Azure Storage Concepts

Understand the fundamental building blocks of Azure Storage.

Azure Storage Overview

Azure Storage offers a highly available, scalable, secure, and robust cloud storage solution for a wide range of data needs. It provides various services to store and access data, each optimized for different scenarios.

Key Storage Services

Azure Storage comprises several distinct services:

  • Blob Storage: Optimized for storing massive amounts of unstructured data such as text or binary data. This includes images, videos, documents, application executables, and log files.
  • File Storage: Offers fully managed cloud file shares that are accessible via the industry-standard Server Message Block (SMB) protocol. This allows you to lift and shift on-premises applications that rely on file shares to Azure.
  • Queue Storage: Used for storing large numbers of messages that can be accessed from anywhere in the world via HTTP or HTTPS. It's ideal for decoupling application components and managing asynchronous tasks.
  • Table Storage: A NoSQL key-attribute store that allows you to store large amounts of structured, non-relational data. It's designed for flexible schema data and high-volume transactions.
  • Disk Storage: Provides highly performant, resilient managed disks for Azure Virtual Machines. It offers various disk types (Standard HDD, Standard SSD, Premium SSD, Ultra Disk) to meet different performance and cost requirements.

Core Concepts

Understanding these core concepts is crucial for effective use of Azure Storage:

  • Storage Account: A unique namespace in Azure for your storage data. Every object you store in Azure Storage is referenced by an account name. A storage account provides a unique container for your Azure Storage data objects.
  • Containers: Logical groupings of blobs. A container is similar to a folder in a file system.
  • Blobs: Represent text or binary data. The most common type of Azure Storage object.
  • Shared Access Signatures (SAS): A secure way to delegate access to your Azure Storage resources without sharing your account access keys.
  • Access Keys: Provide full access to your storage account. Keep them secure.
  • Redundancy: Ensures durability and availability of your data. Azure Storage offers various redundancy options, including LRS, ZRS, GRS, and RA-GRS.
  • Access Tiers: Allow you to store your blob data in the most cost-effective manner based on how frequently you access it (Hot, Cool, Archive).

Data Durability and Availability

Azure Storage provides several options to ensure your data is durable and highly available:

  • Locally Redundant Storage (LRS): Replicates your data within a single physical location in the primary region.
  • Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS): Replicates your data across three Azure availability zones in the primary region.
  • Geo-Redundant Storage (GRS): Replicates your data to a secondary region hundreds of miles away from the primary region.
  • Read-Access Geo-Redundant Storage (RA-GRS): Provides all the benefits of GRS, plus read access to the data in the secondary region.

Learn More

Explore specific Azure Storage services in detail: