Azure Storage Overview
Introduction
Azure Storage is a cloud storage solution that supports data that is accessible from anywhere in the world over HTTP or HTTPS. You can store and access massive amounts of data, such as text or binary data, that a cloud-native application, such as one hosted in Azure App Service or on an Azure VM, needs to operate. Applications that need to manage multiple clients and operating procedures, or those that want to manage a large number of unstructured data, can use Azure Storage.
Azure Storage offers a highly available, reliably managed, and securely scalable cloud storage solution. It provides durability, availability, performance, and scalability to meet the demands of modern applications.
Core Storage Services
Azure Storage provides several core services to meet diverse data storage needs:
Blob Storage
Azure Blob Storage is a cloud-native object store that can store and serve large amounts of unstructured data, such as images, documents, audio, video, and application data. It's optimized for storing files for remote access, big data analytics, and media streaming.
Key characteristics:
- Massively scalable for unstructured data.
- Supports block blobs, append blobs, and page blobs.
- Ideal for hosting images and documents, streaming video and audio, storing backup and restore data, disaster recovery, and data for analysis.
File Storage
Azure Files offers fully managed cloud file shares that are accessible via the industry-standard Server Message Block (SMB) protocol, or Network File System (NFS) protocol. You can "mount" Azure Files shares simultaneously from cloud or on-premises deployments of Windows, macOS, and Linux. Azure Files is designed for common file system operations like sharing files between virtual machines.
Key characteristics:
- Managed file shares accessible via SMB/NFS.
- Supports lift-and-shift application scenarios.
- Can be cached on-premises for low-latency access.
Queue Storage
Azure Queue Storage is a service that stores large numbers of messages that can be accessed from anywhere in the world via authenticated HTTP or HTTPS calls. Queue storage is often used to build products that process and store work items, with the expectation that any future work items will be reliably processed. Messages can be up to 64 KB in size, and a queue can contain any number of messages.
Key characteristics:
- Reliable message queuing for decoupling application components.
- Asynchronous processing of tasks.
- Scalable to handle high volumes of messages.
Table Storage
Azure Table Storage is a NoSQL key-attribute store that accepts authenticated calls from outside the cloud. Table storage is designed to store large amounts of structured, non-relational data. It's a key-value store that offers a schema-less design, making it flexible for evolving data requirements. It's optimized for large datasets and rapid querying.
Key characteristics:
- NoSQL key-value store.
- Schema-less design for flexible data structures.
- Cost-effective for large volumes of structured data.
Disk Storage
Azure Disk Storage provides highly performant, resilient, and highly available managed disks for Azure virtual machines. It offers several disk types, including ultra disks, premium SSDs, standard SSDs, and standard HDDs, each optimized for different performance and cost requirements.
Key characteristics:
- Managed disks for Azure VMs.
- Various performance tiers (Ultra Disk, Premium SSD, Standard SSD, Standard HDD).
- High availability and durability.
Key Features of Azure Storage
- Scalability: Seamlessly scales to handle petabytes of data.
- Durability: Data is replicated for high durability and availability.
- Availability: Offers high availability guarantees through redundancy options.
- Security: Robust security features including encryption at rest and in transit, access control, and network security.
- Cost-Effectiveness: Various pricing tiers and options to optimize storage costs.
- Global Access: Data is accessible from anywhere via HTTP/HTTPS.
- Integration: Deep integration with other Azure services.
Common Use Cases
- Storing application data (e.g., user uploads, logs).
- Hosting static website content.
- Backup and disaster recovery.
- Data archiving.
- Big data analytics.
- Media streaming.
- Decoupling application components with queues.
- Storing and querying large datasets of structured data.
- Providing shared file storage for VMs.
Getting Started with Azure Storage
To get started with Azure Storage, you'll need an Azure subscription. You can create one for free.
- Create a Storage Account: A storage account provides a unique namespace in Azure for your data. All objects that you add to Azure Storage are stored within your storage account.
- Choose a Service: Select the appropriate Azure Storage service (Blob, File, Queue, Table, or Disk) based on your data type and access needs.
- Develop Your Application: Use the Azure SDKs for your preferred programming language, REST APIs, or Azure CLI to interact with your storage account and data.