Introduction to Azure Storage Services

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• 30 Jun, 2025
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Introduction to Azure Storage Services

Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 (ADLS Gen2) is a highly scalable, secure, and cost-effective Azure Storage solution built on top of Azure Blob Storage. Designed specifically for big data analytics workloads, ADLS Gen2 enables organizations to store and analyze massive amounts of structured and unstructured data efficiently within the Azure Storage ecosystem.

✅ Key Characteristics:

• Built on Blob Storage: Inherits durability, availability, and low-cost features.

• Optimized for Big Data: Native integration with analytics tools like Hadoop, Spark, Azure Synapse, and Data Factory.

• Hierarchical Namespace: Supports a directory-based file system like HDFS, allowing fast and efficient file operations (move, delete, append).

• Access Control: Uses Azure RBAC and POSIX-style ACLs for granular data access management.

• Secure & Compliant: Offers encryption at rest, secure transfer, firewall integration, and private endpoints.

 Why ADLS Gen2 Matters

With the explosion of data from IoT, applications, logs, and user interactions, traditional storage formats struggle to scale. ADLS Gen2 allows enterprises to build modern, cloud-native data platforms with:

• Better performance for data lakes

• Lower TCO (Total Cost of Ownership)

• Compatibility with open-source tools

• Seamless integration into the Azure ecosystem

 Use Cases for ADLS Gen2

• Enterprise data lake for consolidating all business data

• Big data analytics pipelines using Apache Spark or Hadoop

• Machine learning and AI model training datasets

• Data ingestion layer for Azure Synapse or Azure Data Factory

• Log storage from applications, servers, and IoT devices

Blob Storage Account Creation (Hands-On)

To create a Blob storage account:

1. Go to Azure Portal → “Storage Accounts” → “Create”.

2. Choose:

   • StorageV2 (general-purpose v2)

   • Region

   • Performance (Standard or Premium)

   • Redundancy (LRS, GRS, etc.)

3. Under “Advanced”, enable features like secure transfer or Blob soft delete.

4. Click Review + Create → Create.

Azure Blob Storage Access Tiers

Blob storage supports different access tiers to optimize cost based on data usage patterns:

 1. Hot Tier

• Best for frequently accessed data

• Higher storage cost, lower access cost

• Use case: Application content, active datasets

 2. Cool Tier

• For infrequently accessed data

• Lower storage cost, higher access cost

• Use case: Monthly reports, older media

3. Archive Tier

• For rarely accessed data

• Lowest storage cost, high latency (rehydration needed)

• Use case: Historical data, compliance archives

Azure Redundancy Options

To ensure high availability and durability, Azure offers multiple redundancy models: