There are many services in Azure that require some form of data storage, such as virtual disks, message queues, and spreadsheet datasets. Microsoft offers Azure Storage as a cloud storage service.
While there are several other forms of data storage, Azure Storage is the primary service that provides scalable and redundant data storage.
Azure Storage allows you to create storage accounts that provide different data services for different data types. Depending on the Azure region, a single account can have multiple containers that together can store up to 2 PB of data (some regions have a 500 TB lower limit).
When a storage account is created, it contains containers that store specific data. Each data service is designed for a specific kind of data stored in a specialized data container.
Data Services
These data services are blobs, files, queues, and tables, which have containers, file shares, queues, and tables to store information, respectively.
Blob
Azure Blob Storage is used to store Blobs (or Binary Large Objects) in containers. Blobs are unstructured data such as images, text, and binary files. This is the standard storage type used by most Azure components and systems to store various binary objects required by the infrastructure.
Blob storage containers can be optimized for block, page, or append blobs.
Block Blob
The Block Blob is a standard blob type used for file storage and is best suited for static content such as text. B. An image or text file. It probably won’t be updated often.
Page blobs
Page blobs are used for unmanaged VM disks. Page blobs are designed to store disk images as templates or active disks.
Append Blob
This type of he blob storage is optimized for logging and can append additional information to the blob as it is appended to the file.
File
Azure File Storage allows you to set up SMB (Server Message Block) shares within your Azure subscription to allow multiple VMs to access the same files. This is similar to his local SMB file share, but with proper configuration these files can be accessed from anywhere with a working internet.
QUEUES
The Azure Queue service is optimized for storing queued messages. These are small messages, up to 64 KB, that are queued and processed asynchronously. This is more likely to be used in PaaS components that require message queues for data processing.
TABLES
Azure Table Storage is used to store his structured NoSQL data in the cloud. There is also a premium option to store NoSQL data if desired. This is his NoSQL database CosmosDB in Azure, which is also used to store NoSQL data and offers various APIs.
Storage Account Endpoints
There are five types of storage accounts in Azure, some older options that have been replaced by more versatile options.
GENERAL PURPOSE V2
Starting with General Purpose v2, this is the default generally available option used for all new storage accounts. There are other options available, but in most cases the account type you will use is General Purpose v2. Provides all data services with all replication and access level options.
GENERAL PURPOSE V1
General Purpose v1 can still be created, but now offers a subset of available General Purpose v2 options. It offers all data services like General Purpose v2, but not all replication options and access levels. If you don’t need these options, or if you’re using classic resources created before the introduction of the Azure Resource Manager (ARM) portal, you can continue to use general-purpose v1 accounts. Prices for storage and data access vary, so using General Purpose v1 instead of General Purpose v2 may be more cost-effective.
BLOB STORAGE (DEFAULT)
Like General Purpose v1, Blob Storage is a pre-ARM portal service. Started with additional services beyond the basic generic account v1. All of these additional features are now available in the default account type, General Purpose v2 accounts.
Azure Storage Access Tier
Blob Storage is specialized for storing BLOB data, but offers additional access tier options. Depending on how frequently your data is accessed, there are less expensive options associated with increased access times and costs. You can continue to use the same APIs to access data across all tiers. The metadata of the container or blob determines the optimization of the assigned tier.
Hot
The Hot access level is the default level due to high access optimization. By optimization, this means access costs are low and storage costs are higher than other potential options. This is a good tier for data if it is used continuously or accessed frequently.
Cool
The Cool Tier is designed for data that is infrequently accessed and stored for the short to medium term. This could be a current backup, DR information, or a file that is read less frequently. Due to the nature of access, this tier is designed for low storage costs (compared to the hot tier), but high data access costs.
Archive
The Archive tier is designed to archive individual block blobs and can be used as an ideal alternative to tape backup. BLOB data goes offline, which increases retrieval latency. This tier is ideal for long-term backups and archived datasets that need to be retained but not immediately accessed. To access these blobs, they must be returned to hot or cold storage through a rehydration process. This can take up to 15 hours.