Azure Blob Storage
Azure Blob Storage is Microsoft's object storage solution for the cloud. It's optimized for storing massive amounts of unstructured data, such as text or binary data. Unstructured data is data that doesn't adhere to a particular data model or definition, such as text or binary files.
Introduction
Blob storage is designed to store:
- Images or documents directly served to a browser.
- Files for distributed access.
- Streaming video and audio files.
- Data for backup, restore, and disaster recovery.
- Data for analysis by an on-premises or hosted service.
A blob can be any type of text or binary data. Blob storage is analogous to storage for raw data.
Blob Types
Azure Blob Storage supports three types of blobs:
- Block blobs: Optimized for storing large amounts of unstructured data. Block blobs are made up of blocks, where each block can be of a different size. The maximum size for a block blob is approximately 190.7 TiB.
- Append blobs: Optimized for append operations, such as logging data from a virtual machine. An append blob is made up of blocks, but blocks cannot be reordered or deleted. They can only be appended to the end of the blob.
- Page blobs: Optimized for storing random read/write operations. Page blobs are used to store virtual machine disk images and SQL Server disks. A page blob is composed of pages, and each page can be between 512 bytes and 4MB in size. The maximum size for a page blob is approximately 8 TiB.
Access Tiers
Blob storage offers different access tiers to store data at the most cost-effective rate:
- Hot tier: Optimized for frequently accessed data. This tier offers the lowest access costs but the highest storage costs.
- Cool tier: Optimized for infrequently accessed data. This tier offers lower storage costs but higher access costs than the hot tier. Data stored in the cool tier must be stored for at least 30 days.
- Archive tier: Optimized for rarely accessed data that can tolerate several hours of retrieval time. This tier offers the lowest storage costs but the highest access costs. Data stored in the archive tier must be stored for at least 180 days.
You can change the access tier of a blob at any time, and the change takes effect as soon as the storage analytics logs are processed. Rehydration from the archive tier can take several hours.
Management
You can manage your blob data using various tools:
- Azure Portal: A web-based interface for managing all Azure resources, including storage accounts and blobs.
- Azure CLI: A cross-platform command-line tool for managing Azure resources.
- Azure PowerShell: A command-line shell and scripting language for automating administration tasks on Azure.
- Azure Storage Explorer: A standalone application that enables you to easily manage your Azure storage resources from your desktop.
SDKs and Tools
Azure Blob Storage can be accessed and managed programmatically using the Azure SDKs available for various languages:
- .NET
- Java
- Python
- Node.js
- Go
- C++
You can also use REST APIs directly for integration with other applications.
For more detailed information, please refer to the official Azure Blob Storage documentation.