
ensures each entity is unique within the table.
● Common Use: Frequently used for storing applications, data, logs, diagnostics, and
telemetry information.

Queue Storage
Queue Storage enables reliable messaging between distributed systems by storing messages
in a queue format. This service ensures asynchronous communication between applications.
 ● Purpose:Facilitates asynchronous communication by storing and retrieving
messages from queues.
● Common Use:Used for scenarios where reliable messaging is needed, such as
handling tasks in background processes or ensuring decoupled communication
between applications.

Disk Storage
Disk Storage provides persistent, high-performance block storage for Azure Virtual Machines. It
is used to store the OS and data for Azure VMs and supports features like snapshots and backup.

● Purpose: Provides durable and high-throughput storage for virtual machine disks.
 ● Common Use: Used in scenarios requiring persistent and reliable disk storage,
such as running enterprise workloads on VMs, hosting databases, or storing logs
and application data with high availability.

Storage Tiers in Azure

Data stored in the cloud grows at an exponential pace. To manage costs for your expanding
storage needs, it can be helpful to organize your data based on how frequently it will be accessed
and how long it will be retained. Azure storage offers different access tiers so that you can store
your blob data in the most cost-effective manner based on how it's being used.

Azure Storage offers multiple storage tiers to optimize for both cost and performance. These
tiers help organizations to manage their storage requirements effectively.

Hot Storage Tier

● Best for: Data that is frequently accessed.

● Storage Costs: Higher storage costs but lower access costs.

● Use Case: Data that needs to be retrieved frequently,such as active application data,

● frequently used logs, or media files.

Cool Storage Tier

● Best for: Infrequently accessed data.

● Storage Costs: Lower storage costs but higher access costs.

● Use Case: Data that is accessed infrequently, such as archived data or backup data that

● is rarely used.

Archive Storage Tier

● Best for: Data that is rarely accessed and can tolerate longer retrieval times.

● Storage Costs: Significantly lower storage costs but higher retrieval costs.

● Use Case: Long-term archival storage, such as compliance data, older backups, or

● historical records.
Azure Data Lake Storage
Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS) is a scalable and secure data lake service built on top of Azure
Blob Storage. It’s designed for big data analytics and works well with services like Azure
Synapse, HD Insight, and Data bricks.

Key Features

● Massive Scalability: Handles petabytes of structured and unstructured data.

● Enterprise-Grade Security: Built-in encryption, role-based access, and integration with

Azure Active Directory.
● High Performance: Optimized for parallel analytics processing.

● Hierarchical Namespace: Supports folders and file-level access control (unlike flat blob
storage).
● Integration with Big Data Tools: Works with Hadoop, Spark, Azure Synapse, and other
analytics tools.
Types of Azure Data Lake Storage
● Data Lake Storage Gen1:
The original version with folder-like structure. Now mostly outdated and not recommended
for new use.
● Data Lake Storage Gen2:
Built on Blob Storage, it combines big data and object storage features. It's faster,
scalable, and ideal for new projects.