Object Storage

Object data stores such as Azure storage accounts store huge volumes of data in text and binary format. You can think of a storage account as being like a shared folder on an organization’s local network. Unlike local file shares, storage accounts are highly scalable and allow organizations the freedom of being able to add whatever data they want without needing to worry about adding hardware. Azure-based solutions that rely on data stored in files leverage Azure storage accounts in some form, as in the following scenarios:

• Storing images or videos that are analyzed by deep learning models or that are served to a website
• Storing files such as JSON, Avro, Parquet, CSV, or TSV that are used for distributed processing in big data solutions
• Storing data for backup and restore, disaster recovery, and archiving
• Storing telemetry information as log files that can be used for near real-time analysis

Storage accounts can service a wide variety of object store use cases. Depending on the scenario, you may decide to use one of the following storage account services to store binary objects:

• Azure Blob Storage is the most common service for object storage in Azure. Solutions that require analysis, from images or videos, backup management, or files used for distributed processing solutions, can be stored in Blob Storage. It can store exabytes worth of data and offers different access tiers to store data in the most cost-effective manner.
• Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2, also known as ADLS, is a set of capabilities that are built on top of Blob Storage but specifically for distributed analytics solutions. The key feature of ADLS that allows for quick and efficient data access is its hierarchical namespace. Hierarchical namespaces organize files into a hierarchy of directories that enable you to store data that is raw, cleansed, and aggregated without having to sacrifice one copy for the next.
• Azure Files is a fully managed file share solution in Azure. File shares are accessible via the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol or the Network File System (NFS) protocol. They can be mounted concurrently by cloud or on-premises systems.