Understanding Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 (ADLS Gen2)

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• 30 Jun, 2025
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Understanding Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 (ADLS Gen2)

What is Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2?

Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 (ADLS Gen2) is Microsoft’s next-generation data lake platform, built on top of Azure Blob Storage. It’s designed to meet the demands of enterprise-level big data analytics by combining massive scalability, robust security, and efficient data access in a single storage solution.

ADLS Gen2 brings together the cost-effectiveness of object storage with the performance and hierarchy of a traditional file system, making it a powerful choice for analytics and data engineering pipelines.

Key Features of ADLS Gen2

1. Hierarchical Namespace

Unlike traditional object storage, ADLS Gen2 supports directories and subdirectories—just like a file system. This allows for faster and more efficient file operations (e.g., rename, move, delete).

2. Massive Scalability

ADLS Gen2 can store exabytes of data and scale effortlessly to meet the needs of enterprise workloads.

3. Secure and Compliant

It supports:

• Encryption at rest and in transit

• POSIX-style ACLs for fine-grained access

• Integration with Azure Active Directory (AAD)

4. Big Data Ecosystem Support

Natively supports analytics tools like:

• Apache Hadoop and Spark

• Azure Synapse Analytics

• Azure Data Factory

• Azure Databricks

 5. Cost Efficiency

Because it is built on Azure Blob Storage, ADLS Gen2 offers tiered pricing and cost savings through optimized access tiers and lifecycle policies.

 Use Cases of ADLS Gen2

• Enterprise Data Lakes: Consolidate structured and unstructured data from multiple sources.

• Big Data Processing: Feed data into tools like Azure Databricks or Synapse.

• Data Warehousing: Serve as an ingestion layer for modern data warehouses.

• Machine Learning Pipelines: Store training datasets for ML models.

• Log and Event Data Storage: Centralize logs from applications, servers, and IoT devices.

 Blob Storage vs ADLS Gen2 – What’s the Difference

Getting Started with ADLS Gen2

To create an ADLS Gen2 storage account:

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

2. Choose StorageV2 (general-purpose v2).

3. Under “Advanced,” enable Hierarchical Namespace.

4. Configure performance, redundancy, and security settings.

5. Click Review + Create.