Azure Storage Services Documentation

Azure Storage offers a highly available, secure, and scalable cloud storage solution. It provides multiple services designed to store various types of data, from unstructured objects to structured data and file shares.

Key Storage Services

1. Azure Blob Storage

Azure Blob Storage is an object storage solution for the cloud. It's optimized for storing massive amounts of unstructured data, such as text or binary data. This includes images, videos, documents, application telemetry, and backups.

• Scalability: Designed to handle petabytes of data.
• Durability & Availability: Offers multiple redundancy options (LRS, GRS, RA-GRS).
• Tiers: Hot, Cool, and Archive tiers for cost optimization.
• Access: Access via REST API, SDKs, Azure CLI, and Azure Portal.

Example: Uploading a blob

// Using Azure SDK for JavaScript
const { BlobServiceClient } = require("@azure/storage-blob");

async function uploadBlob() {
    const connectionString = "YOUR_AZURE_STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING";
    const blobServiceClient = BlobServiceClient.fromConnectionString(connectionString);
    const containerClient = blobServiceClient.getContainerClient("my-container");
    const blobClient = containerClient.getBlockBlobClient("my-blob.txt");

    const uploadBlobResponse = await blobClient.upload("Hello, Azure Blob Storage!", "Hello, Azure Blob Storage!".length);
    console.log(`Upload block blob ${blobClient.name} successfully`, uploadBlobResponse.requestId);
}

uploadBlob();

Learn more about Azure Blob Storage.

2. Azure File Storage

Azure Files provides fully managed cloud file shares that are accessible via the industry-standard Server Message Block (SMB) protocol and Network File System (NFS) protocol. This means you can "lift and shift" legacy applications that rely on file shares to Azure.

• SMB/NFS Support: Mountable by cloud or on-premises Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems.
• Managed Service: No need to manage underlying hardware.
• Hybrid Scenarios: Seamless integration with on-premises environments using Azure File Sync.

Learn more about Azure File Storage.

3. Azure Queue Storage

Azure Queue Storage is a service that stores large numbers of messages that can be processed asynchronously. Each message can be up to 64 KB in size, and a queue can contain millions of messages up to the limit of the storage account capacity.

• Decoupling: Ideal for decoupling components of applications.
• Asynchronous Processing: Enables applications to process tasks at their own pace.
• Scalability: Handles large message volumes.

Learn more about Azure Queue Storage.

4. Azure Table Storage

Azure Table Storage is a NoSQL key-attribute store that accepts authenticated calls in Azure across namespaces. It's ideal for storing large amounts of structured, non-relational data. Table storage is a key-value store.

• NoSQL: Schema-less design, flexible for evolving data.
• Performance: High throughput for large datasets.
• Cost-Effective: Low cost per GB.

Learn more about Azure Table Storage.

Common Features & Concepts

• Storage Accounts: A fundamental building block for Azure Storage. Provides a unique namespace for your Azure Storage data.
• Access Tiers: Optimize costs for data access frequency (Hot, Cool, Archive for Blob Storage).
• Redundancy: Options for data durability (LRS, GRS, RA-GRS, ZRS).
• Security: Encryption at rest, Azure AD integration, shared access signatures (SAS).

Explore the comprehensive documentation for each service to understand their capabilities, best practices, and pricing.