Introduction to Azure Storage

When thinking about storage in Azure, there are a couple of options – Azure Blob Storage vs. Azure Data Lake Storage. Today, I’d like to point out a few differences between these two and why you may choose one over the other.

Azure Blob Storage is the most common way to store data within Azure, and is the place we often store data for customers as we are migrating them to the cloud. The benefits are the flexibility with what you can do with your data here, as well as lower cost. One negative of Azure Blob Storage is you can only store your data at the container level. You use shared access keys and if you’re securing that in a container level, there’s not a lot of granularity there.

This is one of the biggest reasons we would switch from Azure Blob Storage to Azure Date Lake Storage, where you can get that granular security. You can use Azure Active Directory to secure your data here and get better granularity and a hierarchy structure to your security within Azure Data Lake Storage.

A couple other differences are some of the ease of use of tools in Azure Blob Storage. Also, with Azure Blob Storage you can do cold and hot tier storage. You can’t do that with Azure Data Lake Storage.

Either of these are great Azure Storage options; try the one that’s best for your scenario. If you’re having trouble deciding what is best for your data strategy within Azure, we can help. Click the link below or visit our website—we can answer all your questions and help you choose the right one for your organization and your Azure cloud journey.