Azure Storage

As we know, storage is one of the important features of a cloud service provider. Azure provides various options for storage.

The following data services are provided by Azure

Blob Storage: It is a scalable data store for text and binary data. 

Blob storage provides for the storage of 3 types of Blobs. Page, Block, and Append. Page blobs are a collection of 512-byte pages that are optimized for read and write operations. A common use for page blobs is for virtual hard disks used by Azure virtual machines. Block Blobs are for the efficient storage of large Blobs up to 4.57 terabytes. The blocks within a Blob can be updated or deleted as needed. Append Blobs are a form of blob storage that is optimized for appending operations. Modified append Blobs write data blocks only to the end of the blob. Existing blocks cannot be deleted or updated.

File Storage: As the name suggests, this storage is optimized for storing files.

Queue Storage: Datastore for reliable messaging between application components.

Table Storage: This is a NoSQL Datastore by Azure. It does not enforce schema but stores data in form of name-value pairs. As it is nonrelational data, no complex joins are supported.
The hierarchy is Storage Account>> Tables >> Entities
For example, Kamal’s Account >> Customers >> {Key Values, name: Kamal, Address: }. As this is a NoSQL datastore, different entities can have a different set of properties, one customer has an address another does not.

Disk Storage: Azure Managed Disks that are associated with VMs. The following type of disks are supported-
Ultra Disks
Premium SSD
Standard SSD
Standard HDD

Type of Storage Account

  • General purpose V2 (Recommended)
  • General purpose V1 (Legacy- use V2)
  • Block Bob Storage account (premium – faster access)
  • Files (Premium- For files)
  • Blob Storage (Legacy- use V2)

Storage Sync Service is the top-level resource for Azure File Sync. It manages the relationships between Azure Files file shares and Windows Server endpoints.
A sync group is a grouping of a file share and servers that keep a set of files in sync.