Let's go through some important points when it comes the topics discussed in this section

Azure Storage Accounts

Types of storage accounts

• General-purpose v2 accounts This is recommended for most scenarios. This storage account type provides the blob, file , queue and table service.

• Premium block blobs This is specifically when you want premium performance for storing block or append blobs.

• Premium file shares This is specifically when you want premium performance for file-only storage.

• Premium page blobs This is specifically when you want premium performance for page blobs.

The most common type of storage account is the General Purpose v2 storage account.

Use case scenarios for the different services in a General Purpose v2 storage account

Blob service

• This is object storage for the cloud.

• Here you can store massive amounts of unstructured data on the cloud.

• This is highly recommended when you want to store images, documents, video and audio files.

• Within the blob service, you create a container that is used to store the blob objects.

There are three different types of blobs

Block blobs This is used for storing text and binary data.

Append blobs This is ideal for logging data.

Page blobs This is used to store virtual hard disk files for Azure virtual machines.

To use the Blob service you have to first create a container and then upload the blobs or objects into the container.

When you upload an object or blob to the service, each bob gets a unique URL which you can access if you are assigned the right permissions

File service - Use this service if you need to store files that need to be accessed by machines using the SMB (Server Message Block) protocol

In the File service, you can first go ahead and create a file share.

You can then mount this file share from different machines. You can't mount drives with the Blob service.

Table service - Use this if you want to store NoSQL data or table like data.

It's easy and simple to create a table and add data from the Azure portal itself.

Queue service - Use this if you want to exchange messages between components of your application

Azure Storage Accounts - Replication

There are different replication techniques available to make your data highly available.

The different replication techniques available

1. Locally-redundant storage (LRS) - Here data is replicated synchronously three times within a physical location in the primary region.

2. Zone-redundant storage (ZRS) - Here data is replicated synchronously across three Azure availability zones in the primary region. This is good when you want to have data present even in the event of a data center failure.

3. Geo-redundant storage (GRS) - Here data is replicated synchronously three times in the primary region, then replicated asynchronously to the secondary region.

4. Read access Geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS) - Here data is replicated synchronously three times in the primary region, then replicated asynchronously to the secondary region. Here the data in the secondary region is also available for read-only purposes.

Azure Storage Accounts - Access tiers

Access tiers help you optimize the storage costs and access costs for your data. The different access tiers are

1. Hot This is optimized for storing data that is accessed frequently. This can be set at the account level.

2. Cool This is optimized for storing data that is infrequently accessed and stored for at least 30 days. This can be set at the account level.

Note:- For the Cool Access tier , the storage costs are lower than the Hot tier. But the access costs are higher than the Hot access tier.

3. Archive tier - This is optimized for storing data that is rarely accessed and stored for at least 180 days. This can be set only at the blob level.

Note:- When a blob is in the archive tier, you cant access the blob. You have to rehydrate the blob first before it can be accessed.

Also the storage costs are the least when it comes to the Archive access tier. But the access costs are the highest.