Azure Storage

Azure Storage is a service that provides a durable, secure, highly available, redundant and scalable storage. The maintenance job is done by Microsoft and also handles the serious problem.

Both premium and standard storage are supported by blob storage, premium storage is done by use of only SSDs for possible fastest performance. You can also store large data that is rarely used as a feature called cool storage at low cost.

The Storage Service:

You first need to create a storage account and after that, you can easily transfer data between specific service and storage account to which a storage space is allocated.

Blob Storage:

The data files that you store on your computer, mobile, tablet etc. are blobs basically. It can be anything, from your pictures to data used by your organization. Containers stores blobs, similar to folders.

By using REST interface, URLs or one of Azure SDK Storage client libraries you can access your blob storage from any part of the world. For multiple languages Storage, Client libraries are available, languages include Ruby, Node.js, Java, PHP, .NET and Python.

Blobs are 3 types:

Block Blobs - File holding capacity is up to 4.7 TB. Ordinary files exist here.

Page Blobs - Random access file are here with a storage capacity of 8 TB.

Append Blobs - These are consists of blocks like block blobs and optimization is done for an append operation. Used for information logging into the same blob from multiple VMs.

File Storage:

You can set network files shares which are highly available which can be accessed by the use of standard SMB (Server Message Block) protocol. With both read and write access multiple VMs can share the same file.By using REST interface and storage client libraries you can read the files.

You can use URL that points the file and SAS (shared access signature) token to have an access to the file from anywhere in the world. You can also set SAS token to access on allowed files for a specific time.

Uses of file share:

File sharing is used by the much on-premises application. Applications can be easily migrated which shares data to Azure. File share can store configuration files and can be accessed from multiple VMs. Metrics, crash dumps and diagnostic logs etc. can be written at file share and later analyzed.

Queue Storage:

To store and retrieve messages queue storage is used. 64 kb can be the size of a queue message and millions of messages can be contained by the queue. The message which is asynchronously processed is generally stored in the queue.

Example: you want to upload some images and also want thumbnail for each image. You need to wait for the creation of thumbnails while the picture is being uploaded. The queue would be an alternative to this situation. You can write a message to queue when you finish the uploading task. The Azure function will now retrieve the message from a queue and start creating thumbnails.

Table Storage:

Cosmos DB has included Standard Azure Table Storage. Premium Tables are available for global distribution, offering throughput-optimized tables, automatic secondary indexes, and Azure Table Storage.

Disk Storage:

Disks are also owned by Azure Storage Team, all managed and unmanaged disk capabilities are included which is used by Virtual Machine.

Storage account for general purpose:

Standard Storage - Magnetic media is used to store data and can be used for all data types. Most widely used.

Premium Storage - For page blob it provides high-performance storage.Use of SSD for data storage.

Storage Account for blob:

It specializes in storing block blobs and append blobs. Page blobs can't be stored here. Both hot and cool can be accessed and anytime you can change the tier.

For Hot access tier - high storage cost, low access cost.

For Cold access tier - low storage cost, high access cost.

Queues, Files, and Blobs Access:

There are two authentication keys for each storage. These keys can change their place and improve security. It is important to keep these keys secure as they provide unlimited access to data and account details.

Encryption:

Encryption at rest - On blob and file service Storage Service Encryption can be enabled. Once it is enabled, data written is encrypted before it is written.

Client-side encryption - There are methods at storage client libraries by which data can be encrypted programmatically on call before sending it to the client.

Replication:

Keeping multiple copies of data is replication. You can select replication type when you set up an account and this can be modified once you set up an account for storage.

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