Storage - Build

Designing storage for the Microsoft cloud

Integrating your storage by using Microsoft cloud services gives you access to a broad range of services and cloud platform options

"Build from the ground up"

  • Allow you to create your own storage solution from scratch.

  • Requires programming using the REST APIs.

  • Provide the ultimate in customization and flexibility.

Azure Storage (files)

Features

  • Makes it easier to move legacy applications to the cloud

  • Blob storage preferred for new applications

  • Can mount from an Azure virtual machine

  • Can mount on-premises with SMB 3.0

  • Works with Linux and Windows

  • Doesn't support Azure AD-based authentication or ACLs (Azure Storage account keys provide authentication and authorized access to the file share)

Common uses

  • Backups of files, computers, databases, and devices Images and text for web applications

  • Configuration data for cloud applications

  • Big data, such as logs and other large datasets

  • Azure uses blob storage for its own services, such as HDInsight and virtual machine disks

Key scenarios
  • Backup files

Azure Storage (blobs)

Features

  • Each storage account can hold up to 500 TB (one subscription can have multiple storage accounts)

  • Storage accounts are organized into containers, which can have security applied to them and can contain blobs

  • Block blobs are optimized for streaming and storing cloud objects, up to 200 GB in size

  • Page blobs are optimized for representing PaaS disks and supporting random writes, up to 1 TB in size

  • Append blobs are optimized for append operations, up to 195 GB

  • Premium Storage provides faster IOPS through SSD storage

Common uses

  • Migrating legacy applications to the cloud that rely on file shares

  • Share development and testing tools

  • Distributed apps can store logs, diagnostic data, and crash dumps

Key scenarios
  • Manage data

Azure Storage (queues)

Features

  • Storage account can contain any number of queues

  • Queue can contain any number of messages (until the storage account is full)

  • Queue messages are automatically deleted after seven days if not retrieved and deleted by an application

  • Messages may be up to 64 KB in size

  • Secured at storage account level

  • Queues are intended to pass control messages, not raw data

Common uses

  • Create a backlog of work to process asynchronously

  • Processing log messages

  • Decouple applications

Key scenarios
  • Distribute events

Azure Storage (tables)

Features

  • Best for semi-structured datasets

  • Typically lower cost than traditional SQL

  • Very fast if querying for key, slow if querying for value

  • Massively scalable; any amount of tables up to the limits of the storage account

  • Accessible through REST API, limited oData protocol, .NET

  • Values must be serialized

Common uses

  • User data for web applications

  • Address books

  • Device information

Key scenarios
  • Manage data